Bend Sears store closing

[kr.abs.swy]

Storewanderer, at least one of the other Portland-area Neighborhood Markets also moved into a vacant space. That surprised me, also -- Walmart has been so rigid in only wanting to operate in "custom" buildings historically. I would imagine that they believe that utilizing vacant space generates less resistance in an area that is already inclined to resist Walmart.

After the last batch of Neighborhood Markets opened in the Portland area a few months ago, Walmart and Fred Meyer ran dueling ads in the Oregonian showing receipts for a basket of goods purchased at each store. The fact that some baskets of goods were cheaper at Fred Meyer surprised me. Looking at the receipts, it seemed like Fred Meyer was basically competitive on the majority of items, but Walmart could be a couple dollars cheaper on some of the larger items (dog food or toilet paper, etc.). There are a lot of people around here who are really loyal to Fred Meyer.

As for the Corvallis Neighborhood Market, it opened in March. I can't tell you for sure, but I suspect that all of the "perimeter" departments were there when it was built.

[storewanderer]

Wal Mart is so proud, going into these vacant spaces is the only way they can get stores into these places that don't want them there. Well, it is teaching them to be more flexible. But I suspect the return on investment they are getting from being "flexible" is awful. Part of it is because as you note Wal Mart historically is very rigid and you can't go from rigid to flexible overnight and make it work. Well, I guess it is nice of them to do these things. Maybe they will figure out how to do this in a more profitable manner that will generate more customers.

To be fair, both the Corvallis and Beaverton Neighborhood Markets were fine. I was actually greeted by employees at each store, the stores were clean, well stocked, produce areas looked reasonably maintained (but not priced well). No glowing reason really to not shop there, other than that the mix and fresh items are limited compared to Fred Meyer and pricing is worse. I guess those are big reasons.

Actually, in Corvallis (that Fred Meyer is smaller and not the best), it is possible I may use that Wal Mart from time to time. But I'd certainly try to let Safeway gain my business first and I'd only use Wal Mart for price reasons. Also, since it is next to the wonderful Market of Choice... which is a place I'd be a very frequent customer of.

[Brian Lutz]

Both the Walmart stores here in Bellevue went into spaces that had been vacant for quite some time, but I suspect that around here it's more a matter of there just not being any space where they could build from scratch. There might be a spot or two in the more rural part of Redmond (there's actually a spot on Union Hill Road in Redmond where Costco originally planned to build a new store but eventually abandoned their plans,) Issaquah or on the Samamamish plateau where they could manage to find room for a Supercenter, but there's basically nowhere in Kirkland or Bellevue they could do it (not to mention the fact that in Kirkland there are NIMBYs that would sue you for lowering their property values if you tried to put up a mailbox next to the street, I can't imagine how they'd handle a Walmart.)

[storewanderer]

Lazy question but, are there Sam's Clubs in any of these places that Wal Mart is having a hard time getting into? I wonder if a better use of those club buildings would be to convert to a Wal Mart Supercenter, if so...

Actually, I think Wal Mart knows they really shouldn't try to compete too much with Fred Meyer. There is just no comparison and the customers have spoken loudly in a lot of places. WinCo doesn't make it any easier, either, forcing Wal Mart's price scale down from the typical scale they use. Lots of reasons for Wal Mart to "lay low" in the Northwest.

[Alpha8472]

Costco is based in the Seattle, Washington area. You can bet that the people are fiercely loyal to Costco and there are very few Sam's Clubs. Sam Clubs in those areas do not do well. People prefer Costco.

[arizonaguy]

Lazy question but, are there Sam's Clubs in any of these places that Wal Mart is having a hard time getting into? I wonder if a better use of those club buildings would be to convert to a Wal Mart Supercenter, if so...

Metro Detroit, MI was like this for years (1993 - early 2000s). A nice store base of Sam's Clubs (from the purchase of PACE and new builds) and relatively few Wal Marts. In fact, Sam's Club had the warehouse market to itself for a little while in Metro Detroit, as Costco didn't enter the market until the collapse of Builder's Square / Home Quarters when it converted a number of former Builder's Square or Home Quarters locations to Costcos.

Walmart didn't really become much of a factor in Metro Detroit until the early 2000s when Kmart started closing stores. Kmart was by far the dominant discounter in Metro Detroit in the 1990s and opened several new stores in the region during that time (including many supercenters).

[kr.abs.swy]

I was surprised to see that there actually are three Sam's Club stores in the Seattle region -- Federal Way, Renton and North Seattle. I have no idea when these opened. Given that Costco seems to be at least as good of an operator as Sam's Club and that this is Costco's home turf, this was a somewhat gutsy move on Walmart's part.

There are no Sam's Club stores in Oregon, which doesn't surprise me all that much. There are Costcos all over the place.

For what it's worth, a Sam's Club in Nampa, Idaho, actually closed after being open for only about four years in 2010. This store was very close to a Walmart. http://www.ktvb.com/news/Sams-Club-to-c ... 45327.html Location may have been a factor. It was on the outskirts of Nampa (although close to the Interstate) and there may just have not been enough people willing to make the drive out there.

That leaves, by my count, four Sam's Clubs in Washington, Idaho and Oregon (three in Washington and one in Idaho Falls).

[Brian Lutz]

I don't know about the other two stores, but I believe the Sam's Club in Renton opened in 2007 or so. I tend to agree though that the Sam's Club stores (two of which are very close to existing Walmart stores) around here don't do nearly as much business as Costco does. If you ever try to go to a Costco on a Saturday around here there's a good chance you'll find yourself waiting for a parking space even though most of them have rather large parking lots. The Sam's Club in Renton, on the other hand, you can easily park right near the front at the same time on a Saturday (which is actually kind of nice because you don't have to park in the middle of nowhere.)

They seem to be doing well enough though. Even with the smaller overall customer base, you see a lot of restaurant/c-store type customers at the Sam's Clubs, where you mostly see consumers at Costco these days. Nonetheless, it's clear that Costco rules the roost around here.

One interesting thing about Costco around here is that with the close proximity to the corporate headquarters in Issaquah, you see them test-market things on a regular basis. They've added gelato to the food court at a few locations around here, and have tried other things as well that generally haven't stuck. Another interesting one is that a couple of years ago, the Tukwila Costco was remodeled and added a large restaurant supply section to the store, with a large selection of gear for commercial kitchens and more foodservice-ready goods.

[wnetmacman]

Storewanderer, at least one of the other Portland-area Neighborhood Markets also moved into a vacant space. That surprised me, also -- Walmart has been so rigid in only wanting to operate in "custom" buildings historically.

Not completely true. Of the stores I've seen, at least 5 of the Neighborhood Markets (now Walmart Markets) were in second generation stores. I know one that was put in an old Walmart discount store, one in a former Albertsons and one in a former Delchamps (in Baton Rouge, LA). Yes, it's easier to put a new store in a new building, but if you go in a store that was already designed as a supermarket, it's easier to refit it as one. Supermarkets require remote refrigeration compressors, and unless the store was equipped with a compressor room, they have to put them elsewhere, like the roof or outside. In the Delchamps store, Walmart gutted the building in favor of their design.