Isn't Walmart's whole shtick that they move into an area and operate as a loss leader with the hope that their competition is forced to close?

So it's probably that this has nothing to do with their competition then, and rather some other factor causing the continued massive losses and ultimately their pull-out.

> and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years

Something happened in the last 5yrs which made it untenable.

I guess if you have deep pockets you can try for decades to put the local mom & pop shops out of business?

It’s simply wanting to make headway in urban markets enough to justify a large investment. The stores were unprofitable but not so much that they couldn’t be kept open to continue learning.

Go back 15-20 years and Walmart’s attempts to grow into dense urban areas were major news stories. Frightening at the time for fans of indie and small chain retail but almost quaint now that Amazon dominates.

Tax rebates or hope they would eventually be profitable?

Target in Canada is a great case study on what not to do.