April 11 Update: Walmart has announced the closure of four Chicago locations, citing profitability. Our original story continues below.
Some suburban Chicago shoppers will soon have one less option nearby to buy groceries and other goods: Walmart.
According to a Wednesday announcement from the retail giant, Walmart will including one of the company's first pick-up store in Lincolnwood, located at 6840 N. McCormick Blvd. The other two closures are planned for the Plainfield Walmart, at 12690 S. Route 59, and Homewood, at 17550 S. Halsted St.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
The Walmart store in Lincolnwood will close by Feb. 17, a report from the Chicago Tribune says. The other two locations are set to close Mar. 10.
In a Facebook post, the village of Flossmoor detailed the letter it was sent by the corporate affairs division of Walmart, informing the community of its plans to close the store.
"This decision was not made lightly and was reached only after a thorough review process," the letter reads. "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."
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The post also says that Homewood mayor Rich Hoefeld was "surprised" by the news, and that the village "would" will work with the property owner to fill the space as soon as possible.”
The employees of all three stores have been given the option to transfer to other locations, the company says.
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