3 Walmart Locations Closing in Chicago Suburbs: What's Behind the Shutdowns?

The Chicago area's "underperforming locations" are three of seven stores closing by March 10th throughout the U.S.

Photo bymonticello/Depositphotos.com

(CHICAGO) It seems no matter where you go, there is a Walmart nearby. This could be changing for some, however, as several of the retail giant's stores are permanently closing in Chicagoland.

Which Chicago Walmart stores are closing?

• Lincolnwood Walmart Pickup location at 6840 McCormick Blvd. is closing on Friday, February 17th.
• Homewood at 17550 S. Halstead Street is closing by March 10th.
• Plainfield at 12690 S. Route 59 is closing by March 10th.

In other parts of the country, Walmart locations are closing in:

• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Pinellas Park, Florida
• Bentonville, Arkansas

Walmart is ending its pickup and delivery-only model

The Walmart in suburban Lincolnwood and Bentonville were pickup-and-delivery-only locations. They were the only two of this kind left in the country, and by closing both of them, Walmart appears to be ending this concept.

According to Business Insider, Walmart's e-commerce sales have slowed since 2020 during the start of the pandemic, and consumers were shopping more online. In 2020, e-commerce sales were up 97% compared to other years.

What is the reason for the closings?

The suburban Chicago locations were "underperforming". Walmart gave a statement to Chicago CBS2 saying,

"We have nearly 5,000 stores across the U.S. and unfortunately some do not meet our financial expectations. While our underlying business is strong, these specific stores hasn't performed as well as we hoped," Walmart said. "There is no single cause for why a store closes and our decision is based on several factors, including historic and current financial performance, and is in line with the threshold that guides our strategy to close underperforming locations."

Employees can transfer to other stores

Walmart is giving employees the option to transfer their jobs to other locations. In a statement given to Chicago CBS2, Walmart director of corporate affairs and global communications Felicia McCranie said,

"We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Homewood, Lincolnwood, and Plainfield locations. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com."

Walmart is not the only retail giant to scale back recently. Walgreens and CVS have been closing stores around the country. Walgreens announced it was closing its iconic Chicago location in the old bank building in the Wicker Park neighborhood at the end of 2022.

Will the closed Chicagoland Walmarts sit empty?

Hopefully, Chicago's former Walmarts won't be empty spaces for long. According to Chicago's WGNTV, the mayors of Plainfield, Homewood, and Lincolnwood are looking at options to fill the empty stores.

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