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Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 2nd, 2019, 12:03 pm
by TW-Upstate NY
Alpha8472 wrote: April 30th, 2019, 4:39 am My local Walmart has stopped restocking fish. The fish tanks are empty. Has this happened at any other Walmart?
Noticed almost half the tanks empty in the Amsterdam, NY store this morning.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 2nd, 2019, 7:25 pm
by Super S
TW-Upstate NY wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 12:03 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 30th, 2019, 4:39 am My local Walmart has stopped restocking fish. The fish tanks are empty. Has this happened at any other Walmart?
Noticed almost half the tanks empty in the Amsterdam, NY store this morning.
I do remember fish tanks at Walmart years ago, but honestly haven't paid attention to that so am unsure if any locations near me still have them.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 2nd, 2019, 8:51 pm
by pseudo3d
Super S wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 7:25 pm
TW-Upstate NY wrote: May 2nd, 2019, 12:03 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 30th, 2019, 4:39 am My local Walmart has stopped restocking fish. The fish tanks are empty. Has this happened at any other Walmart?
Noticed almost half the tanks empty in the Amsterdam, NY store this morning.
I do remember fish tanks at Walmart years ago, but honestly haven't paid attention to that so am unsure if any locations near me still have them.
Even after renovations (to a Supercenter during their "reduce the SKUs" phase) and further ones after that, the tanks at my store are located near the back not far from the household cleaning projects. But "not restocking fish" is an issue I haven't looked into, and I don't particularly want to since Walmart is a pain to get in and out of (and there's nothing I need at the time that I can't get elsewhere).

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 6th, 2019, 8:52 pm
by mbz321
Poking around on the Walmart subreddit, looks like all locations are ditching fish over the next few months and the section will be replaced by refrigerated pet food. It's about damn time and absolutely horrific that they sold fish for as long as they had. Oddly enough, a nearby Supercenter that opened a few years ago had tanks installed despite all the other area locations that stopped selling them years ago.

One commenter posted that custom-cut fabrics might be going away as well.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 7th, 2019, 3:26 pm
by cjd
mbz321 wrote: May 6th, 2019, 8:52 pm Poking around on the Walmart subreddit, looks like all locations are ditching fish over the next few months and the section will be replaced by refrigerated pet food. It's about damn time and absolutely horrific that they sold fish for as long as they had. Oddly enough, a nearby Supercenter that opened a few years ago had tanks installed despite all the other area locations that stopped selling them years ago.

One commenter posted that custom-cut fabrics might be going away as well.
Walmart's fabric department used to do a really good business in most stores I went to back in the 90s-mid 2000s. When Project Impact was launched, most stores did away with it until about 5 years ago when it came back. However, with the most recent remodel of my nearest Walmart, the department got a lot smaller after the move, and the cutting counter is much smaller than it was before (which was already smaller than what it had before Project Impact removed it). I'm not seeing much activity in fabrics whenever I happen to walk by. Years ago, there was usually at least one attendant, if not two always in the department. Now it appears they'd have to find someone if they want fabric cut.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 7th, 2019, 6:32 pm
by pseudo3d
cjd wrote: May 7th, 2019, 3:26 pm
mbz321 wrote: May 6th, 2019, 8:52 pm Poking around on the Walmart subreddit, looks like all locations are ditching fish over the next few months and the section will be replaced by refrigerated pet food. It's about damn time and absolutely horrific that they sold fish for as long as they had. Oddly enough, a nearby Supercenter that opened a few years ago had tanks installed despite all the other area locations that stopped selling them years ago.

One commenter posted that custom-cut fabrics might be going away as well.
Walmart's fabric department used to do a really good business in most stores I went to back in the 90s-mid 2000s. When Project Impact was launched, most stores did away with it until about 5 years ago when it came back. However, with the most recent remodel of my nearest Walmart, the department got a lot smaller after the move, and the cutting counter is much smaller than it was before (which was already smaller than what it had before Project Impact removed it). I'm not seeing much activity in fabrics whenever I happen to walk by. Years ago, there was usually at least one attendant, if not two always in the department. Now it appears they'd have to find someone if they want fabric cut.
I'm not sure if my Walmart has anyone cutting fabric anymore, but I seem to recall that the new area (which appeared after Project Impact, as the Walmart was expanded right in the middle of it) only has a desk at the end-cap and I don't think it's staffed regularly. In the old, pre-Impact days with the regular Wal-Mart, fabrics (and the adjacent crafts area) was an absolutely massive section with a long table and at least one person there, often two.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 7th, 2019, 7:28 pm
by cjd
pseudo3d wrote: May 7th, 2019, 6:32 pm I'm not sure if my Walmart has anyone cutting fabric anymore, but I seem to recall that the new area (which appeared after Project Impact, as the Walmart was expanded right in the middle of it) only has a desk at the end-cap and I don't think it's staffed regularly. In the old, pre-Impact days with the regular Wal-Mart, fabrics (and the adjacent crafts area) was an absolutely massive section with a long table and at least one person there, often two.
I guess I was wrong about Walmart having removed fabrics with project impact. I'm pretty sure that's around the time they disappeared here, but that could have been on a per-store basis. I do recall there being a lot of people upset about it, so Walmart added fabrics back a few years after here. But the way the department was arranged, was still more open when they added it back than it is now. It was by the shoe department. Now with the Black Decor 2.0 remodel it's stuck in an aisle near the stationery and office supplies, and like where you are, the desk is just an end cap here too. I have seen an employee cutting fabric, since then, but only once. The department doesn't seem as busy as before it moved.

You'd think being that there are no fabric shops anywhere nearby, that the department would do a good business. I haven't paid attention to what this department looks like at the Walmart in next town. That store has same decor but is a much newer build than mine.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 8th, 2019, 2:32 pm
by pseudo3d
cjd wrote: May 7th, 2019, 7:28 pm
pseudo3d wrote: May 7th, 2019, 6:32 pm I'm not sure if my Walmart has anyone cutting fabric anymore, but I seem to recall that the new area (which appeared after Project Impact, as the Walmart was expanded right in the middle of it) only has a desk at the end-cap and I don't think it's staffed regularly. In the old, pre-Impact days with the regular Wal-Mart, fabrics (and the adjacent crafts area) was an absolutely massive section with a long table and at least one person there, often two.
I guess I was wrong about Walmart having removed fabrics with project impact. I'm pretty sure that's around the time they disappeared here, but that could have been on a per-store basis. I do recall there being a lot of people upset about it, so Walmart added fabrics back a few years after here. But the way the department was arranged, was still more open when they added it back than it is now. It was by the shoe department. Now with the Black Decor 2.0 remodel it's stuck in an aisle near the stationery and office supplies, and like where you are, the desk is just an end cap here too. I have seen an employee cutting fabric, since then, but only once. The department doesn't seem as busy as before it moved.

You'd think being that there are no fabric shops anywhere nearby, that the department would do a good business. I haven't paid attention to what this department looks like at the Walmart in next town. That store has same decor but is a much newer build than mine.
I think it might have gone for Project Impact, but only for a while (my directory from the time it expanded, it briefly had a print directory) doesn't even list Fabrics, it just has a small "Crafts" section. The chronology of my home store was that it was built in the late 1980s and expanded in the 1990s (the 1990s format moved the entrance to the right side, with a McDonald's, eventually Radio Grill and Subway), with some large departments in certain sections, like a large shoe department in the center-back, clothing in the far-right-back, and fabrics in the far-left-back, and a pharmacy/HBA area right in the center-front of the store.

In 2010, it expanded physically, and added a grocery department to the east side while remodeling the rest of the store (the old side kept its drop ceilings, but got new tile and lighting), and all the departments shrunk in the process, with lower shelves. It remodeled again around 2016/2017 to the black and white decor, but in the process, they did a full reset and made some press about adding more products, at which point shelves were replaced to their old height, and fabrics were added back.

Additionally, I seem to remember they largely eliminated firearms during Project Impact, which were brought back in a limited capacity after the reset. The "Black Decor" remodel didn't do anything to the footprint (not like they really could do anything, in the process of building the Supercenter they demolished a quarter of the vacant Albertsons nearby), but the tile added in 2010 to the original side, making the entire store concrete.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 8th, 2019, 6:04 pm
by cjd
My Walmart here opened in 1992, replacing two smaller 80s WMs and sounds about like yours did in the 1990s. It didn't have a McDonald's, just the typical Walmart Snack Bar I think it was called. In 1997 it was expanded into a Supercenter with an addition on the right side, and the snack bar moved and was called the Radio Grill. The greenhouse of the garden center was also expanded. Later years replaced Radio Grill with Blimpie Subs and maybe another somewhere along then and now a Dunkin' Donuts. Also has a vision center, salon, bank and pharmacy. Not sure the front stalls were original or not, but think they came later.

The Project Impact and Black Decor didn't expand the store any more. But Black Decor was more involved by removing all of the tile from the original store and the expansion for concrete. The original part of the store has a drop ceiling (except for the garden/seasonal section that's separated) and the grocery part has the warehouse ceilings with skylights, as do the two entrance vestibules.

The WM to the North of me was built in 2007 and is a much bigger feeling store with an auto center. Its garden/seasonal section is part of the main store and it has a Subway up front. It also has warehouse ceilings and skylights throughout as well as brown concrete flooring. It feels much of a larger store to get in and out of than mine.

Firearms were reduced a bit. I don't remember as far as fish tanks if they still have them or not since I don't visit the pet dept much.

Re: Walmart observations

Posted: May 9th, 2019, 8:32 am
by pseudo3d
I re-read my post and wanted to say that BEFORE the remodel there was the reset that added more products back. I think during the reset, the greeting cards section became the seasonal section, I remember that during the 2016 remodel, the place where the "Celebrate!" department had been removed, and I think they retired that name. The remodel also added orange Pickup parking spaces.

The garden center was accessed differently after the 2010 remodel, it used to have a section cut out in the wall on the left side of the store near hardware, and you could enter the garden center directly from the parking lot. The remodel changed it so there was a third entrance added to the store (besides the main entrance and the grocery entrance), with a large semi-enclosed vestibule with one cashier, the only entrance in and out of the garden center, and extra space which was usually used for seasonal (dorm furniture and pillows in August, larger Halloween decorations in October, etc.).