6 ms·

What Walmart’s pullback from Chicago says about Corporate America’s limits

20 points by bluedino 4y ago

082349872349872 4y ago
Successful companies don't build strong economies (cf Fordlandia); strong economies provide the foundation for successful companies.
- simple-thoughts 4y ago
  Certainly your statement is false in economies such as South Korea which have heavily and intentionally relied on national champion corporations to drive economic growth.
  - 082349872349872 4y ago
    Thanks for the counterexample; I'll have to look at them. (although my initial bias is to suspect that KR may have developed with significant external, as well as internal, non-market forces — eg, as far as I know, the war is still not over, just frozen)
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  Some locales cannot support building and maintaining a strong economy. Chicago should consider building and operating food coops that are comfortable operating at a loss in the same way you would the local library or CTA line. If big chains cannot survive in these neighborhoods, nor can the mom and pops who have been driven out, this is the logical conclusion if the expectation is healthy food being provided to the community.
  - twoodfin 4y ago
    If densely populated, highly developed metropolitan locales in the richest large nation on Earth can’t support profitable business formation, something is wrong that won’t be fixed by government-sponsored coops.
    - toomuchtodo 4y ago
      The poor have no purchasing power and healthy foods have low margins (as the article mentions; grocer margins are typically 1-3%). You’re either stuck with a food bank, a coop, or folks buying low quality food from corner convenience stores and gas stations (ie Dollar General’s rural MO). Median income and economic demographic info for zip codes where these stores are closing is publicly available. Capitalism isn’t always the solution, and not all solutions require a profitable business. Most roads are not toll roads, for example.
      - lockhouse 4y ago
        The poor are already given money for food and other necessities through government subsistence programs like SNAP and TANF. Something else is going on here.
        1attice 4y ago
        [flagged]
        toomuchtodo 4y ago
        Have you tried living on benefits?
      - onetokeoverthe 4y ago
        [dead]
  - splistud 4y ago
    [dead]
lockhouse 4y ago
Why does this article not mention the rampant criminal activity that likely pushed out these stores?
- wsatb 4y ago
  Because they fought very hard to open those stores over the last 20 years in the very neighborhoods you’re talking about. While at the same time forcing out smaller stores that were there for decades. What changed?
  - _2z1p 4y ago
    Lack of arrests and prosecutions for theft of merchandise. Despite popular opinion, stores can’t just magically subsidize thieves through insurance or a tax write off and Walmart’s low margin business model doesn’t leave enough room to eat these costs once they become large enough. I know this is anecdotal, but I’ve noticed more and more products at my local Walmart (not even in a high crime neighborhood) being put inside locked cabinets. Even razor blades, condoms, and beauty products need to be locked up. Shoplifting is spiraling into an epidemic because it is no longer being treated as a serious crime.
    - wsatb 4y ago
      Wrong. They’re not losing that much money because of theft. They thought they could come into these neighborhoods and profit and it turns out they were wrong. They’re the bad guys, go look up how much these stores were not wanted by its residents.
      - sgregnt 4y ago
        That does not make them bad guys
      - kennend3 4y ago
        Speaking of "Wrong"... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10112809/Chicago-blighted-shoplifting-shoplifters-prosecuted-steal-1000.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10112809/Chicago-bl... https://chicagocrusader.com/shoplifting-a-big-problem-at-local-market-in-south-shore/ https://chicagocrusader.com/shoplifting-a-big-problem-at-loc... But you just put "wrong" with zero facts, this surely makes you right..
birdymcbird 4y ago
>> The closures are another example of the shortcomings of local governments and even national political leaders betting on leading chains to provide key public services and fill gaps. >> Unlike local government, which is theoretically accountable to voters, companies answer only to their shareholders and don’t have an obligation to stay in communities if they aren’t making a profit. >> Whether it’s handing over responsibility for providing public bathrooms to Starbucks and McDonald’s or vaccines and basic health services to CVS and Walgreens, the public is left vulnerable when these companies’ business priorities change or they close locations. main idea in this story is that people trusting these big companies to come to they neighborhoods for food and jobs but these companies only care about money and leave. story pushes narrative about specific ethnicity and economic group being victims. main questions this story never asks is WHY these businesses closing? and if billion dollar company like Wal-mart cannot survive in this places, how can small business? cnn conveniently did not describe these communities in detail.. out of control crime, organized theft at businesses, missing or reduced law enforcement. as immigrant myself from country where healthcare is more danger than you sickness (imagine getting a shot and catching hiv or hepatitis), where electricity only for 6-8 hours a day in 40+ centigrade, where running water not a real thing and to flush toilet you empty bucket of dirty water into toilet to force it flush.. the big sin is not walmart leaving but this fake news media making people victims born in USA. victimhood mentality
- throwaway173738 4y ago
  Have you been to the neighborhoods in question?
- wsatb 4y ago
  The people didn’t trust them. Walmart came in with all types of promises of economic development but the people did not want those stores. They lied thinking they could still profit and now in a short time they destroyed alternatives and are leaving as well.
  - kennend3 4y ago
    Why do you keep posting misleading information over and over again on this topic? People are literally PROTESTING the closure, but yet here you are, once again with your BS... The one "lying" clearly is you... https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-walmart-closures-protest https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-walmart-closures-p... CHICAGO - Activists protested the closure of four Chicago Walmart stores Thursday morning in Chatham. https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicagoans-blast-walmarts-decision-to-close-4-stores-with-little-notice/ https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicagoans-blast-walmart... Community activists gathered at 84th and Stewart in Chatham at the site of one of four Walmarts that is set to close, slamming the retailer’s decision. “Everything I go into this store, it is packed with people,” said Father Michael Pfleger.
tzs 4y ago
Is this a significant reduction in Walmart availability in Chicago or is this like the recent stories that Walmart is closing all its stores in Portland Oregon? In the Portland case it was indeed true that they are closing all their stores that are actually in the city of Portland. But in the Portland metro area there are something like 10 Walmarts with only one or two actually in Portland. For the closing ones just go a couple miles down the road and there is another one.
- haswell 4y ago
  This is a significant reduction in Chicago, but I don’t think the Portland comparison works. The Chicago metro area is enormous and Walmarts can be found all over the suburbs, but the specific factors of geography and no-car living among city dwellers (especially low income) mean that this isn’t just a matter of driving a few more miles down the road. If you’re living in a city neighborhood, those suburban locations might as well not exist. And because of the small businesses driven out when Walmart first entered the scene, the impact is potentially large, and will disproportionately impact those who are least prepared to deal with it. I hope this causes a resurgence of small businesses, but I don’t think going back will be so easy. (I live here).
pg938hkd 4y ago
[dead]
mannyv 4y ago
Shrinkage is real, and is a major problem in poor areas. For political reasons stores don't say that, but just go into the big stores in poor areas - everything they can lock up is locked up. Wal-mart carries too much stuff lock up, so they close the stores. Politicians try to ignore it too, but then they complain about food deserts.
- notjulianjaynes 4y ago
  >Wal-mart carries too much stuff lock up, so they close the stores. Tell that to my local Wal Mart, which locks up, among other things: all shaving products including $1 travel size bottles of shaving cream and all USB cables.
pengaru 4y ago
> In Chicago, Walmart is closing in both low-income and high-income areas, a sign that it’s struggling across the city. But it’s the stores in low-income areas that will feel the loss most. This isn't about crime, it's simple; Amazon is eating their lunch. When I visited family in the west chicago suburbs last summer, Amazon deliveries on our block were as frequent as the post man. Walmart was consolidation 1.0, Amazon is consolidation 2.0. These people don't bother going shopping irl anymore unless it's in a pinch, and that's not enough to support the huge urban retail presence.
chitown_badass 4y ago
[flagged]

20 points by bluedino 4y ago

Successful companies don't build strong economies (cf Fordlandia); strong economies provide the foundation for successful companies.

simple-thoughts 4y ago
Certainly your statement is false in economies such as South Korea which have heavily and intentionally relied on national champion corporations to drive economic growth.
- 082349872349872 4y ago
  Thanks for the counterexample; I'll have to look at them. (although my initial bias is to suspect that KR may have developed with significant external, as well as internal, non-market forces — eg, as far as I know, the war is still not over, just frozen)
toomuchtodo 4y ago
Some locales cannot support building and maintaining a strong economy. Chicago should consider building and operating food coops that are comfortable operating at a loss in the same way you would the local library or CTA line. If big chains cannot survive in these neighborhoods, nor can the mom and pops who have been driven out, this is the logical conclusion if the expectation is healthy food being provided to the community.
- twoodfin 4y ago
  If densely populated, highly developed metropolitan locales in the richest large nation on Earth can’t support profitable business formation, something is wrong that won’t be fixed by government-sponsored coops.
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    The poor have no purchasing power and healthy foods have low margins (as the article mentions; grocer margins are typically 1-3%). You’re either stuck with a food bank, a coop, or folks buying low quality food from corner convenience stores and gas stations (ie Dollar General’s rural MO). Median income and economic demographic info for zip codes where these stores are closing is publicly available. Capitalism isn’t always the solution, and not all solutions require a profitable business. Most roads are not toll roads, for example.
    - lockhouse 4y ago
      The poor are already given money for food and other necessities through government subsistence programs like SNAP and TANF. Something else is going on here.
      - 1attice 4y ago
        [flagged]
      - toomuchtodo 4y ago
        Have you tried living on benefits?
    - onetokeoverthe 4y ago
      [dead]
- splistud 4y ago
  [dead]

lockhouse 4y ago

Why does this article not mention the rampant criminal activity that likely pushed out these stores?

wsatb 4y ago
Because they fought very hard to open those stores over the last 20 years in the very neighborhoods you’re talking about. While at the same time forcing out smaller stores that were there for decades. What changed?
- _2z1p 4y ago
  Lack of arrests and prosecutions for theft of merchandise. Despite popular opinion, stores can’t just magically subsidize thieves through insurance or a tax write off and Walmart’s low margin business model doesn’t leave enough room to eat these costs once they become large enough. I know this is anecdotal, but I’ve noticed more and more products at my local Walmart (not even in a high crime neighborhood) being put inside locked cabinets. Even razor blades, condoms, and beauty products need to be locked up. Shoplifting is spiraling into an epidemic because it is no longer being treated as a serious crime.
  - wsatb 4y ago
    Wrong. They’re not losing that much money because of theft. They thought they could come into these neighborhoods and profit and it turns out they were wrong. They’re the bad guys, go look up how much these stores were not wanted by its residents.
    - sgregnt 4y ago
      That does not make them bad guys
    - kennend3 4y ago
      Speaking of "Wrong"... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10112809/Chicago-blighted-shoplifting-shoplifters-prosecuted-steal-1000.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10112809/Chicago-bl... https://chicagocrusader.com/shoplifting-a-big-problem-at-local-market-in-south-shore/ https://chicagocrusader.com/shoplifting-a-big-problem-at-loc... But you just put "wrong" with zero facts, this surely makes you right..

birdymcbird 4y ago

>> The closures are another example of the shortcomings of local governments and even national political leaders betting on leading chains to provide key public services and fill gaps. >> Unlike local government, which is theoretically accountable to voters, companies answer only to their shareholders and don’t have an obligation to stay in communities if they aren’t making a profit. >> Whether it’s handing over responsibility for providing public bathrooms to Starbucks and McDonald’s or vaccines and basic health services to CVS and Walgreens, the public is left vulnerable when these companies’ business priorities change or they close locations. main idea in this story is that people trusting these big companies to come to they neighborhoods for food and jobs but these companies only care about money and leave. story pushes narrative about specific ethnicity and economic group being victims. main questions this story never asks is WHY these businesses closing? and if billion dollar company like Wal-mart cannot survive in this places, how can small business? cnn conveniently did not describe these communities in detail.. out of control crime, organized theft at businesses, missing or reduced law enforcement. as immigrant myself from country where healthcare is more danger than you sickness (imagine getting a shot and catching hiv or hepatitis), where electricity only for 6-8 hours a day in 40+ centigrade, where running water not a real thing and to flush toilet you empty bucket of dirty water into toilet to force it flush.. the big sin is not walmart leaving but this fake news media making people victims born in USA. victimhood mentality

throwaway173738 4y ago
Have you been to the neighborhoods in question?
wsatb 4y ago
The people didn’t trust them. Walmart came in with all types of promises of economic development but the people did not want those stores. They lied thinking they could still profit and now in a short time they destroyed alternatives and are leaving as well.
- kennend3 4y ago
  Why do you keep posting misleading information over and over again on this topic? People are literally PROTESTING the closure, but yet here you are, once again with your BS... The one "lying" clearly is you... https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-walmart-closures-protest https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-walmart-closures-p... CHICAGO - Activists protested the closure of four Chicago Walmart stores Thursday morning in Chatham. https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicagoans-blast-walmarts-decision-to-close-4-stores-with-little-notice/ https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicagoans-blast-walmart... Community activists gathered at 84th and Stewart in Chatham at the site of one of four Walmarts that is set to close, slamming the retailer’s decision. “Everything I go into this store, it is packed with people,” said Father Michael Pfleger.

tzs 4y ago

Is this a significant reduction in Walmart availability in Chicago or is this like the recent stories that Walmart is closing all its stores in Portland Oregon? In the Portland case it was indeed true that they are closing all their stores that are actually in the city of Portland. But in the Portland metro area there are something like 10 Walmarts with only one or two actually in Portland. For the closing ones just go a couple miles down the road and there is another one.

haswell 4y ago
This is a significant reduction in Chicago, but I don’t think the Portland comparison works. The Chicago metro area is enormous and Walmarts can be found all over the suburbs, but the specific factors of geography and no-car living among city dwellers (especially low income) mean that this isn’t just a matter of driving a few more miles down the road. If you’re living in a city neighborhood, those suburban locations might as well not exist. And because of the small businesses driven out when Walmart first entered the scene, the impact is potentially large, and will disproportionately impact those who are least prepared to deal with it. I hope this causes a resurgence of small businesses, but I don’t think going back will be so easy. (I live here).

pg938hkd 4y ago

[dead]

mannyv 4y ago

Shrinkage is real, and is a major problem in poor areas. For political reasons stores don't say that, but just go into the big stores in poor areas - everything they can lock up is locked up. Wal-mart carries too much stuff lock up, so they close the stores. Politicians try to ignore it too, but then they complain about food deserts.

notjulianjaynes 4y ago
>Wal-mart carries too much stuff lock up, so they close the stores. Tell that to my local Wal Mart, which locks up, among other things: all shaving products including $1 travel size bottles of shaving cream and all USB cables.

pengaru 4y ago

> In Chicago, Walmart is closing in both low-income and high-income areas, a sign that it’s struggling across the city. But it’s the stores in low-income areas that will feel the loss most. This isn't about crime, it's simple; Amazon is eating their lunch. When I visited family in the west chicago suburbs last summer, Amazon deliveries on our block were as frequent as the post man. Walmart was consolidation 1.0, Amazon is consolidation 2.0. These people don't bother going shopping irl anymore unless it's in a pinch, and that's not enough to support the huge urban retail presence.

chitown_badass 4y ago

[flagged]