Wal-Mart Closing Express Locations In River North, Lakeview
By Kate Shepherd in News on Jan 15, 2016 6:51PM
A closeup of the Chatham WalMart Express. WalMart opened an Express store in Lakeview on Nov. 30, 2011. (Image credit: Eric Allix Rogers)
Wal-Mart's urban express store experiment has officially been a bust. The store is set to close its River North and Lakeview locations, according to Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd):
The Wrigleyville & River North locations are two of the 269 stores closing. The "small box" urban experiment failed. https://t.co/4KGIMf9eH0
— Brendan Reilly (@AldReilly) January 15, 2016All of Wal-Mart's 102 Express stores will close, along with 52 other U.S. locations. In total the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, is closing 269 of its more than 11,000 stores because of increased competition from retailers like Amazon, according to the AP.
The Express store experiment started in 2011 but never caught on because "the stores served the same purpose as Wal-Mart's larger Neighborhood Markets: fill-in trips and prescription pickups," according to the AP.
"No doubt our business has become both large and broad," CEO Doug McMillon told analysts in October. "It is more important now than ever that we evaluate our portfolio."
The chain is working to ensure that employees are placed in nearby locations.