Update: Employees of Walmart Can Transfer to Other Locations After Closing In Plainfield

Walmart is planning to close several locations in the Chicago area. Stores in Homewood and Plainfield will shut down by Friday, March 10th and the Walmart Pickup location in Lincolnwood will close by Friday, February 17th. The retail giants says the Homewood and Plainfield locations are closing due to not meeting financial expectations. The Walmart Supercenter along Route 59 in Plainfield will be shutting its doors by March 10th.

WJOL reached out to Walmart and received this response by Felicia McCranie Director of Global Communications.

“After a careful and thoughtful review process, we have made the difficult decision to close our Plainfield Walmart location at 12690 S. Route 59. This decision was not made lightly and was reached only after a thorough review process. 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 and 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.”

The store will close to the public by Friday, March 10.

McCranie says, “We have been, and will continue to be, supportive of our store leadership and associates at our Plainfield store. This decision is in no way a reflection of their hard work and customer service. : Our associates are the heartbeat of the company and our priority is to take care of them during this transition. We have four Walmart Supercenters within eight miles, six stores within 15 miles of that location and we hope that most of the 360 associates will want to continue their career with Walmart by transferring to one of those stores. Our HR teams will help identify transfer opportunities and assist associates through the transfer process.”

• All associates will be paid through Friday, May 19, unless they transfer to another location.
• After that date, if they do not transfer, eligible associates will receive severance.

The store was opened on August 2004. Walmart owns the property and this facility will be re-evaluated for use at a later date.

In total, we serve customers at 184 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs in Illinois. We remain committed to Illinois. During fiscal year 2022, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation contributed approximately $32.6 million in cash and in-kind donations to state and local non-profits.

The official statement by Walmart below:

“We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Plainfield location. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com.”