Walmart appears to soon be ending its experiment of pickup-only stores with both prototype locations - one in the Chicago suburbs and the other in northwest Arkansas - among recently announced store closures.
Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune reported Walmart plans to shutter its pickup-only location in Lincolnwood, 6840 N. McCormick Blvd., as well as the following standard format locations: 12960 S. Route 59 in Plainfield and 17550 S. Halsted St. in Homewood.
The Lincolnwood "Pickup Point" opened in July 19 and allowed customers to shop either on the Walmart website or through the retailer's app and then pick up their order curbside. The store is set to close Feb. 17.
The other existing pickup location, situated in Bentonville, Arkansas, home to Walmart's headquarters, will also shut down by Feb. 17, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper reported.
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Locations in Homewood and Plainfield are set to stay open a few weeks longer, but will close by March 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.”
Walmart employees will be able to transfer to other locations if they wish, according to the company.
