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It’s a Walmart Whirlwind So Far in 2016

Walmart has made several headlines already this year, and not all of them have been great news for retail real estate landlords.

Walmart dropped a bomb earlier this year when the company announced that it is closing all of its 102 Walmart Express stores. The Walmart Express concept, which was much smaller than the retailer’s traditional stores, averaging about 12,000 square feet, was intended to compete with convenience, drug and dollar stores that have edged more and more into the grocery business over the last decade.

Critics say the concept, launched in 2014, didn’t work largely because Walmart placed the Express concept in rural areas, mainly in the South and Midwest, in close proximity to its existing Supercenters. The problem is, those areas are where convenience and dollar stores generally perform the strongest. Some argue that the plan would have worked better if Walmart had placed the Express units in urban areas, where it does not yet have a very dominant foothold, and would cater to an audience of many underserved customers.

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Jonathan Hipp

Jonathan Hipp

Jonathan Hipp began his career in real estate over 25 years ago. In his early years as a broker, he ventured into the net lease industry and quickly began leading the US net lease market, closing over $3 billion in transactions. In 2005, Jon founded Calkain Companies, a company focused solely on net lease investment services. As President and CEO, he has been instrumental in building the firm into one of the leading Net Lease real estate companies, transacting over $12 billion of net lease deal volume over the past 13 years. He has expanded Calkain’s services to include brokerage, advisory, asset management, capital markets, and industry research. He has become a well-known resource, panelist, and speaker at various Net Lease and Industry conferences and is a regular contributor to GlobeSt.com on real estate trends. In June 2015, Jon’s passion for the real estate business was again recognized as he was nominated for the Top Real Estate Player in the DC area by SmartCEO magazine.

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