The economy is a central focus every election cycle, and the 2024 presidential election is no different.
One post spreading over multiple social media networks paints a bleak portrait of the U.S. economy by implying recent store closures by national chains, including Walmart, Starbucks, Kroger and Bank of America. The post also points out that some of the chains have focused their closures in “blue” states.
Multiple VERIFY readers asked if this post is accurate.
THE QUESTION
Does this viral post accurately list recent store closures by national brands?
THE SOURCES
Macy’s spokesperson
Kroger spokesperson
THE ANSWER
While some of the numbers in the post are accurate, others are outdated, missing context, misleading or simply inaccurate.
WHAT WE FOUND
The viral post lists alleged recent store closures for 25 national chains while sarcastically commenting, “all because the economy is so wonderful.”
The post fairly accurately identifies the number of stores recently closed for about half of the brands. However, it leaves out key context regarding store openings, when the closings occurred and where the closings were. It gets the numbers entirely wrong for two of the brands.
The post fails to provide a timeline for when the store closures took place; some of which appear to have happened as far back as 2008.
For these reasons, VERIFY labeled this post as misleading. The key takeaways we identified:
For 11 brands, the post gets the number of store closures correct or close to correct.
The post fails to mention any of the stores that are also opening new locations. Four of the stores are actually opening more stores than they're closing.
Eight brands closed their stores or began closing stores before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current White House administration.
For four brands, the post gets the location of the store closings wrong or claims stores closed in certain locations when there is no official data to support the closure locations.
For five brands, there isn’t enough data to substantiate claims about the number of stores closed or their locations.
For two brands, the post mischaracterizes an unrelated figure as the number of stores closed.
The viral post claims several of the brands are focusing most of their closures in blue states. Whether a state is considered “red” or “blue” is somewhat subjective, but commonly determined by how a state usually votes in the presidential election. For this story, we'll use the 2020 presidential election results to determine whether a state is “red” (voted for Donald Trump) or “blue” (voted for Joe Biden).
Here’s what we can VERIFY about store closures of each brand on the list.
THE CLAIM: Walmart is closing 23 stores in 8 states (all blue)
Walmart appears to have closed between 22 and 24 stores in 2023, according to media reports, but they weren't all in blue states. The closures were spread across 14 states, nine of which were blue and five of which were red, and Washington, D.C. Walmart has also recently announced plans to open 150 new stores.
Walmart closed stores in Arkansas, D.C., Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington state and Wisconsin. That’s nine blue states plus D.C. and five red states.
Walmart has not provided a list of its recently closed stores and did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment. So VERIFY looked at recent media reports to find the source of the data.
Business Insider estimates Walmart closed 22 stores in 2023. TheStreet, another business news site, estimates Walmart closed 24 stores in 2023. Walmart’s broad reason for the closures was poor financial performance at the individual stores.
Walmart officially announced the closure of four Chicago-area stores in April 2023. It said it closed the stores because they collectively haven’t been profitable “since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago.”
In a Feb. 20, 2024 earnings call, Walmart CEO C. Douglas McMillon said the company plans to add 150 new stores over the next five years. He didn’t specify where the stores would be located except for in “neighborhood markets.”
THE CLAIM: Target is closing 9 stores in 4 states (all blue).
Target did close nine stores in four blue states in 2023. But the post fails to mention that Target also opened 21 new stores in several states, including some of those same blue states.
In September 2023, Target announced it was closing nine stores in New York City, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area and in Portland, Oregon.
Target said it closed the stores because of high amounts of theft, although some media reports since then have cast doubt on that claim.
In January 2024, Target said it built a dozen new large-format stores and nine smaller stores in 2023. These stores were opened in Alabama, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. That’s five blue states and six red states.
Target did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment.
THE CLAIM: Walgreens/CVS are closing 900 stores (mostly blue)
CVS is in the process of closing 900 stores over a three-year period, although Walgreens is closing far fewer stores. Neither company has revealed the locations of where they’re closing stores.
Additionally, the two pharmacy chains have been closing stores for several years now, dating back to at least 2018.
A 2019 SEC filing reveals Walgreens planned to close approximately 200 locations in the U.S. at that time. In a July 2023 earnings call, James Kehoe, chief financial officer of Walgreens’ parent company, revealed the company planned to close an additional 150 U.S. locations.
Walgreens did not respond to VERIFY’s request for comment.
CVS announced its plans to close 900 locations over a three-year period back in November 2021. CVS also closed 244 between 2018 and 2020, according to reporting from CNN.
Kehoe said the closures were to “optimize” and “further simplify” the business. CVS said it planned to close the stores after “evaluating changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs.”
THE CLAIM: Bed Bath and Beyond is closing its remaining 360 stores.
Bed Bath & Beyond already closed all of its remaining brick-and-mortar locations last year when it declared bankruptcy. The company had been in decline for a decade before it went bankrupt.
In April 2023, Bed Bath & Beyond announced it was beginning its efforts to close its 360 remaining retail locations. In June, Overstock.com bought the Bed Bath & Beyond brand. The purchase excluded any asset associated with Bed Bath & Beyond’s brick-and-mortar business.
Barbara Khan, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, identified share buybacks dating back to 2004, debt accumulated since 2014, the rise of online retail and a 2019 failed pivot from national brands to private-label bands as factors that contributed to Bed Bath & Beyond’s downfall.
THE CLAIM: Lowe’s has closed 50 stores. Home Depot is closing 15 stores
This claim appears to refer to Lowe’s closures that happened six years ago and The Home Depot closures from 16 years ago.
In 2018, Lowe’s closed 51 underperforming locations in North America, 20 of which were in the United States. The Home Depot announced it was closing 15 locations in 2008, during the Bush administration.
In a Feb. 20, 2023 earnings call, Ann-Marie Campbell, senior executive vice president of The Home Depot, said the retailer plans to open 80 new stores over the next five years. The company opened eight new stores in the U.S. in 2003 and plans to open 12 new stores in 2024.
Campbell did not elaborate on where the new stores would be opened.
THE CLAIM: Macy's is closing 150 stores (mainly blue)
A Macy’s spokesperson confirmed to VERIFY that the company plans to close 150 stores over the next three years to “prioritize investments in the stores that will lead us to a healthier future.”
On Feb. 27, 2024, Macy’s announced it planned to close the 150 stores while also expanding its number of Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury stores by up to 45 locations through 2026.
The press release elaborated that Macy’s plans to close approximately 50 stores by the end of the fiscal year and will prioritize investment in “approximately 350 go-forward locations and the continued expansion of small-format stores.”
Macy’s has not revealed the states in which it’s closing the 150 stores. Five stores the retailer revealed it was closing earlier this year during separate closures were located in Virginia, California, Hawaii and Florida.
THE CLAIM: Starbucks has closed 61 stores (mainly blue)
Starbucks' fiscal year 2023 annual report shows it closed 103 stores in the U.S. between October 2022 and October 2023. The report did not specify where those stores were located.
The report also reveals that Starbucks opened 483 stores in the U.S., for a net gain of 380 stores, which is context that the viral post neglects to mention.
The viral post may be referring to this FinanceBuzz article, which uses the website Starbucks Everywhere’s list of store closures, to claim that Starbucks closed 61 stores in 2023.
“Many permanent closures are missing from this list (because I have not yet confirmed them),” a note at the top of the Starbucks Everywhere list says. “Additional [sic], some stores listed as closed might reopen at some point.”
The FinanceBuzz list of 61 closed stores notes closures in 20 states, 15 of which are blue states and five of which are red states.
THE CLAIM: Dollar Tree is closing 1,000 stores
Dollar Tree plans on closing nearly 970 Family Dollar stores and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the next several years. However, once again, the viral post fails to mention that in 2023 Dollar Tree actually opened more stores than it closed.
In its SEC filing for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, Dollar Tree said it reviewed its store portfolio to identify stores it should close, relocate or re-banner based on market conditions and individual store performance.
“As a result of this review, we plan on closing approximately 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of fiscal 2024,” Dollar Tree said. “Additionally, approximately 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores will close over the next several years at the end of each store’s current lease term.”
That same financial report showed that between January 2023 and February 2024, the company opened a combined 641 Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores while closing just 207 over the same period of time. That’s a net gain of 434 stores.
In 2022, the company saw a net gain of just 259 stores. So Dollar Tree gained even more stores in 2023 than it did the year before.
Dollar Tree’s SEC filing did not clarify the location of stores it opened or closed, nor did it mention how many stores Dollar Tree plans to open in 2024.
THE CLAIM: Foot Locker is closing 400 stores
Foot Locker is planning to close 400 stores while also planning to open 300 new stores as it shifts the location and format of its stores.
In a March 22, 2023 earnings call, Anthony Aversa, Foot Locker’s senior vice president for global store development, said Foot Locker planned to close approximately 400 stores in North American malls through 2026.
Aversa said Foot Locker also plans to open 300 new standalone stores through 2026.
Aversa did not mention which states Foot Locker planned to close or open stores in.
Foot Locker reduced its number of U.S. stores by a net total of 69 in 2022, according to SEC filings. A March 6, 2024 financial report says Foot Locker opened seven U.S. stores in 2023 and closed 31, reducing its number of stores by 24.
THE CLAIM: Gap is closing 350 stores
Gap has closed approximately 350 Gap and Banana Republic stores across North America between 2020 and 2023 “with the goal of having a smaller and healthier fleet of stores,” a Gap news update says.
The update includes a list of all of the Gap and Banana Republic stores the company has closed since the beginning of fiscal year 2020. The company announced its plans to close the stores in October 2020.
THE CLAIM: Party City is closing 24 stores (mainly blue)
Court documents list the closures of 22 Party City stores in 2023. Party City closed the stores under orders from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The closed stores included five in New York, four in Michigan, two in Missouri, two in West Virginia, two in Georgia and one each in Oklahoma, Oregon, Louisiana, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and New Jersey.
In total, 14 stores closed in blue states and eight stores closed in red states.
THE CLAIM: Big Lots is closing stores in Cali and Colorado
Big Lots is closing stores. While Big Lots has not named the locations of the closing or previously closed stores, media reporting has previously identified Big Lots stores closed in California and Colorado.
In a March 7, 2024 earnings call, Jonathan Ramsden, chief financial officer and executive vice president of Big Lots, said the company opened three new stores and closed 39 stores during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Ramsden did not name the locations of any of the opening or closing stores.
The claim that these stores are specifically in California and Colorado appear to be based on this Jan. 10, 2023 story from Footwear News. It lists three California and four Colorado stores that were closing at the time.
VERIFY checked the addresses listed by Footwear News on Google Maps and found that all seven locations do have former Big Lots stores that are now permanently closed.
THE CLAIM: Burger King is closing 400 stores
The 400 figure likely comes from a May 4, 2023, TODAY.com article that reported Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the parent company of Burger King, planned to close between 300 and 400 Burger King locations before the end of 2023.
RBI reported a net loss of 245 Burger King locations in 2023, even as the company’s profitability went up. RBI did not report the gross number of restaurant closures or openings.
The TODAY.com article also noted that the company typically closes a couple hundred Burger King restaurants each year.
THE CLAIM: Best Buy is closing 20 stores
In a Feb. 29, 2024 earnings call, Matthew Bilunas, Best Buy’s senior executive vice president, said the tech retailer closed 24 stores in the latest fiscal year and expects to close between 10 and 15 stores in the upcoming year.
Best Buy has been closing stores at about this pace since at least 2019.
In a February 2021 earnings call, Corie Barry, Best Buy’s CEO, reported that the company “closed approximately 20 large-format locations each of the past two years” and expected to close a higher number in 2021.
THE CLAIM: Boston Market is closing 27 stores
Boston Market’s collapse has been so fast that it’s difficult to determine which news report the 27 stores figure references.
On March 11, 2024, Restaurant Business Online reported that Boston Market had just 27 locations remaining. Boston Market began 2023 with about 300 locations and was believed to have as few as 79 locations in early January 2024, according to Restaurant Business Online.
It is unclear whether or not the remaining Boston Market locations plan on closing.
“The closures come either because landlords are evicting Boston Market over unpaid bills, or because state officials are shutting down restaurants over unpaid sales taxes or other issues,” Restaurant Business Online said.
The figure might also be referring to an August 2023 order by the state of New Jersey to temporarily close 27 Boston Market locations. The shutdowns were ordered because the restaurants “simply failed to pay their workers,” according to NBC 4 New York.
THE CLAIM: Kmart only has 2 stores left and Sears closed all but 22 stores
The viral post is correct about Kmart’s numbers, but overstates the number of remaining Sears stores. Both are owned by a holding company called Transformco. The downfall of the two retailers has been ongoing for nearly two decades.
A map of Kmart and Sears stores lists two Kmart stores and 11 Sears stores in total in the continental U.S. as of Feb. 25, 2024.
Transformco is owned by Eddie Lampert, who was the longtime chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Sears Holding before he bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2019.
“Lampert merged Sears and Kmart in 2005, and both companies have tumbled since then,” NBC News reported in February 2019. “The combined company has not turned a profit since 2010.”
THE CLAIM: Regal Cinemas has closed 429 movie theaters
There is no evidence Regal Cinemas has closed 429 movie theaters, which is close to the number of theaters Regal says it currently owns and operates.
Archived versions of Regal’s about page show the company routinely updated this figure for at least several years. Based on Regal’s own count of its total number of theaters, Regal has closed 120 theaters since 2019.
According to the company’s current about page, Regal operates “428 theatres in 41 states along with the District of Columbia and Guam as of December 31, 2023.”
THE CLAIM: Kroger grocery chain has closed 413 stores
Kroger has not closed 413 grocery stores, according to a company spokesperson.
“That is extremely inaccurate,” the company spokesperson told VERIFY when we asked if it had closed 413 stores. “I am not sure where it came from, but it is very wrong.”
The figure is most likely based on a Sept. 8, 2023 announcement that C&S Wholesale Grocers agreed to purchase 413 stores that became available as a result of Kroger’s merger with Albertsons, another grocer.
The sale of these 413 stores did not mean they were closed. C&S Wholesale Grocers said it planned to have 1918 Winter Street Partners, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers, operate the purchased stores.
THE CLAIM: US Bank is closing 23 branches, Wells Fargo is closing over 60 branches, Capital One is closing 50 branches and Bank of America is closing 20 branches
It’s difficult to track down the exact number of bank branches that have recently closed, although the decline in retail bank locations in favor of online banking has been well documented.
From 2019 to 2023, 5.6% of all bank branches within the U.S. closed, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
According to a list compiled by AS, a Spanish-language media brand, 188 U.S. Bank branches closed in 2023. The article noted that U.S. Bank hadn’t announced when it would close 22 additional branches, which may be where the viral posts gets 23 branch closures from.
The figure for Wells Fargo also appears to come from AS, which in another article says over 60 Wells Fargo locations have closed since October 2023.
Capital One’s figure appears to come from an article that stated the financial institution closed 50 branches in the second quarter of 2019.
The source of Bank of America’s figure is unclear. However, the Charlotte Business Journal reported on Nov. 28, 2023 that the bank planned to close more than 100 branches across the U.S. by the end of the year.
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