Walmart observations

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

Post by babs »

ClownLoach wrote: February 24th, 2023, 9:18 am
veteran+ wrote: February 24th, 2023, 8:06 am
storewanderer wrote: February 23rd, 2023, 9:36 pm
That Wood Village Store is very busy though. I didn't feel particularly safe at that store, but it was better than these two that are closing. I did go there at 10 PM.

My concern is Wal Mart tends to do a nice job attracting a lot of issues (theft, etc.). If they close those issues will not go away, they will just go to whatever retailers are left in the areas. Then what? Do those retailers end up having to close too?

The situation for retailers in Portland has become very strange and the attitude of city leadership is odd. I am wondering if the lack of sales tax being generated somehow makes city leadership have this attitude. I was shocked Nike's request was denied.
Sometimes the talk about Portland is so confusing for me from afar. I really want to visit in person, soon.

A very close friend of mine visits Portland and southern Washington every year. His experience is the opposite of what I hear. His photos do not support the negative chatter. He is a social media fanatic.

Confused :? :? :?
There are many delightful areas there. The core city of Portland itself is a mess though.
Portland is still a great city. The people are great. The suburbs are really coming alive with new restaurants. Even parts of downtown are coming back, the West End area is full of younger tourists checking the city out. For whatever reason, homeless has become a huge problem and they are throwing a ton of money at the problem but no one seems to have a solution. The police department is understaffed, and they are hiring additional officers but the state police academy can't handle the influx of new officers so many just sit around. It's a mess.

As for the several people who commented that the lack of a sales tax is why Portland doesn't care about shoplifting. I don't think that's true. Property taxes are the main source of revenue. Empty downtown office towers are getting their taxes lowered as empty buildings are worth much less. Expect some of these empty shopping centers to pay less in property taxes thereby decreasing revenue to the city. Closing stores will have an impact.

On a side note, Walmart did have a mobile app development office in Portland. That's now gone as well. Would have been a great opportunity for the city to partner with Walmart to grow that but the anti-Walmart sentiment got in the way of that.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by veteran+ »

ClownLoach wrote: February 24th, 2023, 9:18 am
veteran+ wrote: February 24th, 2023, 8:06 am
storewanderer wrote: February 23rd, 2023, 9:36 pm
That Wood Village Store is very busy though. I didn't feel particularly safe at that store, but it was better than these two that are closing. I did go there at 10 PM.

My concern is Wal Mart tends to do a nice job attracting a lot of issues (theft, etc.). If they close those issues will not go away, they will just go to whatever retailers are left in the areas. Then what? Do those retailers end up having to close too?

The situation for retailers in Portland has become very strange and the attitude of city leadership is odd. I am wondering if the lack of sales tax being generated somehow makes city leadership have this attitude. I was shocked Nike's request was denied.
Sometimes the talk about Portland is so confusing for me from afar. I really want to visit in person, soon.

A very close friend of mine visits Portland and southern Washington every year. His experience is the opposite of what I hear. His photos do not support the negative chatter. He is a social media fanatic.

Confused :? :? :?
There are many delightful areas there. The core city of Portland itself is a mess though.
Interesting cuz he was mostly in downtown where all the bars and restaurants and hotels are.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: February 24th, 2023, 10:00 am
ClownLoach wrote: February 24th, 2023, 9:18 am
veteran+ wrote: February 24th, 2023, 8:06 am

Sometimes the talk about Portland is so confusing for me from afar. I really want to visit in person, soon.

A very close friend of mine visits Portland and southern Washington every year. His experience is the opposite of what I hear. His photos do not support the negative chatter. He is a social media fanatic.

Confused :? :? :?
There are many delightful areas there. The core city of Portland itself is a mess though.
Interesting cuz he was mostly in downtown where all the bars and restaurants and hotels are.
In your drive between the airport and downtown (or if you use the light rail) you will see what has been mentioned here. But there are many very nice sections. It also seems like the area north of downtown and up to the WA state line is having some pretty serious issues.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by buckguy »

Walmart has sold another one of its e-commerce acquisitions: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/23/walma ... -moosejaw/. I wonder if some of the brands that dropped Moosejaw after Walmart bought them will return. It looks like Dick's will operate Moosejaw separately from its main stores/website. No terms disclosed. I wonder if it's being sold at a loss.

They seem to be shedding operations or reducing their interest as they did with ASDA in the UK. I'll bet we'll see more small numbers of closures over the course of the year and they're probably looking for someone to buy Bonobos. They're clearly raising cash to speed up their online transition and I wouldn't be surprised if the closures are mostly going to be lease buyouts. Their core bsuiness has been stagnating for years and none of their strategies to move beyond their existing base has worked very well.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by arizonaguy »

buckguy wrote: February 25th, 2023, 4:44 am Walmart has sold another one of its e-commerce acquisitions: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/23/walma ... -moosejaw/. I wonder if some of the brands that dropped Moosejaw after Walmart bought them will return. It looks like Dick's will operate Moosejaw separately from its main stores/website. No terms disclosed. I wonder if it's being sold at a loss.

They seem to be shedding operations or reducing their interest as they did with ASDA in the UK. I'll bet we'll see more small numbers of closures over the course of the year and they're probably looking for someone to buy Bonobos. They're clearly raising cash to speed up their online transition and I wouldn't be surprised if the closures are mostly going to be lease buyouts. Their core bsuiness has been stagnating for years and none of their strategies to move beyond their existing base has worked very well.
These specialty retailers were built to expand their online presence. I think that they're beginning to realize that there is a ceiling as to how much they're able to do online (and that a lot of the online initiatives spearheaded by Amazon are money pits).

I agree that they'll probably continue to close more stores than they open as I believe that if they survive it will be with approximately 3000 - 3500 supercenters, 100 division 1 stores (in areas where supercenters are impractical) and about 250 neighborhood markets (in markets where they support Walmarts online pickup / delivery services).
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Super S »

Went into the West Longview Walmart this morning. They decided to remove the tile floor and switch to polished concrete flooring, as they had shelving removed in areas of the store, with other areas already done back to their previous layout. (they are going from the center of the store and moving outward) It doesn't look to me like they are doing any other remodeling. This is odd, considering that they put down all new tile when the store was converted to a Supercenter, and the flooring was kept through the last remodel, and wasn't in bad shape. Seems odd to do this when no other changes are taking place. I will say though that the already-done portions look better than what they did at Fred Meyer during their last remodel.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

Walmart is getting rid of the tile because concrete does not need wax or expensive chemicals. Tile floors need to be stripped and waxed. It is a cost and labor savings measure.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Super S »

Alpha8472 wrote: March 21st, 2023, 7:21 pm Walmart is getting rid of the tile because concrete does not need wax or expensive chemicals. Tile floors need to be stripped and waxed. It is a cost and labor savings measure.
Well, they are putting wax, chemicals, or something on the floor to make it shiny. Concrete doesn't look shiny by itself. And this is going to need to be done periodically as the shine wears off.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: March 21st, 2023, 10:04 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: March 21st, 2023, 7:21 pm Walmart is getting rid of the tile because concrete does not need wax or expensive chemicals. Tile floors need to be stripped and waxed. It is a cost and labor savings measure.
Well, they are putting wax, chemicals, or something on the floor to make it shiny. Concrete doesn't look shiny by itself. And this is going to need to be done periodically as the shine wears off.
Same reasons Kroger cited as they got rid of tile floors.

One Wal Mart here is a 1995 era store expanded into a Supercenter and the cement floor happened somewhat recently there. It looks pretty drab, but there are few to no visible glue marks, etc. The other Wal Marts here that have cement floors were either built with them or had them installed in remodels about 8 years ago. The ones built with cement floors, the floors look rather drab, no shine. However the ones that had the tiles ripped 8 years ago oddly look quite good and shiny. There is a Wal Mart employee that pushes a floor cleaner around, supposedly just uses soap and water. Nothing done to shine.

Target is also in the process of converting to a cement floor over in Sparks. They are putting down a very thick coat to shine the cement. It looks good. Sleek. Oddly in the never ending year long Reno remodel that store only got new flooring in softlines, cosmetics, customer service, food service, and part of baby and kept its 25 year old white tile floor throughout the regular aisles (which is starting to look like a Kmart floor).
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

They are supposed to use diamond pads to grind concrete down so it shines. When a Walmart near me got a concrete floor conversion from tile about 5 years ago, it was really shiny at first. Over the years the surface got scratched up, so now it is very dull.

Stripping concrete with chemicals and then waxing can cause a whitening effect on concrete. The abrasive pads to remove wax will cause further damage to concrete that wax cannot fix. It is a vicious cycle.

The concrete needs to be polished with diamond pads and sealed with a breathable product. No wax is needed after that.
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