Thoughts on Walmart Selling Claire’s Products In Store

During a shopping trip at Walmart, I stumbled across something in the accessories section: a section of the store dedicated to Claire’s accessories. Here’s a photograph of the accessories including the official Claire’s sign…

If you never heard of Claire’s, it is a store dedicated to accessories, toys, and jewelry aimed at the pre teen and teen market. I used to shop there as a teenager (As well as it’s sister store Icing) but I haven’t been in one for quite a few years. In 2018, Claire’s filed for bankruptcy in the United States. Despite this, many of the shopping malls I go to have Claire’s and Icing stores open.

I heard Claire’s filed for bankruptcy a few years ago, but I was surprised there would be Claire’s products available to purchase at Walmart. I did some searching online to see if Walmart will start to sell Claire’s products in store with the Claire branding, but so far I have not found any formal announcement of a partnership. I did find a Claire’s store in a Walmart in Ohio on Claire’s website. According to the webpage, the store is called “Claire’s Walmart Alliance”. It is located inside Walmart where space is usually rented by businesses. Usually these businesses are nail salons, hair stylists, and restaurants such as McDonald’s and Subway.

The Walmart I shopped at that day is a small Walmart and does not have the space to put a restaurant, nail salon, or any other store inside the store except for an optometrist. So, there is no other way for the store to put the Claire’s accessories for sale except in the accessories department. Despite this, I was surprised to see the accessories for sale in this particular store because of it’s small size and it’s more rural location.

Even though the Walmart I shopped at is an odd choice to sell Claire’s products, there is a mall within a fifteen minute drive from the Walmart. The mall, which opened in late 2007, had a Claire’s. Over the years, the mall lost many of it’s stores, including the Claire’s. The stores blamed many reasons for closing their locations in the store, including the 2008 recession and a lack of shoppers in the area willing to shop there. The pandemic has brought new growth into the area and new homes are being built for people moving to the area. This has brought the necessity for stores to be open in the mall, but stores like Claire’s is not one of those stores.

Since there used to be a Claire’s near the Walmart I shopped at, I’m not super surprised to see a section of a nearby Walmart sell Claire’s products. Although I don’t know much about Walmart selling Claire’s products in store, I did find listings on Walmart’s website for Claire’s products such as cell phone cases. There are also stores opening in larger Walmarts around the state where I live (Arizona). These stores are located in Walmarts where Subways and other restaurants and stores used to be located in.

I’m very curious to see if more Walmart stores start to sell more Claire’s products. I’m specially curious if this is happening at the Walmarts located near malls where Claire’s and Icing stores are still located and open in. To me, this may mean Claire’s is trying to change their way of selling products without the hassle of stores inside shopping malls, which, according to many new outlets, are dying.

So, what do you think about this? Are you excited to see Claire’s in Walmart stores for the products, nostalgia, or because they add a fresh variety to Walmart’s accessory section? Or do you not like the idea?

In a future post I will show the rest of the photographs I took at Walmart, including photos of some of the products available at the small Walmart I shopped at.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!