{"id":315,"date":"2011-09-20T08:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-20T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/2011\/09\/lowes-closes-stores-not-menard\/"},"modified":"2011-09-20T08:34:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-20T12:34:00","slug":"lowes-closes-stores-not-menard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2011\/09\/lowes-closes-stores-not-menard\/","title":{"rendered":"Lowe\u2019s Closes Stores; Not Menard!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recently an article from a somewhat obscure source came across my desk.\u00a0 The headline referenced two store closings in a couple of Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s prominent burgs.\u00a0 The stores were both locations of the industry\u2019s perennial number two power, Lowe\u2019s.\u00a0 With the industry\u2019s, as well as the nation\u2019s, economy struggling as much as they have for the past five years, it should come as no surprise when anyone\u2019s location fails, even that of a company run as well as Lowe\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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While the focus of the initial article was on the two Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> area locations, the story grew as five other locations had been similarly closed nationwide.\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually as additional pieces of the story came to light the story went virtually viral, at least by industry standards.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Within two days the story took on an additional and rather controversial life as word got out as to how the workers were informed of the store closings.\u00a0 It turns out that that at the end of business on a seemingly average Sunday, all of the store\u2019s workers were gathered together and notified that the stores were immediately closing for good and so there was no need to return to work.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Reaction from prominent members of the affected communities and then from across the country was swift and sharp.\u00a0\u00a0 Politicians, including a Senator from Alaska<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> where one of the closings took place, and local leaders led an indignant charge as the details caught fire in the media.<\/span><\/div>\n
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A story focusing on the Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> closings stated that Lowe\u2019s had made it clear that all the terminated employees would continue to receive pay and benefits for sixty days.\u00a0 Later, as the story exploded through the nationwide closings, a company spokesperson indicated that benefits and pay would last for ninety days.\u00a0 Both reports indicated that these former employees are eligible to apply for open positions in other Lowe\u2019s stores. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Lowe\u2019s made it clear that the affected Chicago<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> stores had been targeted for closing because they routinely fell short of sales estimates since the facilities had opened.\u00a0 The company noted that these results had not shown improvement over time.\u00a0 When I hear about companies missing estimates I think of Wall Street.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Not long ago Lowe\u2019s was a darling of Wall Street, especially as Home Depot lost sight of its founding roots and lurched out to become all things to all people during what is now known as the Nardelli era.\u00a0 During this time Lowe\u2019s maintained its core mentality and expanded through carefully measured steps, on-point, even entering Mexico<\/st1:country-region> and Canada<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>in its typical gradual and methodical manner.<\/span><\/div>\n
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These Lowe\u2019s closings announcements took me aback as I recall Chicago<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>before Lowe\u2019s and Home Depot had the temerity to open in the territory.\u00a0 Menard was emerging as the industry force competing with a number of once strong denizens such as the now long gone Handy Andy.\u00a0 I remember visiting Menard locations in the 90s and discussing the then recent coming of the first Chicago Home Depots.\u00a0 Menard\u2019s managers and associates were reluctant to discuss their new competitors until well after the Depot beachhead had been established and they had proper time to respond.<\/span><\/div>\n
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As I\u2019ve discussed a number of times through the years, Menard is a company that is defined by its independence and a seemingly continuous need to grow.\u00a0 This perennial industry number three is of course private and founder John Menard has instilled the company with an air of supreme confidence.\u00a0 He has long been celebrated as a man who never worries about what critics, much less what Wall Streeters, say or think.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
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Menard doesn\u2019t seem to give up on stores.\u00a0 Lately he has begun to move to nearby locations to take advantage of slightly better real estate opportunities while continuing to serve the community through newer and improved prototypes.\u00a0 The question for Lowe\u2019s is, is the Menard model a superior one for tough times?\u00a0 \u00a0Certainly based on recent events it would seem to be.<\/span><\/div>\n
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One of the just closed Lowe\u2019s locations<\/a> in upstate New York<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> had opened in February 2009.\u00a0 Preparing for its opening took years of planning.\u00a0 Negotiations led to zoning permits and the company won concessions which resulted in a reduced tax package which was guaranteed for the store\u2019s first decade.\u00a0 The sudden closing of such a typically well planned location could only raise ire, to be sure locally and now nationally.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Arthur Rosenberg, Senior Editor\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
Arthur has worked at Chain Store Guide for 20 years. He received a B.A. degree from City College of New York and attained a master\u2019s degree in electronic communications from Brooklyn College. Please contact him<\/a> if you have questions or comments.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Recently an article from a somewhat obscure source came across my desk.\u00a0 The headline referenced two store closings in a couple of Chicago\u2019s prominent burgs.\u00a0 The stores were both locations of the industry\u2019s perennial number two power, Lowe\u2019s.\u00a0 With the industry\u2019s, as well as the nation\u2019s, economy struggling as much as they have for the… Continue reading Lowe\u2019s Closes Stores; Not Menard!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6,5],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-hardware","tag-csg-old","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}