Did Walmart announce that "starting June 3rd all U.S. store locations will go back" to 24-hour shopping? No, that's not true: There was no announcement like this made by Walmart. The news page on the Walmart corporate website at the time of writing -- June 4, 2024 -- does not show any announcement or news about all Walmart stores in the U.S. returning to 24-hour shopping.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by Jay Marcel @KcHoodReporter on May 29, 2024. It was captioned:
Walmart has announced starting June 3rd all locations in the U.S. Will go back to 24hrs‼️
#IllBelieveItWhenISeeIt
Follow Breaking News W/ Jay Marcel
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 13:57:26 2024 UTC)
The facade of the store in the image (pictured above) has the word "Supercentre" spelled as it appears on Canadian stores, rather than the U.S. spelling "Supercenter." The image has the appearance of a screenshot of a social media post made by Walmart on May 28, 2024, showing 463 likes and 576 comments. The verified Facebook page for Walmart made one post on May 28, 2024 -- it was a promotion for an online event of Fun DIY Craft Ideas. There was no announcement that day, or since, that the U.S. stores were returning to a 24-hour schedule. The screenshot does not show a blue verification check, and Lead Stories was unable to locate a post on Facebook that had the text:
We think it's been long enough. #backto24 #june3rd
This post may have been made by a fake Walmart page and since deleted or this image could be digitally edited to look like a social media post.
The Walmart corporate website has a page of news items (archived here) and there was no announcement leading up to or on June 3, 2024 (pictured below) making the announcement that was presented in the false post.
(Source: Walmart.com screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 18:32:49 2024 UTC)
Several fact checks have addressed this false claim. On May 31, 2024, verifythis.com published an article titled, "No, Walmart is not returning its stores to 24-hour operations" the same day that Snopes published, "Walmart Announced All Locations Will Go Back to 24 Hours?" Both outlets reported reaching out to Walmart media relations and receiving the same reply from spokesman Joe Pennington:
There are no current plans to return our stores to 24 hours of operations.
Lead Stories has also reached out to Walmart's media relations and will update this article when we receive a reply.
On July 29, 2022, Walmart replied to a post on Twitter (now renamed X). The person said they missed Walmart being open 24 hours (pictured below). Walmart replied:
At this time, we have no plans to return to 24 hour store hours. However, you can shop anytime, anywhere using our website! https://walmrt.us/3Q1cYvr 👍
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jun 4 15:54:32 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Walmart can be found here.
