Lockport will soon lose its Valu Home Center location at 5900 S. Transit Road.
The company announced Monday that the location is one of three set to close this year. The others are at the Elmwood and Hertel intersection of north Buffalo and in Orchard Park. With the Lockport closing, Valu’s presence in Niagara County will be reduced to stores in Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda.
Scott Ortman, executive VP and COO of Valu, said the locations have seen a steady decline in sales since the COVID-19 pandemic, along with increased operating and labor costs and increased competition.
“We had to make the difficult decision to close those three stores so it doesn’t hurt our financial health,” Ortman said, adding the company is currently debt-free.
“Closing these stores, which have been integral to our history and the communities we serve, was an incredibly difficult decision,” stated Valu President and CEO Michael Ervolina. “However, this step is necessary to ensure the company remains strong and capable of investing in better-performing stores, new technology, improving efficiencies, and growing our online business.”
All the employees will be offered assignments at other nearby Valu locations at the same position and same number of hours. There are 28 other stores in Western New York, central New York, and northwestern Pennsylvania.
Liquidation sales will start on Thursday and run until the majority of inventory in the stores is gone. Ortman anticipates that lasting between three and four weeks, depending on how the sales go.
The current Lockport store has been open since the early 1990s, with Valu building it from the ground up. The company’s presence in the area goes back to when the company was founded in 1968. The previous store operated in the Lockport Plaza.