It's all just business as usual. WalMart has a good market saturation as far as number of outlets, (actually, like McDonald's, they have reached a level of oversaturation in some areas, causing one WalMart store to compete with another) growth now depends more on specializing in what sells best in each stores location.
I read in one of their investor reports, can't find a link to it now, that they were concerned with Target's sales figures for the more upscale fashions. In so many words they noted that Target was kicking their butt in sales on the more "trendy" fashions and brand name clothing. They would be increasing floor space for that to increase their clothing sales, the space needed obtained by scaling back on goods that weren't moving as well such as firearms, archery and other sporting goods that don't sell as well in the more urban and big city stores.
They originally stated they would remove firearms sales from about a third of their stores.
The company I work for used to do all of the Sam's Club Managers events. They rent a big convention center and set up a simulated Sam's Club store inside. The store managers can then decide what they want in their store from what is available at the show. We provided the Pharmacy, Bakery, Photo, Eyeglasses, etc booths and partitions. So each Sam's Club manager can choose if they want a bakery section or other specialized department. Likely the WalMart store managers can do the same, based on what they feel will bring in the most total sale dollars in their area.
They only store I'm aware of that specifically stopped selling firearms, just because they were firearms was a store in Florida. They were located close to a school so it was decided no more firearms. But that makes about as much sense as closing a gas station on a specific corner to cut down on traffic accidents at that intersection. Most of the folks having accidents likely got their gas somewhere else anyway.....
