Walmart and 24 hour stores

[arizonaguy]

It was brought up to me (and I don't usually pay a lot of attention to this) that a lot of Walmart stores in my area (Phoenix) are no longer open 24 hours.

Looking at the store locator, it seems that approximately half of the stores are open 24 hours and half are open from 6 a.m. - midnight. This is true among both Neighborhood Markets and Supercenters.

Some of the stores that are no longer open 24 hours are in less desirable neighborhoods, but not all. Likewise, there are a few 24 hour stores stores in some very questionable neighborhoods.

Being open 24 hours was one of the marketing tools of Walmart and a reason I would shop there, as opposed to other options. 2 of the no longer 24 hour stores are either across the street or very close to WinCo stores.

[pseudo3d]

I live in a college town, so the stores tend to be open 24 hours. The H-E-B does 24 hours (at least during non-summer months), the Walmart is 24 hours (neighborhood's alright), both Kroger stores are 24 hours, though weirdly, the store closest to campus by a long shot, a CVS, is only open until midnight. The Krogers are dead after midnight though.

[wnetmacman]

This is a change Walmart started making several years ago in response to both shrinkage and labor issues. Some stores in more rural areas just don't need to run 24/7, while larger metropolitan ones would expect to be open during those times. I know that when the change was made closest to me, almost nobody noticed, and sales that were relatively minuscule didn't suffer.

As for the college town vs. large city theory, that just isn't true. It's on a store-by-store basis. We had three stores here at the time, and all three went to scheduled hours. A store in a town of 20,000 up the road kept the 24/7 schedule. No other grocer here has a 24/7 schedule; Albertsons killed theirs during the LLC days.

[arizonaguy]

I live in a college town, so the stores tend to be open 24 hours. The H-E-B does 24 hours (at least during non-summer months), the Walmart is 24 hours (neighborhood's alright), both Kroger stores are 24 hours, though weirdly, the store closest to campus by a long shot, a CVS, is only open until midnight. The Krogers are dead after midnight though.

Other than WinCo and some Walmarts, everything here closes by midnight or 1 a.m. at the latest.

Safeway tried a 24 hour store near the Arizona State University campus but the hours there are now 5a.m. - 1a.m. which is why I find it strange that Walmart is reducing its hours as it's really the only 24 hour game in town (except for a shrinking number of CVS and Walgreens stores and WinCo).

[BillyGr]

Seems like they may also think that as long as some stores in the area stay open people will simply go to those locations, thus they consolidate the total (low) amount of business in the area to a smaller number of people needed to run only some of the stores?

It would make sense (and probably work fairly well) if most other chains are also not open 24 hours, as people needing something right then would have little in the way of other choices to go to.

[Super S]

I think that some Walmart stores also are 24 hours during the summer months only. They seem to make it a point to keep the locations near freeways 24 hours, at least in my area. A lot of the non 24 hour stores are not in the most visible areas.

[pseudo3d]

I would say that it's not just shoplifting and volume concerns, it's also for safety reasons. The aforementioned CVS might have enough traffic to drive it through the night (especially considering that apartments are built above it) but I don't know if it's safe enough. A McDonald's two stores away has a 24 hour dining room but there's a massive lawsuit moving through the courts where a jury ordered McDonald's to pay some $20+ million settlement for not providing adequate security, and from what I've heard, the Albertsons (since closed and demolished) that was behind the aforementioned 24 hour McDonald's had a decent amount of riff-raff back in the day (it was closed in 1997 when Albertsons bought the Randalls down the street, though its posted store hours remained until it was torn down in 2012).

[buckguy]

CVS has several 24 hour stores in inner areas of DC, including at least 3 that are within walking distance of each other. If security was an issue or a cost driver, I'd imagine they would have curtailed hours long ago---these things are probably local issues.

WalMart has always been a nickel and dime operation in terms of how they look at costs and they'd rather save a few pennies now so that the Waltons can keep collecting dividends rather than take a a truly long-term view of their business model. They have become boxed in by various kinds of competition (web, big box) and no longer have the lowest price on most of their merchandise--they are a store of last resort and have monopolies in rural areas, but they can't seem to expand beyond that base, so all they can do is pick away at controllable costs like labor.

[wnetmacman]

WalMart has always been a nickel and dime operation in terms of how they look at costs and they'd rather save a few pennies now so that the Waltons can keep collecting dividends rather than take a a truly long-term view of their business model. They have become boxed in by various kinds of competition (web, big box) and no longer have the lowest price on most of their merchandise--they are a store of last resort and have monopolies in rural areas, but they can't seem to expand beyond that base, so all they can do is pick away at controllable costs like labor.

Being a nickel and dime operation creates maximum profits. If you look at profit margins of similar companies, they keep more. The Walton family aren't high flyers; they do some philanthropy, but don't really flaunt their wealth. I wouldn't refer to them as a store of last resort, as millions shop there.

If you believe they don't look at the performance of the company long-term, you may be missing something, as everything they do is under a long term microscope. Remember Bud's, Helen's Arts and Crafts, and Dot Discount Drugs? Those were somewhat long-term decisions. I agree that the Express stores were a failure, but they realized that they wouldn't be long-term successes like their full line stores that folks expected.

If you use their Savings Catcher, you'll get money back. So saying they aren't the lowest price is unfair; if they aren't, they give it back. Rural monopolies are because others give up; you have to compete in places they don't do business. If you try head-to-head, you'll never win, because they have buying power that one guy doesn't.

[storewanderer]

Wal Mart had a store in Reno that eliminated 24 hour operations last year then brought it back again not long after. It is a store in a very central location, actually on an Indian Tribe's land (so sales tax goes to the Tribe), but the store clearly has some issues. Many issues. Theft, crime, other issues. The number of out of stocks in various parts of this store were unreal and it was clearly due to theft. Checkout lines routinely are 10-15 customers long and there are no self checkouts in this store. Because of how the store is designed (pharmacy "in the middle" on the grocery side) they cannot easily bullcage drug/cosmetics or other high theft areas. To make matters worse they have some cosmetics aisles at a 45 degree angle then the drug aisles running at 90 degrees so good luck watching those areas very well. The parking lot had lighting issues for quite some time. They finally got the parking lot lights fixed, those were not fully functioning for quite a while. They also have security better patrolling the parking lot now. This is not a store I feel safe at during the evening but the changes that have been made are somewhat promising.

The interesting thing is this store is right across the street from a large casino that attracts many customers from California. Some of them go across to the store to buy things. Many of them speak very favorably of this Wal Mart Supercenter despite its issues. I find that ironic given many come from places in the bay area where people would fight having one of these stores built so hard. I wonder what they'd think if they drove 12 minutes south down the freeway to a very clean, neat, and almost perfectly stocked Wal Mart Supercenter in a safe neighborhood.