"I think it's a fundamental shift in their real estate strategy" to look at things market-by-market rather than store-by-store and is a "sophisticated development," said Stewart Samuel, program director at IGD.

Those types of efforts, plus continued investment in ecommerce, should pay off over time, Samuel said. Wal-Mart, which is opening more ecommerce fulfillment centers and filling some orders from stores, expects $13 billion in ecommerce sales in fiscal 2015, up from $10 billion or more this year.

Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed in the impasse over the US budget and Walmart US CEO Bill Simon said that if people were not getting paid, they were not shopping as much. Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said that just over 40,000 people came to shop at its warehouse clubs after the chain waived its usual fee for those who could not access military commissaries closed in the shutdown.

Slowing international growth

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart is still committed to trying to grow operating expenses at a slower rate than sales. Overall, capital spending is set to be $12 billion to $13 billion this year and $11.8 billion to $12.8 billion next year.

The company is closing about 50 under-performing stores out of hundreds it has in the major emerging markets of Brazil and China, said Walmart International Chief Executive Doug McMillon. The company said the stores set to close represent about 2 percent to 3 percent of its sales in each of those markets, although it is still opening new stores as well.

For the first time, Walmart US plans to open more smaller-format stores than supercenters. Walmart US plans to open 235 to 265 stores in fiscal year 2015, about 120 to 150 of them small stores. It is planning for about 245 openings this year, slightly above an earlier forecast.

Wal-Mart now plans to open 34 million square feet of new store space this year, down from its original forecast of 36 million to 40 million square feet. For next year, it targeted 33 million to 37 million in new store space, with more than half of the space being added in Walmart US, which will open more smaller stores than larger ones. The pace of growth internationally may continue to slow.