Walmart abruptly announces closure of 4 (more) Chicago Area stores

Economy
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Having announced the closure of three Chicago stores in February, Walmart suddenly announced the closure of 4 more today.

Walmart Inc. is closing four stores in Chicago, halving its footprint in the city, after losses mounted and the retailer abandoned hope of turning the locations around.

“The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago,” Walmart said in a statement Tuesday. “These stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-11/walmart-says-it-s-never-made-money-in-chicago-closes-4-stores?leadSource=uverify%20wall
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Walmart closing stores in Cook, Will counties

Walmart announced on Wednesday they are closing three stores across the Chicago area.

The three locations shutting down are in Lincolnwood, Plainfield, and Homewood. . . .

The reason for the Homewood closure? Walmart says because of its poor performance record, it “did not meet Walmart’s financial expectations.”

“It’s like they are trying to starve the Black neighborhood or something because I don’t know what’s going on,” said Mark Chandler who frequents the store in Homewood on South Halsted. “It’s always crowded, always until they close, so how are you not making money? If you’re not making money you would’ve been closed?”

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More stores/retailers need to close in those areas…problem is they will migrate out to other stores bringing with em the very reason why those stores/retailers closed.

And of course criminal transport system helps.

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It’s hard to know

  • how much is crime related,
  • how many were bubble stores, held opened only because of helicopter money, and
  • how much is a genuine economic downturn.

But retail is having a bad year.

Is this officially a retail apocalypse?

Over the last few weeks, major national retailers have announced multiple store closures, combining to shut more than 800 retail stores in 2023. The list now includes the following:

Walmart
Macy’s
Bed Bath & Beyond
Best Buy
Gap and Banana Republic
JC Penney
Party City
Amazon
Tuesday Morning
Bath & Body Works
Big Lots!

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The pattern of retail contraction instead of growth is clear.

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Walmart is actually seeing more shoppers…upper middle/wealthier shoppers.

Walmart reported its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, delivering a strong performance and raising its guidance for 2023. The big-box retailer, which operates 3,500 grocery locations nationwide, saw an 8.2% increase in same-store sales in the quarter, but its grocery gains were even bigger: food sales saw “mid-teens growth,” Walmart said, growth that appears to have been led by upper middle-class shoppers.

“Although times are tougher, consumers’ desire for value and low-prices is playing into Walmart’s hands,” Neil Saunders, an analyst at GlobalData Retail, said in an email to clients Tuesday.

Walmart is a bellwether of consumer spending, particularly on groceries, which account for more than half of its sales.

The company said it is making “strong grocery share gains, including from high-income households.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/business/walmart-stock-shopping-inflation/index.html

So you have Walmart doing much better…8.2 percent sales increase while in most areas but “some” stores are losses millions in other areas.

Even thou those areas that are losing millions have seen packed stores.

We know what’s going on…people are afraid to come out and say it.

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I am pretty sure they are closing the high crime stores and don’t want to say it.

A lot of food stores have a 30-ish percent markup (25% profit margin.)
Every time something is stolen, they have to sell three more just to break-even.

Clothes have much higher mark-ups.
Paper towels and canned tuna etc. have much lower markups, but the concept is easy to see. Theft costs more than a person might think.

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Remind me again…how’s crime doing in Chicago?

“ Crime in Chicago overall has increased during the past five years by nearly 20%, according to an official report by the Chicago Police Department. The year-over-year change in crime was even greater last year. Between 2021 and 2022, overall crime in Chicago increased by 41%, after overall crime had decreased each year in 2019 and 2020 and slightly increased in 2021.” Chicago crime spikes in 2022, but first drop in murder since pandemic

Who is in charge of prosecuting criminals in Chicago?

“Soros’ First Rogue Prosecutor

Foxx was a harbinger of things to come, when four years ago she became the first George Soros-backed rogue prosecutorial candidate to win.

The Washington Post said that, at that time, he had “plunked $300,000 into a [political action committee] created to elect Kim Foxx.”

Up for re-election this year, Foxx again is the beneficiary of Soros’ largesse, as he has already pumped at least $2 million into the Illinois Justice & Safety PAC to help her get re-elected.

But what’s all that money buying? And why is Soros so interested in county district attorney races? As we’ve written elsewhere, it’s because he and his prosecutorial puppets are seeking to “reimagine” and fundamentally transform our criminal justice system from an adversarial system pitting prosecutors against defense counsel, to a system where criminal defense attorneys, beholden to the movement, take over DA offices and enact non-prosecution policies.

If they succeed, it won’t be “reimagined,” nor fundamentally transformed for the better.” https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/meet-kim-foxx-the-rogue-prosecutor-whose-policies-are-wreaking-havoc

Who did Chicago just elect to be the mayor…another kook fringe leftist that’s who!

“ For several reasons, the election of Brandon Johnson as mayor is the most important in Chicago for generations and the most politically salient urban election this century. First, it represents the triumph of the hard Left not on one of the coasts but in the heart of the Midwest, in a city known for its pragmatic, if machine-Democratic, politics. Second, it displays the raw power of public-sector unions in Illinois and in today’s Democratic Party. Johnson was not just supported by the unions; he is the paid agent of the most powerful and radical of them all—the Chicago Teachers Union. Third, Johnson’s victory will have national reverberations for years to come because his administration will test the Left’s attempt to transform urban policy.”. Chicago’s Hard-Left Choice | City Journal

It’s going to be hard to live in these cities when all the places that sell necessities have packed up and closed! I wonder why anyone would stay in Chicago?

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Precisely…thief has outpace 30 percent increase of customers. Which will only put pressure on other stores or stores nearby. And than they have to close.

Virus is only spreading…and economy IMO isn’t the cause in this case, at least not for Walmart.

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Keep in mind more and more/higher percentage of crime isn’t being reported. So we don’t really know the number.

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Jake and Elwood have left the area…

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Good point.

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I’m sure this has nothing to do with Chicago recently electing a pro-criminal Marxist that wants to defund the police to an even greater degree.

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Just a few days later…yeah it just might.

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Something happened around five years ago

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image1086×500 74 KB

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I guess people really are this stupid :flushed:

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Yes. That’s a very ignorant comment at best. No one is trying to starve any neighborhood. Most retail businesses wouldn’t put locations in dumps. I think states have laws regarding expansion requiring locations be placed in inner cities. I’m not too sure how that works. Because no one with a brain would put a supermarket or any retail store in some of these dumps unless forced to do so.

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If I was forced to, I’d make it like a bank drive through. Give me your grocery list, take a numbered ticket, pay for it, come back in an hour and your items will be loaded on a conveyor belt with a store employee handing your items to you.

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There are some p[eople who are m/l programmed that if you say “corporation” or “Walmart” etc. then the coation (or walmart) must be always wrong and described as such.

Open a store? “They are wrong”
Close a store “They are wrong”
Do both “They are wrong.”
Do neither “They are wrong.”

It’s kind of humorous sometimes.

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That’s a good idea. Never thought of that. But that could work for grocery stores. It’s not going to work for say, an electronics store. Or any place people browse.

I live in NJ, and I don’t remember seeing any best buy in bad neighborhoods. I don’t know how they get around it.

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It’s always been that way. Same goes for sports franchise owners. They’re always evil no matter what they choose to do. They’re basic self interest is wrong!