McDonald’s will close all but 150 restaurants it maintains inside Walmart stores by this summer, the company says.
The closures of the restaurants that are inside the megastores across the country have been planned for a while.
Walmart leases the restaurant spaces that are, generally, located toward the front entrance of certain stores.
According to McDonald’s, hundreds of restaurants will be closed. The partnership between the retailer and fast-food restaurant began in 1994, and at one time included 800 in-store McDonald’s restaurants.
According to Walmart, the restaurant space will not sit empty. Both Domino’s Pizza and Taco Bell have expressed interest in using the space, Walmart officials told USA Today.
“These spaces have been freeing up over time. We have been and continue to fill them,” Walmart spokesperson Molly Blakeman said in a statement to USA Today. “We’re looking to both restaurants and services that are really relevant to our customers.”
According to McDonald’s chief financial officer, 200 U.S. McDonald’s closed in 2020, with more than half of those being “low-volume restaurants in Walmart store locations.”
Cox Media Group
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