What in the hell did you expect...

This video really does a great job of detailing the closing of the Walmart stores in Chicago. People complain about food deserts. Do you think Walmart is running a charity place? When you vote for politicians who basically legalize petty theft, this is the result that you get.

And no it's not because Walmart is racist. Walmart is a business that exists to turn a profit. They cannot do that when they are being robbed blind left and right, with the help of the idiot politicians who are now calling Walmart racist, for abandoning the area.

The old time adage that you have to sleep in the bed that you made, certainly comes into play here.

You would have thought that getting rid of Lori Lightfoot was a move towards sanity, but evidently it was just jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

 

"What the hell did you expect?" is a phrase that could be used for many progressive policies these days.

 

This is the right decision for a company- If a division or a store becomes too problematic, you shut it down. The relationship between a store and the surrounding community is a kind of partnership. If the services they provide to the community aren't valuable enough, they won't have customers. If the problems the community presents to the stores make it unsafe or unprofitable to do business there, they won't have stores.

Closing a store is an expensive process, that decision is not made casually. But when it's obvious the other side of the relationship makes it toxic to stay- they won't, and the community has created that situation.

 

They are closing stores in Florida too, and many other States. So what? Unprofitable stores are closed. CVS is closing 300 stores. I have not heard anyone calling them racist for doing it. Of course when people hear 'Chicago' they try to twist it into a political conspiracy.

 

The less Walmarts, the better. A pox on that company. Americans need more cheap crap built in China like we need a gunshot to the brain.

 

Stores in any location that prove unprofitable get closed. They may be unprofitable for many reasons. But when the reasons are shoplifting and crimes, that is related to the culture of the community and it's law enforcement performance. Different cities and neighborhoods have variable levels of crime and safety concerns, and those things are within the power of that community to control. When communities fail to uphold standards and let those things deteriorate, they lose corporate support. That is just business sense. Will it be called racist in the locations where the culture is black? for sure, somebody will- and it will be the same people responsible for allowing, even promoting the decline of that community. They will even claim that the business community owes them, and the crime isn't crime. The looting of the "Miracle Mile" of luxury stores in Chicago had a BLM spokesman declaring it wasn't theft, it was "reparations", and their loss didn't matter because they had insurance....

That's a mental problem; a self-serving excuse for thug behavior.

A safe community can only remain safe if it excludes unsafe elements. The behavior is up to the people in the community- the consequences for those who make it unsafe up to the community at large. If that community won't support a healthy environment, they won't have one- because all the people and the businesses who do want one will leave.

 

Who is calling the closing racist? Does anyone actually think that?

 

as of the writing of this article, only one Florida Walmart is closing. So your spin is already wrong.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/03/07/walmart-store-closures-list-2023/11419149002/#

Meanwhile four Walmarts in Chicago alone are closing. with basically zero warning.

https://abc7chicago.com/amp/walmart-closed-leaving-chicago-pharmacy-closing/13136460/

The abrupt departure of that many ought to be a clue to you you might have to think a little deeper here.

 

The reason that chinese goods now fill so many stores... is that the customers will buy them over American made goods. And the same people who buy the China goods refuse to compete in the global market; they think that because they live in America they should be paid a lot more to do a lot less than workers in foreign countries. American companies that produce goods in America can only sell things that are unique or in low enough volume that they aren't subject to Chinese copy. Big names in tools for example, like DeWalt now have their tools made in China because they would be bankrupt trying to make them here.

It's not the companies who gave our market and trades to China- it customers like you. If you weren't buying it- Walmart wouldn't be selling it.

I'm sure that when you shop for anything, you always check the country of origin and refuse to buy foreign made goods, right?
No. Because if you did, you wouldn't have a computer or cell phone to post comments with.

I'm all for the things America uses being made in America- but until we are willing to compete in the global market we want to shop in, that won't happen.

 

You know nothing about me, and assume I use Walmart to buy cheap crap? We go to Walmart exactly once/year, because it's the only store within 45 minutes of our yearly camping trip. That's it.

We HATE Walmart.

Again, you know nothing about me; whenever possible, we choose American. My husband only wears American made t-shirts. It's not always POSSIBLE. Companies, in search of cheap labor, left Americans high and dry.

 

The merchants in New York City are calling on Albany for help. Shoplifting is up 81% this year alone. Food store owners are complaining that their employee should not have to work under threats of violence.

As a financial analyst and accountant, I can tell you that the gross margins (selling price less the cost of the goods) are not that high in these businesses. When the thieves walk out the door without paying, it takes a lot of sales to make up for that.

 

It's both. It's also on the government.

This could be "fixed" with tariffs. But it would mean much higher prices and higher cost of living.

 

It's good that you are wealthy enough to avoid Walmart. I could avoid it too, but the fact is their food prices are low enough to make going there worthwhile now and then. In Florida, Walmart sells the same brand of bacon for a few dollars less than Publix. You don't get wealthy or stay wealthy by throwing your money away.

Taking the Bernie Sanders route and advocating ever increasing minimum wages sounds cool, but the result is the prices for the goods have to increase along with those increases. And when the minimum wage gets too high, the companies invest in machines to replace the humans. The humans can become unemployable because of the minimum wage.

 

I am surprised that in reaction to his "Walmart shouldn't have to give welfare" nobody made the argument of Walmart paying low wages to the point it's workers need welfare, so Walmart is subsidized by welfare.

 

Meh, Aldi meets most of our needs. We avoid Publix as much as possible. BJs is good, too. Our food sealer allows us to buy meat in bulk.

 

8 Walmarts in the Chicago area, four closed. However, it is not the theft that closed the stores though and Walmart has never said what the true cause was, other than that the stores have not been making any money since 2006 or so, long before Lori Lightfoot was even elected as mayor of Chicago.

Walmart's official statement which says, "The simplest explanation is that collectively our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago – these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years. The remaining four Chicago stores continue to face the same business difficulties, but we think this decision gives us the best chance to help keep them open and serving the community."

Financial statements show that collectively, all stores in the US lose to theft and shoplifting about $3 billion. There is an uptick in shoplifting at Walmart stores, but it is across the US, not just in Chicago. Where it happens is in self-checkout, which goes to how Walmart uses its human resources. There used to be a greeter who would greet you and would check your receipt and your bag in the Walmarts I shopped at occasionally. If you were returning an item, they would have marked it. And this was in suburbia where I went to. Nowadays, they don't. There is not even a person who "monitors" the self check out line. But it is not something you can point a finger at to one community over another or who is doing the shoplifting. And if you been to a Walmart, only certain items are kept under lock and key such as cigarettes, watches and other valuable jewelry, games, phones, computers, and electronics in general, but not clothes. Clothes should have a device that would beep if it was taken out of the store if not deactivated. It is cumbersome to take off, and Walmart wants those clothing sales as much as anyone in competition to online shopping. Which is why they don't have them anymore.

Would you go to a store where all women need to check in their purses? How about when you leave, an employee checks the receipt for the items in the bag? Or how about the number of employees increasing by 40%, which means higher prices on all products, which Walmart loses its competitive advantage because we don't want any shoplifting done at all. But for police, staffing that specific location is sometimes problematic if a call comes in and they have to respond elsewhere. Police are already understaffed, some cities are more understaffed than others. So putting a police officer there is not a realistic solution for now until the police staffing is corrected.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/06/wal...could-lead-to-price-jumps-store-closures.html

 

When you are old, and it's just my wife and I, you can't use the stuff they sell in the big lots. Those stores also have a limited range of selections.

 

The left wing approach here shouldn't be softness on crime. It should be universal basic income and other programs putting money into the hands of the poor. That would both lessen the theft problem and drive up the customer base and keep stores there.

 

Walmart closed ALL of their stores in Germany when they realized they got beat in their own game by the local low-budget stores.

 

No matter how much pontificating you do, theft is now a huge problem. The Walmart stores near me have goods on the selves, out in the open. If you go to certain neighborhoods, they are locked up behind plastic doors. If you want those items, you have to get a clerk to open the doors for you. That is more expensive and not as efficient. It drives up costs and selling prices.

 

Bravo for the Germans! That's called competition, and that's why capitalism works better than socialism.

 

Wait, stores with high rates of theft are closing? Is this happening in the nasty neighborhoods by any chance? Ones where people steal things without fear of repercussions?

stealing like they feel they’re entitled to stuff that isn’t theirs? Surely this is a misprint.

 

I know it is a problem, but if I put the solutions in that would decrease thefts by 50%, then Walmart sales and shoppers will also decrease significantly because the customers want convenience. Enter Amazon where you can pretty much get almost everything you need with convenience in your own home. Yes, I know Walmart has online shopping too, but it generally costs to ship it to you and Walmart entices you for store pickup, but it can take 24 to 48 hours to get the products you ordered.

 

It is happening everywhere, even in Suburbia. The Walmart near me has a huge theft problem, and I do not live in a ghetto area, more like a middle-class neighborhood.

 

If states like New York would scrap their no bail laws, it would go a long way toward thwarting the problem. Ditto for idiot laws, like the one in California, lets people skate if they steal $850 worth of stuff.

Those laws are just plain stupid. It shows how dumb the Democrat legislators, who dominate in those states, have become. It's like having AOC run your government.