Homewood Walmart Location to Close Doors Abruptly
Homewood Walmart Location to Close Doors Abruptly (Homewood, IL) — The Village of Homewood shared a social media post this afternoon alerting the public about Walmart’s plans to close their Homewood location next month. The store, located off I-80 and Halsted St., is just one Illinois Walmart store closing next month. Another store in Plainfield, located at 12690 S. Route 59, also announced a March closure citing the same, vague statement of financial performance. Homewood’s statement is as follows:
“Early this morning, Homewood was contacted by Ahmed Young, Director, Public and Government Affairs – Corporate Affairs for Walmart Inc. Mr. Young shared that the Walmart located at 17550 South Halsted Street will be permanently closed by Friday, March 10, 2023. Mr. Young was unable to provide a clear qualitative or quantitative reason for the abrupt closure, but shared that the store… ‘did not meet Walmart’s financial expectations.’ The Walmart store has been one of Homewood’s largest revenue producing stores for years and services shoppers from various surrounding communities including Thornton, Glenwood, East Hazel Crest, Markham, Harvey, Hazel Crest South Holland and Flossmoor. Please follow the Village’s web site as we will keep you updated with information as we learn more.
“Email from Ahmed Young, Director, Public and Government Affairs – Corporate Affairs for Walmart Inc.
“We have made the difficult decision to close our Homewood Walmart location at 17550 South Halsted Street. This decision was not made lightly and was reached only after a thorough review process. 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, this specific store hasn’t performed as well as we hoped. There is no single cause for why a store closes – 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.
“We plan to close the store to the public by Friday, March 10.
“We have been, and will continue to be, supportive of our store leadership and associates at our Homewood store. This decision is in no way a reflection of their hard work and customer service. We are hopeful the associates at the store will want to continue their career with Walmart by transferring to another nearby store. We employ thousands of associates in Walmart stores in the immediate area, six Walmart stores are within 20 miles of this location, three of those are under seven miles away. All associates in the store will be eligible for transfer. We have invested in our associates and we want to keep them in the Walmart family.
“In total, we serve customers at 184 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs in Illinois. We remain committed to Illinois. During fiscal year 2022, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation contributed approximately $32.6 million in cash and in-kind donations to state and local non-profits.
“Mayor Hofeld said, ‘the Village was surprised by this news and will work with the property owner to fill the space as soon as possible.'”
Sentiment on social media has been overwhelmingly negative, bashing both the village and the Walmart corporation. Residents are encouraging shoppers to spend their money elsewhere and are blaming the shutdown on the village’s incentives expiring. “These corporations come into town and demand incentives and tax breaks. Once those have run their course, the corporations cut ties and run,” said one resident. “We’ve seen Walmart stores in the area running from one city to the next, chasing these incentives.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Homewood Walmart Location to Close Doors Abruptly
I live within 10 minutes of the now closed Walmart store by car, and I miss it terribly. I used it to shop for food mostly. I saved a lot of money both on food and gas. If it was due to village tax incentives that they closed, I wish the village could renegotiate, because Walmart is a big asset for the village.