Princeton’s only Walmart to close in August

Walmart’s only Princeton location will close on Aug. 21 due to financial constraints.

“After a careful and thoughtful review process, we have made the difficult decision to close our Walmart store in Princeton,” Walmart spokesperson Payton McCormick said. “The decision is based on several factors, including the store’s overall performance.”

Many students considered this Walmart store — located within three miles of the University in the Nassau Park Pavilion — an inexpensive option to purchase necessities. The University-sponsored Weekend Shopper bus brought students to Walmart every week.

“I went to the Walmart by Princeton a couple of times before I moved into my dorm and a couple of times after I moved out,” Sruti Chitluri ’23 said. “I even bought my first bike there. It was always an easy, affordable, reliable option to buy things for my dorm room, and I’ll miss it when I get back to campus.”

Chitluri is a news contributor for The Daily Princetonian.

Bryant Hall ’22 bought food at Walmart weekly while living on campus in the summer of 2019.

“It was the most convenient place to shop during the summer, so I would imagine shopping would be a trickier situation now without it, and I'm not really sure where I would go if I had to find somewhere else,” Hall said.

The 135,000-square-foot-store first opened in 1995 and has no plans to relocate. Walmart has offered its 200-plus employees at this location the opportunity to transfer to another store. Nearby stores are located in Hamilton, East Windsor, and North Brunswick.

Walmart also recently announced that all of its stores would close on Thanksgiving, a rare move for large retailers. The company did not respond to requests for comment from the ‘Prince’ by the time of publication.