Walking into Walmart used to mean being hit with the distinctive smell of McDonald’s food cooking. For some, that’s a comforting smell, while others find it out of place in a department store and grocery chain.
That distinct scent, however, has disappeared from many Walmart Supercenters, as McDonald’s has greatly pulled back from location restaurants inside Walmart stores.
McDonald’s closed about 200 stores in 2020, and roughly half of those were located inside Walmarts.
“The U.S. is accelerating some restaurant closings previously planned for future years,” former McDonald’s Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan said during the chain’s second-quarter 2020 earnings call. “Of the 200 U.S. closures for this year, over half are low-volume restaurants in Walmart store locations.”
Since then, the Golden Arches’ presence inside Walmart has continued to dwindle.
“While the McDonald’s inside your local Walmart may be shuttered, you can still find the fast-food joint in select Walmart stores. Out of the more than 1,000 restaurants that once resided in Walmart stores, roughly 150 of them are still open for business,” Reader’s Digest reported.
Walmart has replaced McDonald’s with a variety of partners, including regional brands and Subway, but its latest restaurant offering may surprise even longtime customers.
Walmart adds a sushi bar
As a devoted fan of sushi, Walmart may not be the first place that comes to mind when I think about picking up fresh sushi. Sushi at supermarket chains like Publix and Whole Foods, in my opinion, rates as edible, but not great.
Walmart, however, wants to change people’s perception of its brand. Its latest Supercenter in Jacksonville, Fla., which will serve as a prototype for remodels and rebuilds, offers a sushi bar. The chain frames it as being one of the “next-generation” experiences its new stores will offer.
“Interactive digital touchpoints that make in-store shopping easier, more efficient, and more connected. An expanded assortment including elevated fashion brands, and robust grocery offerings including a bakery, deli, and fresh sushi bar,” the chain shared in a press release.
Adding fresh sushi could help Walmart reverse an edge that smaller competitors have maintained.
“One of the big advantages that regional grocers have over people like Walmart, Target, and Costco is the fresh prepared foods…They can really focus on having higher quality, because they don’t always have to play on price,” John Clear, partner at consulting firm AlixPartners, told Grocery Dive.
This is not Walmart’s first foray into sushi.
Supermarkets selling sushi have become common in the United States.
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Walmart sushi developments
- Walmart opened a new Supercenter with a fresh sushi bar in Jacksonville, Florida, part of Walmart’s next‑gen store design with expanded foodservice offerings, according to a press release.
- A sushi kiosk inside a Grapevine, Texas, Walmart now serves sushi, poke, dumplings, and more via Mai Sushi in partnership with a third‑party operator, Community Collective reported, and Walmart shared on its Facebook page.
- Walmart has offered grab‑and‑go sushi in some stores under the Hissho on the Go concept in deli departments (e.g., Charlotte area), offering rolls such as California and spicy shrimp, according to Supermarket News.
- Pre‑packaged sushi options (Marketside brand) are widely available for purchase online or in stores as ready‑to‑eat sushi, Walmart shared in a press release.
- Walmart’s broader foodservice expansion includes hot bars, grab‑and‑go, and in‑store restaurants as part of evolving grocery strategy, according to Grocery Dive.
Walmart has also made sushi available at all its Sam’s Club locations under its Member’s Mark house brand.
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“The transition to Member’s Mark Sushi is about more than rebranding. It’s a step forward in how Sam’s Club brings chef-crafted, regionally inspired, and member-driven products to life,” Sam’s Club shared in a press release.
Sam’s Club’s Member’s Mark sushi is made fresh daily, in-club, by trained chefs who live and work in the communities they serve, according to the company.
Sushi is popular in the U.S.
Market research estimates sushi restaurant establishments in the U.S. at around 16,800 to 17,400 locations in 2025, based on industry analyses, according to IbisWorld data.
To put that number into perspective, let’s examine two of the larger U.S. chains and their store counts.
In the Starbucks Q1 Fiscal Year 2026 earnings release, Starbucks reported having 16,911 company‑operated stores in the U.S., but this only includes company‑operated stores (not licensed ones), the coffee giant reported in its first-quarter earnings report.
McDonald’s most recent published data showed that it had 13,557 restaurants at the end of 2024.
Sushi restaurants may be relatively limited compared to other types of food, but sushi has become mainstream, with Kroger leading the way.
“The nation’s biggest grocery-store operator sells more than 40 million pieces of sushi in a typical year, in the process helping turn slices of raw fish, real and imitation, and rice into an American consumer staple,” the Wall Street Journal reported in 2023.
Kroger said that sushi rolls have been a sales driver for the chain, and data show that more Americans have been eating the Japanese staple.
“Sushi is big business for lots of grocery-store operators, from giants like Albertsons and Whole Foods Market to regional retailers such as California-based Good Food and North Carolina-based Fresh Market,” the Journal reported. “Sales volumes of sushi sold at U.S. retailers are up more than 50% over the past four years, and dollar sales are up roughly 72%, according to Circana.”
Walmart plans to build and remodel a total of 150 Supercenter locations to match the Jacksonville location.