Cahokia Walmart set to close by April 21; company spokesperson notes difficult decision
By MELISSA CROCKETT MESKE
macmeske@ibjonline.com
The Walmart located in Cahokia at 1511 Camp Jackson Road will close to the public permanently by Friday, April 21, 2023. The pharmacy will also close on that date, and the pharmacy staff will be working with customers to transfer prescriptions to another location.
Walmart spokesperson Felicia McCranie, director of Corporate Communications for the company’s North and East Business Units, sent an email to the Illinois Business Journal on March 21 noting that the decision “was not made lightly and was reached only after a thorough review process.”
McCranie noted that Walmart has nearly 5,000 stores across the U.S., and unfortunately, some have not met the company’s 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,” McCranie noted.
“We have been, and will continue to be, supportive of our store leadership and associates at our Cahokia store. This decision is in no way a reflection of their hard work and customer service,” she further noted. “We are hopeful the associates at the store will want to continue their career with Walmart by transferring to another nearby store. We employ hundreds of associates in the Metro East with five Walmart Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets within 16 miles (or less) of Cahokia. All associates in the store will be eligible for transfer. We have invested in our associates and we want to keep them in the Walmart family.”
Walmart serves customers through its 181 stores and Sam’s Clubs in Illinois, and McCranie confirmed that the company remains committed to Illinois. She noted that Walmart and the Walmart Foundation contributed approximately $32.6 million in cash and in-kind donations to state and local non-profits during fiscal year 2022.
In the official company statement, McCranie said, “We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Cahokia location. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com.”
Greed as usual over people and their needs! Closing will put so many without resources. Shameful!
Theft has become their #1reason. Hard to make stock holders happy when your profits are walking out the door. It’s really sad.
As a long time shopper of this location, I am saddened to see this announcement of closure, this location is convenient for me and my family now that I am retired.I have always saw myself as a greeter ,when I retired from being a nurse for over 40 years,bur not now. I guess that was never to be.Any way thanks for the memories, and the convenient location.
Not a surprise
Shame on Walmart.
They put the other guys out of business and now they leave too.
This is such an injustice to people in this community who really count on the convenience of this store. So many people who patronize this particular store, I find it difficult to comprehend this decision to close the Cahokia Wal-Mart. I’m really disappointed with Wal-Mart as a whole. 🤔😪
Can’t keep store open when you have more theiving than profits !!
Then that Mayor didn’t help Bussiness by raising their license tax !!!
Plus the Crime rate shows up since they combined all the communities together and renamed the city Cahokia Heights
Hey Rev….could the injustice be self induced by the thievery by the Great people of this community? Be honest with yourself, your savior, then the rest of us out here. 🙏
So Sad,a store that was very convenient for a lot of us in the neighborhood walking distance and bus line. They said,they were losing money how when the store was busy everyday. A sad day for Cahokia 😔😔😔
I wish you would not close the store, but just up grade it to a super Walmart, we need this store. Cahokia already have a limited number of stores. It’s already like a ghost town.
This a real shame people in that neighborhood now have nothing. Schnucks is next door, but expensive. These people don’t have the transportation to travel 16 or 17 miles to another.
Shame on Walmart and shame on so called city officials.
SAD SAD SAD
Granite City Tle hiring needs to have license
So sad to see this occur in Cahokia. So many residents rely on shopping here for convenience. It’s a shame theft is such an issue causing them to close down. Times are difficult everywhere but in this area where the majority of families are low income and do not have a great means of transportation, I really don’t think they took this into consideration. Perhaps if they thought about how to prevent theft this may have helped( this is just a thought). Unfortunately crime is high everywhere and if people are going to steal they will no matter where we live. Prayers to the village of Cahokia.
when Walmart leaves Cahokia we will have nothing ! Wal-Mart is crowded all the time.How could you be losing on this location, some people can’t go into Missouri to go to Walmart or drive all the way to Belleville we like our Wal-mart,Build us a supercenter here in Cahokia