What the Closure of Loretto’s Walmart Really Means

Last Friday, Walmart announced that they would be closing 269 stores nationwide, including 5 in Tennessee. Unfortunately, one of those five in Tennessee will be the Loretto store which opened only a little over a year ago. What is strange about the decision is that the Loretto store is not being mismanaged or losing money. In fact, Walmart officials recently told us (local officials) that the store is profitable and is one of the strongest performing "neighborhood stores" in the entire region. However, in the corporate world, that apparently is not good enough as the store will close its doors on January 28th.

Despite the negative headlines we often see in the news about their practices, I along with many in our community welcomed Walmart to Loretto. Upon their arrival, Walmart promised they were coming to our town for one simple reason: to invest in our community and our people. And until Friday, the experience had been a net positive. Local sales tax was up substantially. Thirty-five local families had steady employment. Many seniors had the added convenience of not having to drive to the Lawrenceburg store to pick up their prescriptions. Based on those results, the store seemed to be a win-win for both the community as well as Walmart. But that all changed on Friday when Walmart informed non-suspecting workers that they would be out of a job in less than two weeks.

The consequences of this decision will be far reaching for our community. Many of those employed at the Loretto store left steady employment to come to work for Walmart based on the assumption they would continue to have steady employment for the foreseeable future (who would have dreamed a new store would close so quickly). Now they will have the option to transfer to another store if possible (which will not be financially or logistically viable for many) or be out of job completely. The City of Loretto's economy will also suffer as sales tax revenues will be far less than anticipated in the months ahead. At the end of the day, this greed induced move by Walmart shows us yet again how corporate America has small town America under their thumb. When employees can do their job, make a store profitable, yet get canned because corporate managers somewhere in a high rise office do not see a large enough profit, something is wrong. It’s no wonder so many people across our country are mad as hell and demanding fundamental change. Those in corporate American continue to make record profits, all the while the hardworking men and women who actually make them their profits are left with stagnant wages, sub-par benefits and in instances like this, jobless. Despite what some may say, that's not just “the way business works”. It's greed and its killing the American middle class especially in small communities like ours.

I have and will continue to welcome all businesses, large or small, to our community. However, when a business pulls a heartless stunt like this that adversely affects the people I represent and the community I love, I will speak out. Some may criticize my approach, but that's okay. Walmart has plenty of politicians and special interests to defend their actions. I will gladly continue to defend those I represent. If nothing else, this situation should encourage us all even more to patronage our hometown businesses. These businesses are truly invested in our community and care about our people, something Walmart definitely did not do in Loretto. 

I hope you will join me in weeks ahead in keeping those affected by this closure in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris D. Jackson

County Commissioner, 2nd District, Loretto