Walmart Closes Four Stores In Chicago Amid Elevated Crime Rates | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Ben Zeisloft.

    Walmart announced the closure of four stores in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday due to poor performance at the locations, a move that also occurs as the city sees worsening crime rates.

    The retail behemoth said that the four locations "have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago" with annual losses doubling in the past five years. The four Walmart stores that remain open "continue to face the same difficulties," but executives believe shuttering some of the locations creates the best opportunity to keep the others open.

    "Over the years, we have tried many different strategies to improve the business performance of these locations, including building smaller stores, localizing product assortment and offering services beyond traditional retail," Walmart said in a press release. "It was hoped that these investments would help improve our stores' performance. Unfortunately, these efforts have not materially improved the fundamental business challenges our stores are facing."

    Associates at the affected locations will be permitted to transfer elsewhere. Walmart added that they will continue seeking solutions to "racial inequity and food deserts" in Chicago.

    The decision to shutter the four locations comes one month after Walmart closed the firm's remaining two stores in Portland, Oregon. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in an interview with CNBC last year that the company has been impacted by an uptick in shoplifting and warned that "stores will close" if the phenomenon is not resolved by city officials.

    "Theft is an issue. It's higher than what it has historically been," he commented. "We've got safety measures, security measures that we've put in place by store location. I think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation, and that's normally how we approach it."

    Lawlessness in Chicago has indeed increased dramatically over the past four years. There were 490 homicides in the Windy City as of 2019 before murders soared to 772 in 2020 and 800 in 2021 as nationwide Black Lives Matter protests occurred in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who has a personal police unit with 71 officers assigned to protect her life, meanwhile proposed eliminating $80 million from the Chicago Police Department budget in 2020.

    Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson was elected last week to succeed Lightfoot as the next mayor of Chicago; he defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, a moderate rival who had supported increasing law enforcement and bolstering public safety, in a relatively close race.

    Johnson garnered criticism throughout the campaign, which centered largely on the city's struggles to handle rising violent crime, for his description of the "defund the police" movement as an "actual, real political goal" in a 2020 radio interview. He denounced the statement in later interviews as Vallas made his initial remarks a feature in his campaign advertisements.

    The announcement of the Walmart closures also comes on the same day reports revealed that the Democratic National Committee selected Chicago as the host city for the 2024 convention, where President Joe Biden is expected to secure the nomination to run for a second term.

poll#164
It has been far too many years since the Woke theology interlaced its canons within the fabric of the Indoctrination Realm, so it is nigh time to ask: Does this Representative Republic continue, as a functioning society of a self-governed people, by contending with the unusual, self absorbed dictates of the Woke, and their vast array of Victimhood scenarios?
  Yes, the Religion of Woke must continue; there are so many groups of underprivileged, underserved, a direct result of unrelenting Inequity; they deserve everything.
  No; the Woke fools must be toppled from their self-anointed pedestal; a functioning society of a good Constitutional people cannot withstand this level of "existential" favoritism as it exists now.
  I just observe; with this thoughtful observation: What will happen "when the Vikings are breeching our walls;" how do the Woke react?
844 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?


poll#169
Considering how abjectly corrupt and civilly abusive the Left has become regarding the corrosive effect of their elected leaders; their entrenched and ruling bureaucracy; employing their failed Education Industry as Indoctrinators; their collusive private sector operators, such as the terminally discredited Legacy Media and Big Tech censorship of Free Speech: What will be the best course forward for hardworking Middle Americans, including the Patriot Class?
  Withdraw from society, go underground and plan for a resurgence when it is feasible to do so.
  Work within the confines of better policy by the People's government, once good sense and sanity is restored in the electorate at large, to achieve such.
  Are you a crazy, nut-job Insurrectionist? Everything is perfect within our plan to achieve our intended goals for the Socialist Left.
  Secession to form a true Constitutional Republic.
437 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

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