Image of supposed Walmart post announcing return of 24-hour stores is fabricated | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Walmart Facebook post announcing return of 24-hour stores in June 2024
A May 29 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes an image that appears to show a Facebook post from Walmart announcing a change to its hours of operation.
"We think it's been long enough. #Backto24 #June3rd," reads the caption on the supposed social media post from Walmart.
The May 29 Facebook post's caption states, "Walmart has announced starting June 3rd all locations in the U.S. Will go back to 24hrs."
The May 29 post was shared 86,000 times in a week.
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The image is fabricated. Walmart hasn’t announced any such plans, and a spokesperson for the company said it has "no current plans" to return to 24-hour operating hours.
24-hour operations ended at start of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020
No such post appears on Walmart's official Facebook page, website or account on X, formerly Twitter.
There are elements of the viral image that show it's fabricated. For example, the account doesn't have a blue verification badge that Facebook uses to denote official business accounts.
The company told Paste BN the claim in the post is false.
“There are no current plans to return our stores to 24 hours of operations,” said spokesperson Joe Pennington.
The company posted a similar statement on its X account when another version of the claim circulated in November 2022.
The retail giant had 24-hour stores until March 2020, when COVID-19 prompted them to scale back their hours to allow for restocking and sanitizing. Store hours were changed several times amid the pandemic and expanded to 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. for most stores starting in June 2021.
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Paste BN has debunked an array of claims about Walmart, including false assertions that it was charging customers $98 to use self-checkout, that its stores nationwide were going bagless in January 2023 and another false claim that it was resuming 24-hour operations in August 2022.
Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact and Snopes also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Joe Pennington, June 3, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Walmart, accessed June 3, Facebook account search
- Walmart, accessed June 3, News
- Walmart, accessed June 3, X account search
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