By: ABQ RAW staff
POSTED: 02/09/2023 @ 3:15PM
A customer walks into the San Mateo and Zuni Walmart location but only for a couple more weeks.
SE Albuquerque – Retail giant Walmart has decided to close the San Mateo and Zuni store in Albuquerque. The Super Wal-Mart has been the focus of alot of retail crime in the last few years.
According to Walmart, “this decision was not made lightly and was reached only after a thorough review process. We have nearly 5,000 stores across the U.S. and unfortunately some do not meet our financial expectations. While our underlying business is strong, this specific store hasn’t performed as well as we hoped. There is no single cause for why a store closes and our decision is based on several factors, including historic and current financial performance, and is in line with the threshold that guides our strategy to close underperforming locations”.
According to Walmart they wanted to remind everyone that they “still employ thousands of associates in Walmart stores in the immediate area, 15 Walmart stores are within 20 miles of this location”.
“In total, we serve customers at 53 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs in New Mexico. We remain committed to New Mexico. During fiscal year 2022, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation contributed nearly $15 million in cash and in-kind donations to state and local non-profits”.
“We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Albuquerque location. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com,” said Lauren Willis, Global Communications Director – Western U.S. Walmart Corporate Affairs.
They plan to close the store to the public by Friday, March 10th, 2023 and Walmart will make associates eligible for transfers to other stores.
Walmart is seen as one of the largest retail businesses near the War Zone district and property records show they do own the property outright. Walmart said they still own the land and building and will re-evaluate the use of it after the closure.