Lowe’s Closes 20 Stores, Cuts 1,950 Jobs
EmailHome improvement giant Lowe’s Cos. said today it will close 20 underperforming stores in 15 states and cut 1,950 jobs.
Half of the locations closed yesterday while the others will be shut in a month, the Mooresville, N.C. company said today in a statement. Lowe’s, the No. 2 building supply chain after Home Depot, said the move will allow it to focus on more-profitable locations.
Before the closures Lowe’s operated 1,725 stores.
Lowe’s will only open 10 to 15 stores in North America annually beginning in 2012, rather than the 30 it had expected to open.
In August, Lowe’s said volatile weather and shoppers’ worries about the economy hurt demand. Profit was nearly flat in the second quarter and the company lowered its yearly sales forecast, the AP reported.
The stores affected are in: Los Banos, CA, Biddeford, ME, Old Bridge, NJ, Westminster, CA, Ellsworth, ME, Batavia, NY, Denver, CO, Ionia, MI, N. Kingstown, RI, Aurora, IL, Rogers, MN, Emporia, VA, Oswego, IL, Claremont, NH, S. Tacoma, WA, Chalmette, LA, Hooksett, NH, Brown Deer, WI, Haverhill, MA, and Manchester, NH.
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Thank you ABC for publishing locations.
Posted by: Chris | October 17, 2011, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Just over 1% of its total number of stores. Not much of a news story.
Posted by: Jack Smith | October 17, 2011, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
People can’t afford homes, let alone home improvements…………..
Posted by: Searambler | October 17, 2011, 12:18 pm 12:18 pm
Another headline: U.S. retail sales show largest gain in 7 months.
Posted by: Ms-Tmac | October 17, 2011, 12:46 pm 12:46 pm
It would have been nice had ABC grouped the locations by state for easier referencing:
Los Banos, CA
Westminster, CA
Denver, CO
Aurora, IL
Chalmette, LA
Hooksett, NH
Claremont, NH
Manchester, NH
Haverhill, MA
Biddeford, ME
Ellsworth, ME
Ionia, MI
Rogers, MN
Old Bridge, NJ
Batavia, NY
N. Kingstown, RI
Emporia, VA
S. Tacoma, WA
Brown Deer, WI
Posted by: Publius | October 17, 2011, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
Publius…Seriously? I’m sure I’m not the only one who had no problem reading/understanding the locations affected as they were listed in ABC’s article. I’ll bet you do this all the time.
Posted by: Karen | October 17, 2011, 1:12 pm 1:12 pm
Attention Military active duty and retired! Always shop at Lowe’s, show your ID card, and get a 10% discount on purchases. (PS: Thanks for serving.)
Posted by: Philip | October 17, 2011, 1:40 pm 1:40 pm
“Publius…Seriously? I’m sure I’m not the only one who had no problem reading/understanding the locations affected as they were listed in ABC’s article. I’ll bet you do this all the time.” – Karen 1:12 PM. Not all the time – only when it makes sense. Yes, i could read it. But as I said, it would have been nice for ABC to organize the locations to make it easier to see which locations were closing, rather than having readers go through the entire list of randomly-ordered cities to see whether their area was affected, especially as a general principle of technical communications is to disseminate information as effectively as possible.
Posted by: Publius | October 17, 2011, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Maybe if they put all of the instore signs in even more languages other than Spanish they would draw in more customers?
Posted by: OnTheRoad | October 17, 2011, 3:31 pm 3:31 pm
No doubt this was extremely depressing news for the CHINESE today , however they have retained our infrastructure jobs that guarantee us the privilege of coming monthly to barrow against the 1.6 trillion that we owe them.
Posted by: NewUnion | October 17, 2011, 3:55 pm 3:55 pm
“Just over 1% of its total number of stores. Not much of a news story.” Jack Smith
If you were one of the 1,950 people out of work it is a big story.
My son-in-law works at a Lowes in Ohio. He is very happy that stores here haven’t been affected.
But should he be laid off in the future who will help support him, our daughter and our two grandsons?
Who is supporting the families of the 1,950 people laid off today?
I hope for your sake you don’t become a part of “Just over 1% of its total number of stores. Not much of a news story.”
Posted by: Marty Canada | October 17, 2011, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm
It would have been nice had Publius properly alphabetized the NH locations for easier referencing:
Claremont, NH
Hooksett, NH
Manchester, NH
You are welcome.
Posted by: Peter | October 17, 2011, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
They get enough of my money to keep them open. Curious that most of the stores closing are in the north and northeast. A few on the west coast but only one in the south, none in the southwest.
Posted by: cloud | October 17, 2011, 4:40 pm 4:40 pm
Marty Canada…You missed my point. This is not a big downsizing in the scheme of things. It will be a much bigger story when Sears or K-Mart goes out of business. I’m happy for your son-in-law. But to follow your logic, every time someone is laid off in the United States, should ABC News report it because it’s important to the individual’s family? That doesn’t make much sense.
Posted by: Jack Smith | October 17, 2011, 5:46 pm 5:46 pm
They need to cut out the annual store manager’s trip to Los Vegas they have every year.
Posted by: Andy | October 17, 2011, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
Instead of laying off workers and closing stores why not stop spending millions sponsoring racing. I am a huge nascar fan but working people putting food on the families table is most imortant. Come on, other cuts could be made elsewhere other than laying people off.
Posted by: Sammy | October 17, 2011, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
These stores should have never been opened in the first place. These are locations that are mainly less than 3 years old and that were given ample time to prove themselves profitable, but alas could not. An item to look at with retail beyond a pale economy is brand saturation, which Lowe’s definitely has not been the most tactful at doing so. Their competition studies markets for years before investing in the multi-millions it takes to open a property, and Lowe’s opens 30 stores per year? It is obviously sad to hear that any more people are losing their jobs, but the company will offer them a generous severance, benefits extensions, and placement services, while also keeping them employed to help with the disposition of product and tear-down of the facility in lieu of hiring an exterior company to do that. As gestures to their employees go, that is not to go unnoticed.
Hopefully, as many critics have noted lately, the upcoming technology improvements in place at the company’s remaining stores could have some re-bounding effect for their brand position. Lowe’s needs to focus on profitability to remain appealing to investors in this lean economy, and if that means shuddering erroneous locations to do so, then so be it. I think this and other published internal corporate shake-ups are steps in the right direction for the company. However, if Lowe’s does not start taking back control of it’s balance sheet and cash flow, this could be the next vein opened in an American retailer slowly bleeding to death.
Posted by: Todd | October 17, 2011, 11:41 pm 11:41 pm
What you will witness is the power of knowing the “secret code”, a secret that sounds like salesman talk when spoken, and that’s why it must be seen in real-time, so that you can believe your own eyes and your own ears.
Ready To Join The Revolution? Google oil trading academy.
Posted by: MSangel1241 | October 18, 2011, 2:00 am 2:00 am
This is an example of how business REALLY works. Businesses hire and fire based on demand for their products NOT tax cuts. Construction workers out of work and people delaying home improvement due to financial issues are what hurt Lowes. Many don’t like to admit it, but the government can hire more people faster than any business- and they don’t require consumer demand to do it. Government is in the best position to break the vicious cycle. The private sector can take the reins later. Government isn’t a business- they aren’t in it for profit and they are supposed to care about rich and poor alike (although Congress seems to have forgotten that). Offering temporary help through REAL JOBS is not the same as creating a welfare culture by just handing out money. The unemployed need a bootstrap before they can pull themselves up.
Posted by: helicohunter | October 18, 2011, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
These corps. setup shack like MacDonald’s and Burger King, a deliberate competition across the street mentality , and not only that, the millions that they spend in demographic research , the availability of of the massive building site and parking lot, land grabbers, Home Depot out here has a store every five miles or so, it`s like dogs peeing on every bush with these Chinese profiteers.What does one do with such a piece of corporate real estate? I`m sure as McDonald’s would say “I`m `Lovin i ! ” to it`s shareholders and their dwindling portfolio watching Chinamerica slowly sink into the moral less quicksand of “You have questions..we have answers !”
Posted by: NewUnion | October 19, 2011, 10:15 am 10:15 am
Lowe’s just raised the price of 2 x 4s from about 1.80 to $2,20 – and they are cutting people. Stockholders will be the ruin of America.
Posted by: urownexperience | October 19, 2011, 3:49 pm 3:49 pm
Nice commits people on saying that they should not have open the Lowes I work at since it was only 16 months old. What are we teching are children not to be nice any more and care about who we hert by the words and comments we but on website. Try to think of other people when you put comments UP!
Posted by: LowesUneployedWorkerDenver | November 30, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
Yes Denver is in the South West
Posted by: LowesUneployedWorkerDenver | November 30, 2011, 7:32 pm 7:32 pm
Well when you are treated like crap in their stores it’s no wonder they get closed down and business is slow.
Posted by: Bob | March 7, 2012, 5:37 pm 5:37 pm