Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores

Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by PKop on Friday April 14, 2023 @03:01PM (#35573389)

"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."

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by floxy on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:09PM (#35574065)

Anyone have thoughts on what the motivation was to keep operating in the red for 17 years, with losses apparently increasing over time?

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by richbell on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:13PM (#35574115)

Isn'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?

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by PKop on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:20PM (#35574221)

So 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.

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by dmix on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:27PM (#35574294)

> and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years

Something happened in the last 5yrs which made it untenable.

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by floxy on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:17PM (#35574171)

I guess if you have deep pockets you can try for decades to put the local mom & pop shops out of business?

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by 1123581321 on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:14PM (#35574137)

It’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.

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Re:Walmart Announces Closure of Four Chicago Stores by throwaway19423 on Friday April 14, 2023 @04:14PM (#35574130)

Tax rebates or hope they would eventually be profitable?

Target in Canada is a great case study on what not to do.

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