That's the lesson Portland is learning right now.
The last two Walmart stores within Portland’s city limits will close in late March, the company announced.
The locations, at 1123 North Hayden Meadows Drive and at 4200 Southeast 82nd Avenue at the Eastport Plaza, will both close on Friday, March 24. Walmart says they are closing the stores because they were not meeting financial expectations.
“The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we decide to move forward, our focus is on our associates and their transition, which is the case here,” a spokesperson with Walmart said.
People who live near the stores that are closing say the closure is going to have a big impact on them and low-income shoppers.
There's more at the link.
Carefully not said aloud in the report is that the profitability of those stores is negative, thanks to massive, organized, systematic shoplifting and theft; and the safety of store staff can no longer be guaranteed in the face of threats and violence directed against them by the perpetrators.
Portland used to have several Walmart stores. Now it will have none. Walgreens has already closed pharmacies in the city, and may close more; and several other store chains have announced similar closures. As long as the city refuses to confront rampant crime, and prevents its police from dealing adequately with criminals, the problem will persist.
I wouldn't like to live in Portland.
Peter
23 comments:
It looks like someone finally figured out how to defeat Walmart. They just needed to decriminalize theft. /sarc
Cities end up with "food deserts" for exactly this reason.
Birds know to not poop in their own nest, why is so hard for humans to remember the same thing.
I would NOT live in Portland. I'm getting ready to un-ass Maryland, which I cant really afford to do...but sanity will demand it, soon....
I suspect over the next year or so Walmart and Walgreens will have lots of company as more companies head for the exit, and "a presence in Portland" will not be exclusive - it will happen everywhere.
I sympathize for the residents of those areas; Walmart, and chains like Walgreen and others, promised Big Things to the city fathers; now that they've driven the Mom 'n' Pop stores out of business, the local resources they displaced no longer exist to take up even part of the slack when the big folks leave.
All I can say is, it's a self-inflicted wound, and those citizens voted for it.
Sorry about that.
Many have fled/flown; Portland is a failed (and now highly dangerous) Social Experiment. This is what happens when a City (and its suburban environs) are taken over by the "I know better than anyone How-to-Fix-Society's-Ills Do-Gooders."
They're running out of places to shoplift. Soon, they'll have to go to the suburbs, and the rural areas. I don't think they'll like the response.
@ Unknown # 4B, Jr.
BION:
A huge number of us did not vote these clowns in.
For many years (that I saw with my own eyes beginning 1992) when November came around, the number of Califonia plates in Portland suddenly increased multifold, never to be seen again for the next 24 months.
Worse = better.
This is just gravity working, after the Wattsification of Portland.
Forget "food desert".
They need to have a retail desert.
Then a "corporate desert".
And ultimately, a "revenue desert".
Other major retail companies won't move in, they'll pull out too, rather than be the last zebra at the waterhole, wondering where the lions are.
Then the businesses there will see no reason to remain, and lack employees.
Then the residents (the ones who work and pay taxes, anyways) will bail out too.
Businesses that can't leave (like dockyard industries) will fortify like medieval castlery.
New name for Portland: West Detroit.
Best wishes with that bold new urban paradigm, screwheads.
Next up: Seattle.
Soon to be renamed: "See Ya!"
Cheer up, boron.
Same cars, a few years before that: NY, MA, PA, and IL plates. They're neither Californians, nor Oregonians. They're just carpetbagging gypsy locusts.
Funny, i'n'it?
"women and children hit hardest..." anon.
In response to Rick T's comment above, you accused the malefactors of being human. There are an awful lot of innocent who will suffer because these worse than animals, wearing human skin, are not now nor have they ever manifested something we call "human." -- Clarke Fountain (my Google account named me "anonymous.")
Jess hit it on the head, both the legit consumers and the criminal element will be forced to the more suburban areas though with the current views on guns from Oregon's communist leadership, the suburbs may not be as equipped either physically or in court of law to protect themselves. However that is exactly what will be happening and is likely already happening. Just right now you see things like folks that are not from your neighborhood canvasing other neighborhoods to play porch pirates for those Amazon or Walmart packages.
. . . . Which is why we left a few years ago.
The one on 82nd is next to an area of Portland known a felony flats.
We quit going into Portland or nearby about 3 years ago. Heck, I won't even go to the harbor freight down there. If I want to skip sales tax, it means going to the gresham one. Home Depot just across the northern oregon boarder (about 15 mins from downtown) is getting pretty sketchy. I won't let the wife or kids head down even that close by themselves.
I don't have sympathy for democrat voters.
I read the other day that Walmart is converting a couple stores to Pick Up Only, but I forget which big city it was in.
I wonder how long before Portland politicians start blaming and attacking Walmart, or have they started already?
As you sow, so shall ye reap.
The only part of Oregon I would consider moving to is far from the coastal shithole cities, and only if my county was about to split off and become part of Idaho.
It's a real shame what has happened to that state. I worked one summer for a logging/timber company out there, and loved going to the Oregon beaches on weekends. Maybe someday the ground can be recaptured. But I'm afraid it will require a massive purge of the people first.
Interesting - Albuquerque and Dc stores also closing.
Includes Milwaukee.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/walmart-says-it-s-closing-a-store-in-albuquerque-because-it-s-underperforming-some-shoppers-say-it-was-rampant-with-crime-and-police-visited-hundreds-of-times-last-year/ar-AA186F8u
https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-store-closings-2023-full-list?op=1
How many people will be laid off with each store. Seeing as how 95% are part-timers this will probably put 500+ people on unemployment. Then the city loses the tax base from just these 2 stores. Without that money and the loss of other high dollar taxes from the chain stores that has left they are going to have to start cutting programs. More unrest when it starts to affect the very poor. Then you have another powder keg ready to blow. Portland was once such a beautiful city. Offered a job but an undercurrent I felt there was enough that I listened to my instincts and said no. So very glad I did.
Yes, this is how you get 'food deserts' and soon 'medical deserts'... I feel for those who cannot sell and move.
Unfortunately I doubt they'll be wise enough to cut spending... I assume they'll use this as a reason to increase spending and with it increase taxes on whoever is left.
They are getting what they asked for. I have zero sympathy for anyone in Portland.
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