Little Village residents protest, petition against imminent Walmart store closure

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Little Village neighbors took to the streets Friday to protest a Walmart location's impending closure this weekend.

The Walmart on Cermak and Rockwell is one of four Chicago locations that will shut its doors for good, along with others located in Chatham, Kenwood and Lakeview. Little Village residents said a void will be left in the neighborhood after the store closes on Sunday.

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"Oh my God, now where am I going to have to go," Little Village resident Wilhelmina Garcia said.

Many of the residents said they rely on this Walmart on a near daily basis, and the convenience of being able to walk there is unmatched.

"I love the prices and I see the store is full of people," Little Village resident Amelia De La Mota said. "Why are they closing it? I don't understand?"

Walmart issued a statement explaining its reasoning to close the four stores, writing in part, "...our Chicago stores have not been profitable since we opened the first one nearly 17 years ago - these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years."

"They have an impact on their bottom line, but they have a great impact on the community and that's what we want them to understand," 28th Ward Alderman Jason Ervin said.

Ervin said he spoke with the store's managers fairly regularly, but said he was caught off guard when the company announced the sudden closures.

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"I asked, 'hey is there something that we can do to help change your mind on this,'" Ervin said. "And primarily they just said, 'this is our decision. There's no turning back from it.'"

Little Village Community Council organizers are amassing their voices Friday outside the Walmart, passing a petition to try and keep the store from shuttering.

"We come here from groceries, we come here for diapers, for household essential needs, meds," Little Village Community Council member Kristian Armendariz said.

Armendariz said the walkability of the store makes it convenient for residents without reliable transportation, and others need the store for its pharmacy.

"Once this Walmart closes, it's going to be a disservice to the community," Armendariz said. "It's going to force us, especially those who come here for the pharmacy, it's going to force them to relocate to one pharmacy."

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There is a grocery store across the street from the Walmart, but residents said the prices there are too high and do not match their budgets.

"Sometimes we cannot afford the prices from Pete's Market," Armendariz said. "This community is a low-income community. A lot of senior citizens live here and have a fixed income, so we are pretty much trying to save every dollar that we have."

One of the rally organizers said they have already collected hundreds of signatures and plan to turn the petition into Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson.