About Those Wal-Mart Store Closings

Perhaps you also have noticed the recent announcements that Wal-Mart will be closing 269 stores, 154 of which are in the U.S. In several breathless pieces about this announcement, much attention was focused on the negative impacts the closings will have on their respective communities. Perhaps so.

Maybe the spirit of The Retail Owners Institute® is misguided, or we're looking through rose-colored glasses, but we can see opportunities galore! Consider this:

For every $1 million in sales that a closing Wal-Mart was doing, there's $500K of volume for each of two new or expanding merchants. So, closing a $10 million store might sprout 20 small businesses right down old Main Street!

In most communities, there are several good merchants already. We can imagine those folks stepping up quickly to help fill the vacuum a closed Wal-Mart created by adding stores without adding much administrative overhead. One good bookkeeper can handle more than one store. Same with POS systems, for example.

Or, a Wal-Mart closing can prompt new retailers, who can take advantage of the many in-the-cloud resources to reduce admin costs and introduce new retail concepts to a community.

Take That, Chicken Little! The Sky Is NOT Falling!

See, there well could be great opportunities out there. At least for those who are not distracted by the negativity. And retailers, more than most any other group of business owners, are incredibly optimistic.