Walmart's Chicago Exits Aren't About Crime, Just Business
The era of e-commerce and work from home means that the retailer is even less inclined to hold on to money-losing city stores.
On the move.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images North AmericaAlmost as soon as Walmart Inc. announced it’s closing a handful of stores in Chicago, Illinois, it was dragged into the country’s culture wars. Some on Twitter blamed the move on “uncontrolled crime” and “woke” lawmaking. Others said it was in anticipation of increased crime under the city’s newly elected Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, who campaigned on a more holistic approach to public safety that focuses on the root causes of crime such as systemic poverty and mental health.
But the underlying motivations for the store closings are more reflective of some of the ruthless profit-driven choices retailers make than the crime-spree rhetoric that the anti-woke crowd has run with.