{"id":11578,"date":"2024-01-23T10:54:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T10:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/walmart-to-close-store-no-8-wsj\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T10:54:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T10:54:04","slug":"walmart-to-close-store-no-8-wsj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/walmart-to-close-store-no-8-wsj\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart to close Store No. 8: WSJ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <p><a href=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/online-workshops-list\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-496\" src=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90.png\" alt=\"Retail Online Training\" width=\"729\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90.png 729w, https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90-300x37.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/a><\/p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/static\/images\/audio_icon.svg?482016190122\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n            Listen to the article<br \/>\n            <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dmgi9movl\/video\/upload\/q_1\/v1705944860\/news\/text_to_speech\/walmart-close-store-no-8-wsj_hy7fry.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Brief:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Walmart plans to close its technology and business innovation unit, Store No. 8, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an internal memo. Some of the unit\u2019s innovations include Walmart\u2019s in-home delivery service and text and voice shopping.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Since its founding seven years ago, about 300 people have moved on from Store No. 8 to other internal jobs. The responsibility of developing future innovations will be shared by everyone, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said, according to the memo.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>As a result of Store No. 8\u2019s closure, Scott Eckert, a senior vice president who had led the business unit since June 2019, according to his LinkedIn, will leave the company, the WSJ also reported.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><strong><span><span>Dive Insight:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Walmart announced the launch of Store No. 8 in 2017. The unit was created to help the company compete with Amazon.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The unit focused on health and wellness; sustainability and the circular economy; social commerce and the creator economy; the metaverse; customer experience and loyalty; and decentralized commerce.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Walmart did not immediately respond to Retail Dive\u2019s request for comment regarding further details about the business unit\u2019s reported shutdown, including when it would officially cease operations. Store No. 8 provided time and space to incubate startups that would enable the company to stay ahead of customer and market trends. The projects operated as self-contained startups with access to Walmart\u2019s enterprise scale, the company said on its website.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Walmart has worked in recent years to identify and embrace new revenue streams and by leading the charge to adopt strategies leveraged by rivals like Amazon and Target,\u00a0analysts told Retail Dive\u00a0in September.<\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The decision to close Store No. 8 comes ahead of Walmart\u2019s fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. Throughout last year, Walmart fared better than many other retailers, posting Q3 global revenue up 5.2% to $160.8 billion from the previous year. But Rainey said in November that customers continued to show \u201congoing discretion\u201d in spending.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>In addition to Eckert, Walmart also said Denise Malloy will leave the company, the WSJ reported. Malloy joined the retailer in April as a senior vice president and chief belonging officer, an evolution of the company\u2019s chief diversity officer position, Malloy said in a blog announcing her appointment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/online-workshops-list\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-496\" src=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90.png\" alt=\"Retail Online Training\" width=\"729\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90.png 729w, https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/RETAIL-ONLINE-TRAINING-728-X-90-300x37.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/a><\/p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: Walmart plans to close its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmsretail.com\/RetailNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}