Foot Locker Closes Eastbay Distribution Center, Layoffs Incoming

It’s the end of an era in Wausau: Foot Locker has closed the distribution center that dates back to the Eastbay Days. Worse, layoffs are a certainty.

 

Here’s Five Fast Facts on The Foot Locker Closure:

  1. 👟The Worse News - Let’s get the important thing out of the way first: 210 people will be laid off, starting in January.  
  2. 👞 The Bad News - The distribution center will then close in April, but some executives and the call center will remain. As for the Eastbay Outlet, it closed permanently last month.
  3. 🥾Reading the Room - Apparently the writing was on the wall for awhile, with Foot Locker selling off part of its sales team earlier in the year.
  4. 👢Deep Roots - At one point, Eastbay was one of the largest employers in the area. When you consider the Mayor herself is a former Eastbay employee, you’ll see how this decision will heavily impact the community.
  5. 🥿Which One? - This is another instance that flies directly in the face of the record-low unemployment numbers and consistent month-over-month job growth in Wisconsin. 

🔥Bottom line: It’s awful when a community pillar like Eastbay falls. The reasoning is certainly “Because Business” but it doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking. It could also mean hard times lie ahead for Foot Locker, too. This is a tough one to figure out, especially because our state’s economy looks so prosperous on paper. Hopefully it isn’t a sign of things to come in the near future. 

What do you think of the closure?

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