Ann & Hope also had several features now common to big-box retail facilities. For example, some Ann & Hope stores had full-scale cafeterias. When originally constructed, Ann & Hope stores also had an area that was rented to a sub-tenant, with both in-store and outside entrances, a variation of which is a relatively recent introduction in larger Wal-Mart stores. Many Ann & Hope locations had limited success renting to tenants, and before the chain's closing in 2001, many had been converted to store-run garden shops. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, visited the Ann & Hope chain in 1961 and got the idea for his store from it, and Harry Cunningham visited Ann & Hope in the process of preparing to launch the first Kmart store. Following a slow 1989–90 holiday season, the Seekonk, Massachusetts store experienced lay-offs, most notably in the home-wares and rug and blind departments. These layoffs were viewed by some as a portent of the difficulties that the Seekonk store (as well as her sister A&H stores) would experience in a cut-throat regional market throughout the 1990s. All of the Ann & Hope department stores closed in the spring of 2001, except for the two Rhode Island stores: the original location in Cumberland and the store in Warwick. High-value properties that Ann & Hope owned in Massachusetts were sold off. The two locations that remained open were downsized significantly and turned into off-price "outlet stores." In the years following the closing, new Ann & Hope–branded outlet stores, such as the Ann & Hope Curtain & Bath Outlet, were opened. Several of these new Ann & Hope outlet stores occupied space near where Ann & Hope department stores had previously existed. As of 2007, the original Cumberland property is home to an Ann & Hope Curtain and Bath Outlet and an outdoor Garden Outlet. In August 2007, the owners of Ann & Hope made public their intention to convert the Cumberland mill store to a "mixed use" development of retail and residential space. The Cumberland mill building is now home to the Bargain City Galleria - a thriving flea market, food court and auction center. As of 2010 Ann & Hope Curtain & Bath is still going strong, opening stores in Vernon and Newington, Connecticut. In April and May 2011, Ann & Hope opened two new stores in Raynham and Weymouth, Massachusetts, buying out two Curtain Factory Outlet retailers.