storewanderer wrote: ↑October 26th, 2022, 10:22 pm
Still some Div 1s hanging around CA.
I think the reality is Wal Mart is starting to not be able to survive without full grocery. Stores without full grocery just don't generate the traffic they need.
What I wonder is, we know Wal Mart requires very high volumes. Some of these locations may have been more than sufficient volumes for old operators like Kmart or Shopko, but now that the competition is gone, Wal Mart no longer has to tolerate these type of smaller/older/lower volume stores.
Also likely that in some areas they still have those stores due to rules that places in CA set up limiting store sizes that prevent them from expanding to larger buildings as they might otherwise have.
Would also explain if they had a regular store and a Market store in fairly close proximity, basically splitting a store into two locations to get around those size limits.
The Walmart in Pleasanton, California could not expand into a supercenter so Walmart decided to open up 2 Walmart Neighborhood markets nearby. This backfired. The large store lost most of its customers to the two Neighborhood markets and the large store now is a ghost town. It has so few customers that it looks like it will be closing as soon as the new Costco opens up. The two Neighborhood Markets do mediocre business and drained most of the customers from the large store.
The large Walmart has had to cut labor hours due to lack of sales. Now there are fewer employees and everything is out of stock at the store. The store manager was fired due to poor sales and the entire store is a mess. Perhaps all 3 of these stores will close down soon. I know they suffer from a very weird group of shoplifters. The rich entitled shoplifters... I saw a man in a fancy expensive car filled up his shopping cart and then roll the cart out the door after pretending to use the self checkout. He rang up the items but did not pay. Then he ran out the front door with his cart. The employees did not know what to do. He then was busy looking at his phone as he loaded his car. Then there are mobs of rich high school kids who swarm the store after school and load their backpacks with tons of stuff and walk out as if they owned the place. The spoiled kids have no shame. Kids have stolen through the ages, but now they have no fear of consequences.
Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 28th, 2022, 6:07 pm
The Walmart in Pleasanton, California could not expand into a supercenter so Walmart decided to open up 2 Walmart Neighborhood markets nearby. This backfired. The large store lost most of its customers to the two Neighborhood markets and the large store now is a ghost town. It has so few customers that it looks like it will be closing as soon as the new Costco opens up. The two Neighborhood Markets do mediocre business and drained most of the customers from the large store.
The large Walmart has had to cut labor hours due to lack of sales. Now there are fewer employees and everything is out of stock at the store. The store manager was fired due to poor sales and the entire store is a mess. Perhaps all 3 of these stores will close down soon. I know they suffer from a very weird group of shoplifters. The rich entitled shoplifters... I saw a man in a fancy expensive car filled up his shopping cart and then roll the cart out the door after pretending to use the self checkout. He rang up the items but did not pay. Then he ran out the front door with his cart. The employees did not know what to do. He then was busy looking at his phone as he loaded his car. Then there are mobs of rich high school kids who swarm the store after school and load their backpacks with tons of stuff and walk out as if they owned the place. The spoiled kids have no shame. Kids have stolen through the ages, but now they have no fear of consequences.
Where was the door greeter at Wal Mart to ask for a receipt for the unbagged merchandise? That is their policy... though nothing stops a customer from keeping walking. Door greeter cannot chase a customer or stand in front of a customer who is in motion exiting under any circumstances. I see Wal Mart stop people often around Reno and they call the police sometimes. The sad thing is many folks they stop are repeat offenders.
CVS has detected so much trouble with people scanning everything at self checkout then leaving without paying, that when CVS self checkout clerk does a transaction void, they have one of the reasons for void as "suspected theft" or "abandoned transaction." I am not sure what happens if they select the "suspected theft" option- like does a report go to corporate to pull the cameras and try to watch the activity and see if someone really did walk without paying? Walgreens has a new system where if someone is suspected of theft the employees are to fill out an incident report with any identifying information they can get (license plate number for instance, also would be surprised how many shoplifters are not so bright and will shoplift then buy a small candy or soda on the way out and use a loyalty card or credit card with their identifying information on it...) and then some third party will potentially go after the shoplifter after reviewing the cameras.
It serves a range of incomes, which is not unusual in Pittsburgh---the wealth is concentrated in several widely dispersed areas and the one upscale mall serves a very middle income area; the poorest, most depopulated areas seem to be the old industrial suburbs in the Monongahela River valley rather than in the city. The Waterworks serves many city and suburban areas not close to more typical shopping centers.
Is there a metro in the US with as strange a socioeconomic layout as Pittsburgh--you're right in that there are pockets of affluence in each of the four directions...the river valleys really do a number on a regular layout!
Romr123 wrote: ↑October 29th, 2022, 7:50 amIt serves a range of incomes, which is not unusual in Pittsburgh---the wealth is concentrated in several widely dispersed areas and the one upscale mall serves a very middle income area; the poorest, most depopulated areas seem to be the old industrial suburbs in the Monongahela River valley rather than in the city. The Waterworks serves many city and suburban areas not close to more typical shopping centers.
Is there a metro in the US with as strange a socioeconomic layout as Pittsburgh--you're right in that there are pockets of affluence in each of the four directions...the river valleys really do a number on a regular layout!
You'd have to go to places that are much larger and spread out--Chicago, LA, NYC. Even some bigger metros are more concentrated. DC's well off areas are places that are a short distance from the Potomac in the suburbs and the NW quad of DC proper--you also have horse country but that's a natural westward extension of wealthy areas near the Potomac in Virginia. Pittsburgh proper has retained its well off areas (the East End) even as other areas of the city have declined.
I noticed that the local San Francisco Bay Area Walmart has added another security guard company in addition to their regular uniformed security guards. They are now using International Protective Services. The new security guards are really impressive with bullet proof body armor, police style SUVs, and a team of armed fit guards.
It looks like they are a military style security team ready for an Iraq style insurgent attack.
Alpha8472 wrote: ↑November 8th, 2022, 5:11 pm
I noticed that the local San Francisco Bay Area Walmart has added another security guard company in addition to their regular uniformed security guards. They are now using International Protective Services. The new security guards are really impressive with bullet proof body armor, police style SUVs, and a team of armed fit guards.
It looks like they are a military style security team ready for an Iraq style insurgent attack.
Nothing like this around Reno. In fact, one more store removed the metal entry/exit alarm gates last week. Slowly those seem to be getting removed from every store.
The retail theft rings are gearing up for the holidays. They seek to plunder the merchandise being delivered for Black Friday. The guards are an impressive show of force. I think it is worth it as it feels much safer with them patrolling the store and parking lot. It was like having U.N. Peacekeepers on guard.
Alpha8472 wrote: ↑November 8th, 2022, 11:42 pm
The retail theft rings are gearing up for the holidays. They seek to plunder the merchandise being delivered for Black Friday. The guards are an impressive show of force. I think it is worth it as it feels much safer with them patrolling the store and parking lot. It was like having U.N. Peacekeepers on guard.
Hopefully the security guards show up to work. Tonight at one Wal Mart I went to, they had zero front end help, I guess the few people scheduled to 11 PM did not show up and the few left scheduled off at 9 PM. No overtime allowed of course even if some of the 9 PM shift end ones would have stayed (they were still in the store walking around/socializing after that time anyway). They had a "Coach" running self checkout. A customer was demanding a cashier to check her cart of 20-25 groceries out. The "Coach" didn't seem to want to deal with it, kept walking away from that customer to clear errors on the self checkout. Eventually the customer gave up and just used the self checkout. I would suggest the customer just shop WinCo next time; always a cashier there. They'll face the same self checkout only policy at that time of night at Safeway or Smiths or Target too unfortunately at this point, in Reno. In the old days I'd laugh, hope the customer got frustrated and never shopped Wal Mart again over this policy. Now every surrounding store other than WinCo is doing this self checkout only after 9 PM thing...
storewanderer wrote: ↑November 10th, 2022, 12:30 am
Eventually the customer gave up and just used the self checkout.
I would've have given up too-by leaving the entire cart right there and walking out of the store. I've said it before, even at maybe $20.00/hr., that $40.00 they would spend on even one "real" cashier for those two hours until closing time would more than pay for itself with even one transaction given the price of everything today. Quite likely those 20-25 items would've covered those wages. So now in my hypothetical scenario, you have a cartful of stuff which has to be restocked by a clerk making comparable wages to what a cashier would be paid. Was really worth it wasn't it to save a buck or two here and there wasn't it? And one other thing too-you now have a ticked off customer who may not even come back to that store and potentially could go on social media and tell the world of their less than satisfactory shopping experience. Just another case of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.
