Walmart removing jewelry counters?

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Super S
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Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by Super S »

In the past week, I visited a relatively new Walmart in Tumwater, WA, and noticed that the jewelry counter has been eliminated from this store, while maintaining a small section of cheap jewelry. I haven't seen this occurring elsewhere in my area, but am wondering if this is in response to the direction Target has gone in recent years, where they covered up existing cases in older stores, and have removed them entirely during recent remodels.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 4th, 2018, 7:09 pm In the past week, I visited a relatively new Walmart in Tumwater, WA, and noticed that the jewelry counter has been eliminated from this store, while maintaining a small section of cheap jewelry. I haven't seen this occurring elsewhere in my area, but am wondering if this is in response to the direction Target has gone in recent years, where they covered up existing cases in older stores, and have removed them entirely during recent remodels.
They are just wrapping up a remodel on their store in South Reno, NV and this store also lost its jewelry counter in the remodel. They also cut a ton of other merchandise from the non food side of the store. It is incredible how many SKUs they have removed. Yet the store still looks and feels full of merchandise.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by wnetmacman »

That is a surprise to me in one way, but not in another.

Jewelry has long been a Walmart profit department, but in recent years, the quality and volume have greatly diminished. Many young ladies had their ears pierced, and you could even get class rings there at one point. But along the way, the department has diminished, and the area as a whole has, if you'll pardon the pun, lost its shine over the last few years.

But I applaud Walmart for finally doing something; I just am not sure if deleting an underperforming area is the right action.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by storewanderer »

wnetmacman wrote: September 6th, 2018, 2:27 pm That is a surprise to me in one way, but not in another.

Jewelry has long been a Walmart profit department, but in recent years, the quality and volume have greatly diminished. Many young ladies had their ears pierced, and you could even get class rings there at one point. But along the way, the department has diminished, and the area as a whole has, if you'll pardon the pun, lost its shine over the last few years.

But I applaud Walmart for finally doing something; I just am not sure if deleting an underperforming area is the right action.
It will be interesting to see if they delete it in all locations, or just the more populated locations. Maybe the small town and medium market type locations will keep it.

Deleting departments creates a slippery slope effect.

I remember they tried to delete the large fabric/craft departments at some point in the past and that move was reversed quickly due to loud complaints. The people who were buying that yarn every week (which wasn't ever discontinued) seemed to be troubled by the removal of the fabric cutting offer despite not buying it very often. Something tells me there will not be the same volume of complaints about removing jewelry.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2018, 9:42 pm
wnetmacman wrote: September 6th, 2018, 2:27 pm That is a surprise to me in one way, but not in another.

Jewelry has long been a Walmart profit department, but in recent years, the quality and volume have greatly diminished. Many young ladies had their ears pierced, and you could even get class rings there at one point. But along the way, the department has diminished, and the area as a whole has, if you'll pardon the pun, lost its shine over the last few years.

But I applaud Walmart for finally doing something; I just am not sure if deleting an underperforming area is the right action.
It will be interesting to see if they delete it in all locations, or just the more populated locations. Maybe the small town and medium market type locations will keep it.

Deleting departments creates a slippery slope effect.

I remember they tried to delete the large fabric/craft departments at some point in the past and that move was reversed quickly due to loud complaints. The people who were buying that yarn every week (which wasn't ever discontinued) seemed to be troubled by the removal of the fabric cutting offer despite not buying it very often. Something tells me there will not be the same volume of complaints about removing jewelry.
Walmart at one point seemed to have rather well-staffed service departments. There was always somebody available in sporting goods, hardware/paint, automotive, fabric departments, and jewelry. Garden centers were staffed also. The service aspect was part of Walmart's early success.

When a department can't be staffed properly, it makes sense to scale it back, but it creates a situation where people will travel to another location because departments are still intact.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 6th, 2018, 10:54 pm
storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2018, 9:42 pm
wnetmacman wrote: September 6th, 2018, 2:27 pm That is a surprise to me in one way, but not in another.

Jewelry has long been a Walmart profit department, but in recent years, the quality and volume have greatly diminished. Many young ladies had their ears pierced, and you could even get class rings there at one point. But along the way, the department has diminished, and the area as a whole has, if you'll pardon the pun, lost its shine over the last few years.

But I applaud Walmart for finally doing something; I just am not sure if deleting an underperforming area is the right action.
It will be interesting to see if they delete it in all locations, or just the more populated locations. Maybe the small town and medium market type locations will keep it.

Deleting departments creates a slippery slope effect.

I remember they tried to delete the large fabric/craft departments at some point in the past and that move was reversed quickly due to loud complaints. The people who were buying that yarn every week (which wasn't ever discontinued) seemed to be troubled by the removal of the fabric cutting offer despite not buying it very often. Something tells me there will not be the same volume of complaints about removing jewelry.
Walmart at one point seemed to have rather well-staffed service departments. There was always somebody available in sporting goods, hardware/paint, automotive, fabric departments, and jewelry. Garden centers were staffed also. The service aspect was part of Walmart's early success.

When a department can't be staffed properly, it makes sense to scale it back, but it creates a situation where people will travel to another location because departments are still intact.
Exactly. Wal Mart ran its stores better and staffed them properly. That was part of how they quickly ran circles around Kmart which was notorious for poor service and departments not being staffed properly even back in the 80's.

Where it gets tough is when the department no longer generates enough sales to justify being staffed. And I think that is the point many of those paint departments, sporting goods counters, fabric counters, and jewelry counters have come to. People are simply buying those categories elsewhere.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Walmart in San Leandro, California is a very busy store, but not a supercenter. It recently received a smaller Jewelry Counter that is probably only half the size as before. They still sell quite a bit of jewelry, and there is a full time jewelry employee. There are fewer items, but it still has a good decent selection.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by Super S »

I was at a Walmart near Johnson Creek in Portland yesterday (a non-supercenter) and it has a big empty space where the jewelry counters used to be. Not sure if a remodel is in the works or what, but in any case it looks like this is happening at quite a few locations.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by cjd »

The Walmart in my town just finished a remodel, and I'm pretty sure they removed the jewelry counter. There does still seem to be a fairly decent sized selection of jewelry, but the department does not seem to be staffed.

As part of the remodel they also moved the fabric department, and the new fabric counter is smaller, and not usually staffed unless someone needs it cut. The sporting goods counter is usually staffed, the paint counter I assume is only staffed if someone needs paint mixed, by whoever is in that area. There is not usually someone around there in the evening other than stocking the area around it.

I remember years ago, most Walmarts had a separate outside entrance at the greenhouse garden center area and a checkout counter out there. But then they closed off those exterior greenhouse entrances and required to go through the indoor part of the garden center to access the greenhouse or check out. Usually that indoor checkout counter is staffed at the store here, but only one line open. During the remodel they added two more checkouts to the exisiting two. After a certain time of night, the door exiting that side of the store is locked and only the front checkouts are open. I'm not sure if the doors going out to the greenhouse are open at night or not, but I would assume they are locked as well to discourage theft or loitering outside.
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Re: Walmart removing jewelry counters?

Post by Super S »

cjd wrote: September 12th, 2018, 4:35 pm The Walmart in my town just finished a remodel, and I'm pretty sure they removed the jewelry counter. There does still seem to be a fairly decent sized selection of jewelry, but the department does not seem to be staffed.

As part of the remodel they also moved the fabric department, and the new fabric counter is smaller, and not usually staffed unless someone needs it cut. The sporting goods counter is usually staffed, the paint counter I assume is only staffed if someone needs paint mixed, by whoever is in that area. There is not usually someone around there in the evening other than stocking the area around it.

I remember years ago, most Walmarts had a separate outside entrance at the greenhouse garden center area and a checkout counter out there. But then they closed off those exterior greenhouse entrances and required to go through the indoor part of the garden center to access the greenhouse or check out. Usually that indoor checkout counter is staffed at the store here, but only one line open. During the remodel they added two more checkouts to the exisiting two. After a certain time of night, the door exiting that side of the store is locked and only the front checkouts are open. I'm not sure if the doors going out to the greenhouse are open at night or not, but I would assume they are locked as well to discourage theft or loitering outside.
The Walmart closest to my house still has a separate garden center entrance and checkout, but it is used only seasonally. I am not sure if warmer climates staff these differently or not. I could see a case for staffing year round in a place like Florida or Hawaii.
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