Indeed, look at the recent revenue trends for the retailer:



"It appears increasingly uneconomic for the customer to drive 20 to 30 miles round trip to a supercenter to save a marginal amount on consumable goods—particularly when consumables, including food, are becoming more broadly distributed," [Credit Suisse analyst Michael] Exstein said.

Unfortunately, the joke's ultimately on us, or at least our local governments. The big box development model -- build on cheap land on the edge of the community with taxpayers subsidizing your hard infrastructure/transportation costs, tilting the competitive landscape in your favor in the process -- is designed to be transitory. These buildings are, unlike the miles of public pipe and asphalt that serve them, quite disposable.

You can't blame food stamp cuts for that kind of steady decline. Energy prices and the corresponding shift in our car culture are getting part of the blame:So now analysts are demanding that Walmart start shuttering those stores in favor of smaller-footprint in-town "neighborhood market" stores. As for those increasingly decrepit concrete monstrosities outside of town Lucky for Walmart, finding space for their "neighborhood markets" shouldn't be much of a problem. There is plenty of empty retail space in those downtowns they helped decimate in the first place.