Lowe’s addresses pending orders, rehiring

Following the abrupt closing of stores in Schaumburg and Elgin, Lowe’s officials Tuesday addressed questions about how store customers can get pending orders delivered, as well as the rehiring of laid-off employees.

Lowe’s will be directly contacting customers who were awaiting the delivery of orders placed at the closed stores, company spokeswoman Abby Buford said.

Customers who were expecting to pick up orders at the Elgin store will be directed to the one in Lake in the Hills, while those in Schaumburg will go to Carol Stream, she said.

There was no information available about how many orders were still pending at the closed stores.

While there’s no formal policy giving laid-off employees preference for openings at other locations, they would likely have an informal advantage because of their familiarity with the company, Buford said.

“Certainly the fact that they already have Lowe’s experience would be taken into consideration when they applied for other opportunities,” she said.

The Elgin store had 85 employees and the Schaumburg location had 110. Their severance packages include continued payment and benefits for the next 60 days.

Buford said the company decided that a swift closing with severance packages for workers made more sense than a prolonged “Going out of business” period or liquidation sale.

Merchandise in the shuttered stores will be relocated to other stores or back to the distribution center, Buford said.

The Schaumburg and Elgin stores were among seven nationwide shut down Sunday night after underperforming second-quarter sales.

Schaumburg is already searching out one or more tenants for the large former Kmart site that its Lowe’s occupied. Lowe’s is under contract to continuing paying rent there for a very long time — more than 10 years, said Schaumburg Economic Development Coordinator Matt Frank.

Among the possibilities being considered is a large-scale grocer, though the building may need to be divided among two or three tenants if a single user of the building can’t be found, he said.