After saturating rural and suburban America, Walmart heralded a new strategy in the early 2000s — open stores in cities like Chicago. But the world’s largest retailer faced a daunting challenge as it sought to plant a flag in a union town. Activists protested, jobs coalitions pressed for living wages, and local small businesses worried Walmart would squeeze them out.

But 17 years ago, Walmart prevailed with promises of amenities and economic development when its first big-box store opened on the West Side. Then Walmart set its sights on the South Side to build a supercenter on a vacant parcel at 83rd and Stewart. Again, community pushback demanded better wages from the company known notoriously for being anti-union.

Walmart courted a reluctant Chicago and waged a PR campaign by sponsoring a farmer’s market, passing out free watermelon and promising diversity and jobs to the formerly incarcerated. In 2012, a Walmart Supercenter opened in Chatham with 350 jobs. At the grand celebration, 21st Ward Ald. Howard Brookins said: “It was worth the fight. Chicagoans who live on the South Side deserve to have the same economic opportunities Chicagoans on the North Side take for granted.”

By Sunday, that supercenter and three smaller convenience stores — neighborhood markets in Lake View and Little Village and another on the Grand Boulevard-Kenwood border — will close with less than a week’s notice, a shock to customers and those who remember Walmart clawing its way to do business in Chicago.

In a statement earlier this week, Walmart said: “The simplest explanation is that collectively 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. The remaining four Chicago stores continue to face the same business difficulties, but we think this decision gives us the best chance to help keep them open and serving the community.”

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Walmart’s statement also said community and city leaders have been open and supportive over the years, but there was nothing they could do to get to the point of profitability. That’s news to Nedra Sims Fears, executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative.

“Everything was so short notice that you really don’t have an opportunity to plan. Walmart said that they had worked with the community, but I don’t know who they worked with in the community to let us know that they were struggling, that they weren’t profitable,” Sims Fears told WBEZ’s Reset. “I know from cell phone data, 270,000 people visit that store every year.”

Brookins said Walmart alerted him about the closure two hours before the public announcement, which surprised him because the store reopened and renovated after the civil uprisings of 2020.

But the outgoing alderman said company officials told him the store was losing money because of higher security costs and theft. Brookins has no regrets and said advocating for Walmart to come to his community was still the right thing to do. Lowe’s opened by Walmart and across the street a Studio41 Home Design store opened, which he points to as proof that business begets business.

“There were a dearth of shopping outlets in the African American community. Clearly we can’t as a community expect to have to leave the community to get any types of goods and services we need,” Brookins said. But he said national retailers like Walmart have not figured out how to operate in an urban market.

Private companies aren’t obligated to show retail receipts, and the lack of hard numbers sows doubt in shoppers’ minds. Chatham resident Marlon Lacey is incredulous about Walmart not making money.

“This place is never a ghost town. Something just doesn’t sound right, but I wish that we had someone independent to actually do the numbers to find out the money that they really were making,” Lacey said. “My son’s barber is here. My daughter’s school is around the corner. So if I needed anything from Walmart, I could just come right here, but not now.”

Lacey was among shoppers at the Chatham supercenter’s busy parking lot a day after Walmart announced the closure. People loaded their cars with groceries, televisions and workout equipment. They hugged employees as Pace buses dropped off customers with disabilities.

“It sucks because a lot of people are losing jobs because of this,” said shopper Jermell Conwell. “This is the neighborhood I grew up in and when we heard this coming it was exciting. And now, it’s sad. And they’ve done a lot of remodeling to it, and what was the point of doing all the remodeling if you knew you were all going to close down?”

Walmart employee Anneka Ellis said two older customers cried to her.

“They were saying that they don’t have a way to get to another store. They stay in the neighborhood and I understand … this is their neighborhood store, and they need it,” Ellis said. “It’s sad. I’ve been here for nine months, and now it’s like what do I have to do with such late notice?”

Walmart still has stores in Chicago, but its legacy is tied to jockeying for a presence on the South and West sides and energizing a labor movement in opposition.

“Walmart coming into Chicago and their low-wage-worker model, big-box way of doing business has influenced our policy agenda,” said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.

In 2006, the Chicago City Council defied Mayor Richard Daley by passing a so-called “big-box” ordinance that upped wages for employees. In 2009, other labor groups pushed for even higher wages and health care. Even after smaller stores opened in the city — like the one closing in Lake View — organizers locally and nationally kept after Walmart for better pay.

“The fight with Walmart helped lead to us building a foundation for higher minimum wage, earned sick leave, predictive scheduling — all those things sort of flow out of those initial fights with Walmart,” Reiter said.

Natalie Moore is a reporter on WBEZ’s Race, Class and Communities desk. You can follow her on Twitter at @natalieymoore.

Clare Lane serves as a substitute anchor across all dayparts and general assignment reporter for WBEZ. You can follow her on Twitter at @clareifying.