Guangzhou Haizhu District Liying Plaza’s Walmart store announced its closure on February 13. Within the past year, Walmart stores in multiple cities such as Wenzhou, Chengdu, Fuzhou, and Foshan have also officially closed down.
According to a report from Nan Du Wan Financial Times, which belongs to the Southern Metropolis Daily, several Walmart employees have stated that the store is planning to reopen in October, but currently, they have stopped receiving new stock.
On February 14, the customer service at Liying Plaza stated that the Walmart store had officially closed on February 13.
As for the reason for the closure, the Walmart store mentioned that the shopping mall where it is located plans to undergo a major renovation on the negative first and second floors. They are currently in discussions with the property owner of the mall regarding whether to continue cooperation after the renovation and the terms of the cooperation.
Various self-media reports have indicated that some employees of the store have mentioned that the 20-year contract with Walmart has expired, and the mall’s property owner requested an increase in rent. However, one store employee denied the claim of “rent increase” to Nan Du Wan Financial Times, stating that the renovation was only required due to the lease expiration.
Following the closure of the store, the most affected are the employees. It is reported that the employees of the store will be transferred to nearby Walmart stores. Some employees are said to be considering resigning, but the company will not provide compensation. The responsible person from Walmart China stated that the official announcement should be referred to.
Regarding the legality of the company’s refusal to compensate resigning employees as claimed by the employees, Lawyer Kong Yunfei, Executive Director of Shanghai Landi (Guangzhou) Law Firm, stated to the media that according to relevant laws, in cases where there are changes in business operations, companies can make reasonable adjustments to employees’ work locations. Usually, “reasonable adjustments” refer to relocating employees to different stores within the same city, which is generally not considered a violation of labor laws. If employees resign solely based on the store closure or the company’s relocation of stores and continuing to fulfill the labor contract, they usually cannot receive economic compensation, let alone compensation for illegal termination of labor contracts by the company.
As shown on the Meituan platform, as of February 8, Walmart has 7 stores in Guangzhou, including the Xingang store, Fangcun store, Wanda store, Nanzhou store, and others, located in Liwan District, Tianhe District, Haizhu District, Huangpu District, Baiyun District, and Panyu District.
The Southern Metropolis Daily reported that within the past year, Walmart has announced closures in multiple cities such as Wenzhou, Chengdu, Fuzhou, and Foshan. Data shows that the scale of Walmart’s retail stores in mainland China has been reduced. Financial reports reveal that the number of Walmart retail stores in China for the fiscal years from 2020 to 2023 (up to the previous year ending January 31, 2023) were 412, 403, 361, and 322, respectively.