Walmart observations

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by veteran+ »

Nice clean uncluttered design but cold like Fresh & Easy was.

As far as Walmarts at large................inconsistent at the very best.

Most I have seen are disorganized looking and many not very clean. The suburban stores usually look better.

My visits were always to drive a friend that insisted on going there. Other times were to do competitive checks.

I think the last time I bought something from Walmart was in the 1990s (I had no other choice).................LOL.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

storewanderer wrote: October 1st, 2020, 5:30 pm One thing that would help them further if they are trying to make it easier for the customer would be standard layouts for departments as their department layout is kind of all over the place in my area. Weird differences like pet on the back wall in one store and in the opposite front corner in another. Pharmacy on the food side in 2 stores and on the opposite side of the store in the other 2 stores.
I think a lot of that has to do with supercenter conversions of current stores vs. replacement and new build stores. Good example of that is the two stores in my immediate area. Both were opened in the early to mid 90's and one was a conversion/expansion that happened in 2009 and the other was replaced and opened in 2013. It's as if the layouts were "flipped" and it's as if you're shopping in stores from two different companies-it's very confusing. I kind of understand it though because in a conversion you pretty much work with the available space in terms of available land you may have for expanding the store and with a ground up store they can pretty much do what you want and keep in line with the current design/decor package. And this brings up something I've wondered about with Wal-Mart-how many conventional NON-supercenters do they have left? I would imagine it can't be that many.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by wnetmacman »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 9:21 am I think a lot of that has to do with supercenter conversions of current stores vs. replacement and new build stores. Good example of that is the two stores in my immediate area. Both were opened in the early to mid 90's and one was a conversion/expansion that happened in 2009 and the other was replaced and opened in 2013. It's as if the layouts were "flipped" and it's as if you're shopping in stores from two different companies-it's very confusing. I kind of understand it though because in a conversion you pretty much work with the available space in terms of available land you may have for expanding the store and with a ground up store they can pretty much do what you want and keep in line with the current design/decor package. And this brings up something I've wondered about with Wal-Mart-how many conventional NON-supercenters do they have left? I would imagine it can't be that many.
The current store count, as of 7/31/20 in the US:


Total Retail Units on 7/31/20 5,353
Walmart Supercenters 3,569
Walmart Discount Stores 376
Neighborhood Markets 686
Convenience Store 8
Small Formats* 115
Sam's Club 599

*Small formats include E-Commerce Acquisition / C-stores, Amigo, Walmart on Campus and Super Ahorros banners.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by veteran+ »

wnetmacman wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 11:55 am
TW-Upstate NY wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 9:21 am I think a lot of that has to do with supercenter conversions of current stores vs. replacement and new build stores. Good example of that is the two stores in my immediate area. Both were opened in the early to mid 90's and one was a conversion/expansion that happened in 2009 and the other was replaced and opened in 2013. It's as if the layouts were "flipped" and it's as if you're shopping in stores from two different companies-it's very confusing. I kind of understand it though because in a conversion you pretty much work with the available space in terms of available land you may have for expanding the store and with a ground up store they can pretty much do what you want and keep in line with the current design/decor package. And this brings up something I've wondered about with Wal-Mart-how many conventional NON-supercenters do they have left? I would imagine it can't be that many.
The current store count, as of 7/31/20 in the US:


Total Retail Units on 7/31/20 5,353
Walmart Supercenters 3,569
Walmart Discount Stores 376
Neighborhood Markets 686
Convenience Store 8
Small Formats* 115
Sam's Club 599

*Small formats include E-Commerce Acquisition / C-stores, Amigo, Walmart on Campus and Super Ahorros banners.


I am surprised they still have that many Neighborhood Markets!
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by wnetmacman »

veteran+ wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 2:16 pm
wnetmacman wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 11:55 am
TW-Upstate NY wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 9:21 am I think a lot of that has to do with supercenter conversions of current stores vs. replacement and new build stores. Good example of that is the two stores in my immediate area. Both were opened in the early to mid 90's and one was a conversion/expansion that happened in 2009 and the other was replaced and opened in 2013. It's as if the layouts were "flipped" and it's as if you're shopping in stores from two different companies-it's very confusing. I kind of understand it though because in a conversion you pretty much work with the available space in terms of available land you may have for expanding the store and with a ground up store they can pretty much do what you want and keep in line with the current design/decor package. And this brings up something I've wondered about with Wal-Mart-how many conventional NON-supercenters do they have left? I would imagine it can't be that many.
The current store count, as of 7/31/20 in the US:


Total Retail Units on 7/31/20 5,353
Walmart Supercenters 3,569
Walmart Discount Stores 376
Neighborhood Markets 686
Convenience Store 8
Small Formats* 115
Sam's Club 599

*Small formats include E-Commerce Acquisition / C-stores, Amigo, Walmart on Campus and Super Ahorros banners.


I am surprised they still have that many Neighborhood Markets!
I was more surprised that there are still 376 standard discount stores.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by jamcool »

They are planning to sell ASDA in the UK to a partnership majority owned by EG Group (who bought Kroger’s C-stores and Cumberland Farms), WM will still have a small interest.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Super S »

wnetmacman wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 11:55 am
TW-Upstate NY wrote: October 2nd, 2020, 9:21 am I think a lot of that has to do with supercenter conversions of current stores vs. replacement and new build stores. Good example of that is the two stores in my immediate area. Both were opened in the early to mid 90's and one was a conversion/expansion that happened in 2009 and the other was replaced and opened in 2013. It's as if the layouts were "flipped" and it's as if you're shopping in stores from two different companies-it's very confusing. I kind of understand it though because in a conversion you pretty much work with the available space in terms of available land you may have for expanding the store and with a ground up store they can pretty much do what you want and keep in line with the current design/decor package. And this brings up something I've wondered about with Wal-Mart-how many conventional NON-supercenters do they have left? I would imagine it can't be that many.
The current store count, as of 7/31/20 in the US:


Total Retail Units on 7/31/20 5,353
Walmart Supercenters 3,569
Walmart Discount Stores 376
Neighborhood Markets 686
Convenience Store 8
Small Formats* 115
Sam's Club 599

*Small formats include E-Commerce Acquisition / C-stores, Amigo, Walmart on Campus and Super Ahorros banners.
There are a handful of conventional Walmart locations around the Pacific Northwest. Some of which are among the first stores Walmart opened in the region, and a few really have no room to expand. However, I have been to a few non-supercenter Walmart locations which are larger than some Supercenter Walmarts.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by J-Man »

My local store (Duarte, CA) has never been upgraded to supercenter status. I'm not sure if this was a decision by Walmart or because of some restriction from the city, but it's odd. Especially since the manager of my next-closest Walmart (Covina-a supercenter) told me that the Duarte location had one of the highest sales volumes in the area--higher than her location, despite its non-supercenter status. (The next-closest location--Glendora--was upgraded to supercenter status a few years ago.) I've always attributed the high sales volumes and the always-crowded parking lot to the fact that there are no other Walmarts along the 210 corridor going west for quite some distance, so we get a lot of people from Pasadena, Arcadia, etc.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by cjd »

I find it interesting there are still non-Supercenter Walmarts even in existence anymore. I think the last non-Supercenter stores around here were replaced with all-new supercenters around 2002-2003 at the latest, even in the smaller towns. The familiar 1980s style buildings have all been since converted to Tractor Supply stores and other uses, but are still easily identifiable. The Walmart in my town was a little different since it opened as a non-Supercenter in 1993, replacing two 1980s era Walmarts, then was expanded to a Supercenter around 1997. All of the other stores I can think of around here were built as Supercenters during the early to late 2000s.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

In the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, the governments are very hostile towards Walmart. There were very few Walmart Supercenters up until a few years ago. The local governments seem to be protective of union supermarkets and therefore banned Walmart and Target from having supercenters or limiting floor space devoted to groceries.

There are many tiny Walmart stores that are not supercenters in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, there are several very busy Walmart stores that are not supercenters. They are busy just due to the shear volume of customers. There are so few Walmart stores that people drive from miles around to get to these few stores. These stores are incredibly busy even though they sell limited groceries. These non-supercenter stores are very much like supercenters, but they do not have a service deli, or a service bakery. Produce is limited.

There is no Walmart in San Francisco. San Francisco hated big box stores and even prevented any Target stores from opening until 2012. The closest Walmart to San Francisco closed down in 2016 due to excessive shoplifting. That store was in Oakland, California. The same city also had a Super Kmart years earlier, but that store was closed down due to shoplifting as well.

A Walmart in Milpitas, California is probaby the closest supercenter to San Francisco. It was a regular Walmart until a few years ago when it converted to a supercenter with no expansion in floor space. They squeezed the contents of a supercenter into a tiny store and called it a supercenter. It was hardly an improvement. There was another Walmart in San Jose that also converted to a supercenter with no expansion. It made the store very crowded. Land is very expensive and even a small expansion would cost way too much money.
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