Walmart Joins Whole Foods & Aldi In Putting Profits Over People In Chicago

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Walmart plan to shut 4 stores by Sunday leaves customers perplexed

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The supermarket chain called the sites “unprofitable.”

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Regina Dickey went for an appointment at a new primary care clinic in Chatham on Tuesday. The clinic is newly furnished and close to home, and she thought she’d come again but was disappointed to learn she’d never get the chance.

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Nedra Sims Fears, executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative, said the closure of the store and health center in Chatham was “deeply disappointing.”

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“It’s just going to be a significant loss, and we’re sorry that they didn’t work with the community to figure out how to have a business model that worked,” Fears said.

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”All communities in Chicago should have access to essential goods and services,” Lightfoot said in the statement. “That is why I’m incredibly disappointed that Walmart has announced the closing of several locations throughout the South and West sides of the City. Unceremoniously abandoning these neighborhoods will create barriers to basic needs for thousands of residents.” Lightfoot called on Walmart to ensure the shuttered stores would be “repurposed with significant community engagement so they can find a new use to serve their neighborhoods.”

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Ald. Sophia King, 4th, and Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, whose wards include locations slated to close, both called the closures disappointing in statements Tuesday. “The west and south sides need committed partners to reverse decades of disinvestment and discrimination, and I hope Walmart will work hard to invest in the communities in Chicago that desperately need their presence,” Ervin said. “Certainly, Walmart has the resources and respect to give more notice,” King said in a statement posted on Twitter.

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In November, Lightfoot blasted Whole Foods as “not a good partner” after it closed its once-touted Englewood supermarket, which opened in 2016 with the help of $10.7 million in city funding. Last summer, Lightfoot criticized Aldi, which closed a store in Auburn Gresham in June. Local elected officials said they had no advance notice of the closure. “Aldi’s, hear me loud and clear,” Lightfoot said. “Come to the table and talk and work with us, or there are going to be major challenges for you in the city of Chicago.”

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