Walmart closes half of its Chicago stores, signaling urban struggles

Walmart is shuttering four stores in Chicago, halving its locations in one of the nation’s largest cities and adding to a growing list of closures in urban areas.

So far this year, the nation’s largest retailer has closed locations in D.C., Portland and Atlanta, signaling a retreat from its strategy to attract new customers outside the suburbs and small towns.

Walmart attributed the closures in Chicago to a lack of profitability — the stores there have collectively lost money every year since the first one opened 17 years ago.

The stores being closed “lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years,” the company said in a news release. “

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