Details On Naperville Sam's Club Closure

NAPERVILLE, IL — The membership-only warehouse chain made the closing announcement Thursday on Twitter, although it still has not formed a list of which locations would be closing. A few Illinois stores' closures have been confirmed, however, including Naperville. Calls to the Naperville store were met by a recording saying that location was closed Thursday but would reopen Friday.

The City of Naperville's Communications Manager Linda LaCloche said it came unexpectedly when corporate sent them a notification Thursday. She confirmed the location on at 808 Rt. 59. will close Jan. 26.

“We're surprised and first of all, we’re thinking about those employees who were affected by the closure. In terms of the business, they had been here for a while," she said. And in terms of sales, she wasn't exactly sure how it was going, adding, "We hadn’t heard they were under-performing."

A week ago, a representative from the Naperville Chamber of Commerce told Patch there would be no problem filling a vacant restaurant along downtown Naperville's Main Street. But big box real estate is a bit different.

"Our Naperville economy is strong and it’s growing," LaCloche said. "We’re going to start focusing on this building, knowing it will become vacant." She said in 2017, Naperville saw some success in filling those spaces.

Adjacent to the Sam's Club is a space formerly occupied by its parent company, Walmart. She confirmed that a retailer just closed on that property about two weeks ago. Less than two miles Northeast is a space that had been vacant for 15 years before the Patel Brothers Indian grocery chain snagged it, which had formerly been occupied by Menards.

With the closure of Batavia and Romeoville locations, the closest Sam's Club is in Montgomery, at 1050 Ogden Ave., which opened in the summer of 2014.

In mid-2017, the Woodridge Sam's Club closed. The members only retail warehouse club also shut down 269 locations in the U.S. and worldwide in 2016. As far as membership fees, the company does have a 100 percent membership satisfaction guarantee, which means they may be able to get it refunded.

Image via Google Street View