Walmart announced today it will be closing two stores in metro Atlanta. The closures, to occur in July, affect stores in East Cobb and Dunwoody. The East Cobb store, operating under the "Walmart Neighborhood Market" banner, opened in 2014, while the Dunwoody store, a "Walmart Supercenter," opened in 1995.
The company has also shortened the operating hours of the stores in advance of their closure. Both stores are due to close as of July 12. The two stores’ nearly 400 employees will be paid through Sept. 20 and can transfer to other locations. If they don’t change stores, they will receive severance pay, Walmart said.
The Dunwoody store, at 4725 Ashford Dunwoody Road, measures 183,500 square feet and anchors Perimeter Village shopping center. The store opened on November 1, 1995, and was expanded to a Supercenter on August 2, 2006. The store also received a significant facelift around 2022 that brought the company's new logo and new layout and replaced many manned registers with self-check-out stations. More recently, the store implemented several "theft deterrent" installations that included locking up many personal care items such as deodorant, condoms, and formula, requiring customers to press a button and hope that an employee was available to unlock the case to provide access. In our recent visits to the store, we experienced several instances where employees were unavailable, with others who could be found telling customers to "come back tomorrow" when in search of things like Plan B or deodorant. It's this kind of flippant, unhelpful "service" that undoubtedly had a negative impact on the store's sales.
Actions such as this by Walmart also push people away from brick and mortar shopping and play right into the hands of rivals like Amazon who are ever so ready to please disappointed customers with super speedy delivery of needed items.
Despite these installations, the Dunwoody Walmart still lost several million dollars to theft this past year, making it one of the highest theft stores in the southeast, according to a Walmart leader.
Given the so-called "careful and thoughtful review process" in deciding to close the store, it's baffling that Walmart would allow one of its third-party partners, Atlanta-based Apotheos Roastery, to go through the expense and ordeal of opening a new coffee shop in the Dunwoody store. The new coffee shop, located just inside the right-hand entrance of the retailer, opened in May, and is one of three the company operates within Atlanta area Walmart stores.
A Walmart Neighborhood Market located a few miles away at 5025 Winters Chapel Road, also in Dunwoody, remains open.
The Marietta Walmart Neighborhood Market destined for closure anchors Olde Mill shopping center (3101 Roswell Road) at the corner of Roswell and Old Canton Roads in East Cobb. The 51,754 square foot store opened October 15, 2014 and was one of several Neighborhood Market stores in Marietta.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company previously closed Marietta locations at 1167 Powder Springs Street (opened January 16, 2013, closed March 3, 2017) and 3372 Canton Road. (opened March 29, 2013, closed December 4, 2017). Walmart also closed a Neighborhood Market in Roswell - 4651 Woodstock Road - (opened November 1, 2013, closed April 7, 2017)
A full-line Walmart Supercenter remains open at 3100 Johnson Ferry Road, a few miles away in Marietta.
The East Cobb and Dunwoody closures come on the heels of the recent reopening of a Walmart in Vine City. The store, located at 835 MLK Jr. Drive, was shuttered in 2022 after an arson attack. Originally a Supercenter, the store was reduced in size and reopened this past May as a Neighborhood Market. A separate Walmart Supercenter off Howell Mill Road, also the victim of arson, did not reopen following its initial temporary closure in 2022. In April, Walmart announced it was eliminating its "Walmart Health" division, closing 51 clinics nationwide, including 17 across Georgia. According to the company's website, the clinics are due to see their final patients as of June 28.
Are you surprised to see Walmart closing their Dunwoody and East Cobb stores? What are your thoughts on the "theft deterrents" implemented by Walmart? What would you like to see open in place of the two Walmart stores?
Please share your thoughts below.