McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Alpha8472
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McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

McDonald's is closing 200 underperforming locations and 100 of those are restaurants inside of Walmart stores. I used to see huge lines at McDonald's inside of Walmart. The seating area was always packed with people taking a break from shopping. Now even if the McDonald's is open, there is no seating and customers do not want to stand around just to get to go food.

Those McDonald's locations are doomed. I do not see any of these Walmart restaurants surviving long term. Even the Subway restaurants inside of Walmart are doing badly. There is no indoor dining and there are even fewer Subway customers. I doubt Subway would want to move into the abandoned McDonald's locations. Subway is having enough trouble of its own.

https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.co ... -locations

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/fo ... 527617002/
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by storewanderer »

Recently the very busy NW Reno Wal Mart McDonalds inside closed. It was quickly replaced by a Dunkin Donuts.

There is already a Doughboys Donuts in the parking lot (and a Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, Arco, and Panda Express). Perhaps Dunkin will sell enough drinks to make this work. The Wal Mart Bakery there has up-priced its single donuts to $1 each evidently so as to not undercut Dunkin with its standard .58 price.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 29th, 2020, 10:37 pm Those McDonald's locations are doomed. I do not see any of these Walmart restaurants surviving long term. Even the Subway restaurants inside of Walmart are doing badly. There is no indoor dining and there are even fewer Subway customers. I doubt Subway would want to move into the abandoned McDonald's locations. Subway is having enough trouble of its own.
In some cases, yes: Subway has taken the place of McDonald's inside some Walmarts. A Walmart near me, in Oceanside, CA, replaced its McDonald's with a Subway when it converted into a Supercenter 11 years ago. That was a downgrade from McDonald's, which doesn't have stellar quality food anyway.
There is one Walmart near Kearny Mesa in San Diego that has a Rally's.
There are some Walmarts in my area that were built with a McDonald's, but after remodeling around 2016 or so, no longer have a restaurant.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

Do McDonald's in Walmart stores improve the store or make it worse? I found that McDonald's was a place where people could go to sit down and take a break from shopping or for people to wait for their family member to finish shopping.

I did not like the horrible fast food smells. There was always something burning or some horrible fast food fumes spreading throughout the store. One McDonald's at a local Walmart actually caught on fire in San Leandro, California and caused the Walmart store to get flooded by the sprinklers. It cost so much money and the McDonald's shut down for almost a year.

Fast food might be a treat once in a while for most people, but I used to cringe at all of the people making really bad food decisions. You see people picking up diabetes medications from the pharmacy and walking right next door to get ice cream, french fries, and burgers.

Perhaps it is for the best and people might actually be less tempted to binge on unhealthy food items. The health of Walmart customers might actually improve in the long run.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by veteran+ »

Alpha8472 wrote: July 30th, 2020, 4:19 am Do McDonald's in Walmart stores improve the store or make it worse? I found that McDonald's was a place where people could go to sit down and take a break from shopping or for people to wait for their family member to finish shopping.

I did not like the horrible fast food smells. There was always something burning or some horrible fast food fumes spreading throughout the store. One McDonald's at a local Walmart actually caught on fire in San Leandro, California and caused the Walmart store to get flooded by the sprinklers. It cost so much money and the McDonald's shut down for almost a year.

Fast food might be a treat once in a while for most people, but I used to cringe at all of the people making really bad food decisions. You see people picking up diabetes medications from the pharmacy and walking right next door to get ice cream, french fries, and burgers.

Perhaps it is for the best and people might actually be less tempted to binge on unhealthy food items. The health of Walmart customers might actually improve in the long run.
Yep!

I have not eaten at a fast food joint in over a decade and it was worth it!!!

Once in a while (every few months) I may indulge in Panera, Subway or Chipolte. Last year I visited these stores once each.....that's it.

:-)
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

In reading through the posts on this thread, Wal-Mart seems to have had a lot of franchise based restaurants operate in its stores over the years. Three have been mentioned here-McDonald;s, Subway and Dunkin Donuts. I also recall eating at a Wendy's in one of the local stores some years ago. Have there been others? That particular unit's restaurant had an interesting history-opened with the Wendy's which closed after just a few years which was then immediately converted into a "Radio Grill" which was Wal-Mart's name for restaurants they operated in house. (Which raises another question-do they still use that in some stores?) Anyways, they operated the restaurant as Radio Grill until the place was upgraded to a supercenter 10+ years ago at which time Subway moved in and remains to this day. Seems to me they've just gone through a lot of different approaches to in-store restaurants over the years. I'm probably dating myself (again) but I can remember when in-store restaurants were simply called "snack bars" and offered pretty much only the basics and were very utilitarian in their menu and operations.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by pseudo3d »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: July 30th, 2020, 9:57 am In reading through the posts on this thread, Wal-Mart seems to have had a lot of franchise based restaurants operate in its stores over the years. Three have been mentioned here-McDonald;s, Subway and Dunkin Donuts. I also recall eating at a Wendy's in one of the local stores some years ago. Have there been others? That particular unit's restaurant had an interesting history-opened with the Wendy's which closed after just a few years which was then immediately converted into a "Radio Grill" which was Wal-Mart's name for restaurants they operated in house. (Which raises another question-do they still use that in some stores?) Anyways, they operated the restaurant as Radio Grill until the place was upgraded to a supercenter 10+ years ago at which time Subway moved in and remains to this day. Seems to me they've just gone through a lot of different approaches to in-store restaurants over the years. I'm probably dating myself (again) but I can remember when in-store restaurants were simply called "snack bars" and offered pretty much only the basics and were very utilitarian in their menu and operations.
A Burger King briefly operated in a Waco-area Walmart for a few years. I wanted to make the trip up last summer to see it for myself but it had closed since then.

There's a topic on Groceteria about old in-store Wal-Mart eateries here.

By the way, I've read about all these McDonald's closures but I've never once seen a list.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by cjd »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: July 30th, 2020, 9:57 am In reading through the posts on this thread, Wal-Mart seems to have had a lot of franchise based restaurants operate in its stores over the years. Three have been mentioned here-McDonald;s, Subway and Dunkin Donuts. I also recall eating at a Wendy's in one of the local stores some years ago. Have there been others? That particular unit's restaurant had an interesting history-opened with the Wendy's which closed after just a few years which was then immediately converted into a "Radio Grill" which was Wal-Mart's name for restaurants they operated in house. (Which raises another question-do they still use that in some stores?) Anyways, they operated the restaurant as Radio Grill until the place was upgraded to a supercenter 10+ years ago at which time Subway moved in and remains to this day. Seems to me they've just gone through a lot of different approaches to in-store restaurants over the years. I'm probably dating myself (again) but I can remember when in-store restaurants were simply called "snack bars" and offered pretty much only the basics and were very utilitarian in their menu and operations.
The Walmart here originally had just the snack bar. It was immediately to the right when you went in the far right door. I don't remember it having any branding. Then in the late 90s when the store was expanded into a Supercenter, they enlarged it and made it into one of those Radio Grills, which had black and white checkered floor tiles. When you walk in the grocery entrance, it's immediately to your right when you enter the main store from the foyer.

Sometime in the early 2000s that became a Blimpie Sub shop and got a redo in earth tones colors.

Then it became Dunkin' Donuts, which is what it continues as, although I've never really been inside since that change. It seems to have the typical corporate Dunkin' decor like a standard location would have.

It may have been something else between the Blimpie and Dunkin', around 2005 remember going inside and they had snack foods like popcorn and chicken. Or maybe they offered those items alongside the Blimpie sandwiches.

Most newer Walmarts around here built in 2003 and 2007 have always had the Subway shops inside, and they are in the front area where the hair salon, bank, etc are. I was not aware that any Walmarts still had McDonald's. I thought that was more of a thing with Supercenters built in the mid 90s, but that most had been converted to other things by now.

Seems like some Walmarts may have never had an inside eatery, and instead have tables and chairs in an area near the deli. One mid 90s Supercenter I've seen is like that.

I don't recall the older, smaller 1980s classic style Walmarts having snack bars or any of the other kiosks or leased stalls up front. I could be wrong, but all the ones around here have long since converted to other uses.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by Alpha8472 »

The San Leandro, California Walmart that was formerly a Target has Deluca's Pizza and Subway. This was previously Auntie Anne's Pretzels and Subway. The pretzel business was not profitable enough, so it switched to Deluca's. The store smells like pizza all the time. The Subway seems to be more dominant as the decor is Subway. The Subway is a converted Target Food Avenue. There is a popcorn machine and an Icee Machine just like Target Food Avenue.

The reason why Walmart switched to Subway is that that Walmart hates restaurants with grills. I heard from Walmart employees about the constant problems. Grills are a fire hazard and many Walmarts have caught fire due to grill fires. Subway does not have grills. Also, McDonald's requires expensive ventilation systems, while Subway does not. Walmart does not want to pay for that. McDonald's restaurants constantly cause plumbing problems at Walmart stores. The plumbing is constantly clogged with grease dumped down the drains. The stores have grease traps that constantly need cleaning and the plumbing overflows all the time.

McDonald's is nothing but a problem for Walmart stores. There was a Burger King at a Walmart, but the lease agreement forbid having a grill. The Burger King had to use a convection oven and a microwave to prepare their burgers.

The other San Leandro Walmart which was looted and burned is still closed. It was opened in 1999 with a Radio Grill. The floor was checkerboard. Then it converted to McDonald's and kept the checkerboard floor until the McDonald's caught on fire a few years ago. The McDonald's closed for almost a year to remodel. Then at the end of May the Walmart store and McDonald's were set on fire. The roof collapsed and all that remains are the walls. The store may reopen in September. I do not know if McDonald's will reopen.
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Re: McDonald's Closing 100 Walmart Restaurants

Post by cjd »

I figured that the grease and odor problems were part of the reason Walmart tends to have Subway than fast food. Although I thought too, that it could be that Subway is seen as a healthier fast food choice than McD.

If you think about it though there are still fryers in the deli and the smell still tends to circulate around that section of the store.
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