6 ms·
Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores
- PKop 4y ago"We know the community will have questions about why we are closing these locations. The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago – these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years. The remaining four Chicago stores continue to face the same business difficulties, but we think this decision gives us the best chance to help keep them open and serving the community."
- leafstrat 4y ago[flagged]
- floxy 4y agoAnyone have thoughts on what the motivation was to keep operating in the red for 17 years, with losses apparently increasing over time?
- richbell 4y agoIsn'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?
- floxy 4y agoI guess if you have deep pockets you can try for decades to put the local mom & pop shops out of business?
- PKop 4y agoSo 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.
- dmix 4y ago> and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years Something happened in the last 5yrs which made it untenable.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- throwaway19423 4y agoTax rebates or hope they would eventually be profitable? Target in Canada is a great case study on what not to do.
- 1123581321 4y agoIt’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.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- draw_down 4y ago[dead]
- Encrust6221 4y agoIs anyone more familiar with the locale able to provide more context as to why specifically these stores may not be profitable?
- selectodude 4y agoSome of them because of too much competition and the fact that they were shitty stores (the north side ones) and too much competition and the fact that they got shoplifted into oblivion (the south side ones).
- ryan93 4y agoA lot of big city walmarts are too small to be profitable at their prices. Also people say shoplifting but walmart hasnt confirmed.
- PKop 4y agoShoplifting
- stcroixx 4y ago3 of the 4 closing would be rampant shoplifting.
- Dwolb 4y agoThe one in Lakeview didn’t seem to hit the mark. Residents preferred nearby Trader Joe’s, Mariano’s, Dom’s, Jewel Osco, and Whole Foods over this Wal-Mart.
- burkaman 4y agoWhat is interesting about this? Walmart has like 5000 stores in the country, they open and close some every year.
- kevingadd 4y agoIt's potentially significant if it leaves a food desert in the area i.e. the walmarts pushed out/killed local competition, and then they close down which means there are no remaining stores for groceries etc. Not clear to me whether that would be the case here though.
- dubcanada 4y agoYa I have to agree why is this on hacker news? When did this creep of just nothing to do with computers or technology start happening? This is just Walmart closing some stores...
- PKop 4y ago> collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago – these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years. Is it not interesting that they ran never-profitable million-dollar losing stores for 17 years, and that the losses doubled in the last 5?
- burkaman 4y agoNo, I don't think so. That seems like a relatively normal thing for a megacorporation with 10,000 stores worldwide. I'm sure it's interesting to some people - if you live in Chicago, if you're an active Walmart investor, if you're a retail industry analyst, but none of that seems particularly relevant here. Presumably every news story is interesting to someone. Also corporate PR is not generally very trustworthy, so the only thing you can take at face value here is that they are closing four stores.
- bblpeter 4y ago[flagged]
- throwaway19423 4y agoI wish there was a breakdown of what are the typical parameters of a retailer (e.g. rent per sq foot, theft, labor costs, sales, distance to distribution center, distance to competition) and what made these locations unique. I see businesses all the time where it seems they have very little foot traffic or a location in a crazy expensive area (most places in Manhattan, for instance), and I wonder how these locations make a profit. I also find it a bit off that this is posted on HN. If it was SF, the narrative would surely be around rents or breakage (well, theft). The announcement doesn't really say anything specific beyond "failed to make a profit for many years".
- alephnerd 4y agoThese are Walmart Neighborhood Markets. They were always targeted at attracting the Mariano’s and Whole Food's demographic. The Kenwood one (walking distance from Barack Obama's house) faced stiff competition from the Hyde Park Whole Foods and other more upscale stores in Kenwood/Hyde Park, nor could it compete downmarket with Family Dollar. Also, completely irrelevant to HN (just like SF crime stories).
- Overtonwindow 4y agoA business can only suffer so much loss in theft before it has to throw in the towel. They're a business, not a community food bank, even though a lot of people in those communities see it as just that. There's also just an anti corporate mentality - "stealing from CVS is harmless, they can afford it." Then scream in outrage when CVS says no, we don't want to do that anymore, and leaves.