Signs posted throughout the Homewood OfficeMax store at 17825 Halsted St. recently announce that the store will be closing.
Shera Bishop, senior communication specialist for Office Depot, the parent company of OfficeMax, said the closing sale began Sept. 17, and the store would close for good on Nov. 14.
“Office Depot continues to optimize its retail footprint,” she said. “We will continue to serve our customers at other nearby Office Depot and OfficeMax stores as well as online at officedepot.com.”
Homewood Mayor Richard Hofeld said he wasn’t surprised by the move, noting that many retailers are scaling back as online shopping continues to grow.
He urged shoppers to continue finding office supplies in local stores.
“Most of the items sold by OfficeMax are available at the Homewood Target, Walmart and Best Buy,” he said, referring to retail stores also located in the Halsted Street business corridor. “I would hope that everyone would shop these stores.”
Homewood historian Jim Wright said he believes the OfficeMax store opened at its current location in 2001. Prior to that, Office Depot operated a store in the current location of Buffalo Wild Wings.