Walmart observations

[mjhale]

Also do you see any Wal Mart delis with Dietz and Watson program in service deli? Wonder if this is widespread or isolates.

Never seen a Walmart deli with anything other than Prima Della. I'm not sure I'd trust Walmart to keep up a program like Dietz and Watson. The couple times I tried getting anything from the Walmart deli it was crusty and tough, like the meat and cheese was exposed to air too long without any kind of seal.

[ClownLoach]

I have observed that at the Walmarts here in Greensboro the in-store spaces vacated by McDonald's when they moved out have yet to be reoccupied by anything. It looks like some stores are using the space as a holding area for pickup orders or as general storage, but the walls do have "your store here" ads on them which seem to indicate that they would still lease the space out. Most of the stores here have bank branches (Woodforest Bank) and a couple have hair salons or VetIQ clinics, but I don't think any of them have restaurant tenants currently.

My local store, #7301 in Carencro, LA, had an open space that the wall map said Foodservice when the store opened. About 2 years ago, a Claire's opened in the spot, and VetIQ opened up next to it in the former SmartStyle Salon after it closed.

I was at the newly remodeled store in Woodburn, Oregon. The McDonald's is now a Joy Teriyaki and the bank is now a Boba tea place. Neither looks very polished for a Walmart..

Overall, there are parts of the remodel that aren't done yet even though they had their grand reopening a week and a half ago. The store was a mess. You would think the managers and employees would want to take pride in their fresh newish store by keeping it up but they don't. Kinda wondering what the point of the remodel was besides putting new lipstick on the outer walls to make it look more comptempory.

It seems Walmart has experienced a lot of delays in their recent remodels and decided to just clean up as much as they could to open up the store for peak season sales. The biggest delays appear to be addition of covered pickup areas which are Prefabricated structures that have not yet arrived.

[ClownLoach]

Also do you see any Wal Mart delis with Dietz and Watson program in service deli? Wonder if this is widespread or isolates.

Never seen a Walmart deli with anything other than Prima Della. I'm not sure I'd trust Walmart to keep up a program like Dietz and Watson. The couple times I tried getting anything from the Walmart deli it was crusty and tough, like the meat and cheese was exposed to air too long without any kind of seal.

I'm going to double check but I think Temecula kept Dietz and Watson after the remodel, at least a very limited line of their products. They had them before the remodel. I recall seeing only a few cheeses which were disappointing, white American, yellow American, Swiss and pepper jack.

[ClownLoach]

Those phone sale kiosks seem alive and well. I have seen them somewhere else too. I forget where, could have been a gas station.

I'm sure each kiosk is responsible for an increase in crime. I think there is one sitting in the middle of the food court area at the Mission Viejo mall too. The suspicious person was presenting an ID for scanning that I could spot as fake 50 feet away. With carriers implementing shared network IMEI locks on reported stolen units, thus barring them from connecting to any major US carrier, I wonder what exactly these kiosk vendors do with these phones? My guess is that they part them out to the sleazy mall phone screen repair kiosks; they can probably harvest the screen and outer covers if in good condition then junk the guts and still make a profit. Meanwhile the mall vendor and their customer have no idea they're buying stolen goods. What a crappy business plan. Who thought this would be a good idea.

[Alpha8472]

EcoATM is the company that operates the automated used phone kiosks. The phones are taken to a warehouse and sorted. Only the sellable ones are resold. The rest are sold to wholesale dealers who use them for parts. The company uses the information and ID entered into the kiosk as proof that the phone is not stolen.

So there are probably many stolen phones that get sold for parts. I doubt the police will raid their warehouse and expose them for ripping apart stolen phones.

EcoATM is owned by Gazelle which is owned by Apollo Global Management.

I have seen these kiosks at some Walmart and Safeway stores.

[mjhale]

Also do you see any Wal Mart delis with Dietz and Watson program in service deli? Wonder if this is widespread or isolates.

Never seen a Walmart deli with anything other than Prima Della. I'm not sure I'd trust Walmart to keep up a program like Dietz and Watson. The couple times I tried getting anything from the Walmart deli it was crusty and tough, like the meat and cheese was exposed to air too long without any kind of seal.

I'm going to double check but I think Temecula kept Dietz and Watson after the remodel, at least a very limited line of their products. They had them before the remodel. I recall seeing only a few cheeses which were disappointing, white American, yellow American, Swiss and pepper jack.

Do the specialty deli meat and cheese providers sign exclusive or semi-exclusive contracts with grocers for specific areas? Around me Safeway has Dietz & Watson and Giant has Boars Head. I'm pretty sure that Harris Teeter has Boars Head as well. Maybe the three major traditional grocers in my area having the two big specialty brands is why Walmart around here hasn't sold any specialty product even in small selections.

Walmart has such a limited selection of deli meats and cheeses of what they do sell that it almost seems like a waste for them to have a service deli. Only one of the three Supercenters near me has a service deli. American, Swiss and Pepper Jack cheese and turkey, chicken, ham and bologna for meats is about all they have. The meat plus the Swiss and Pepper Jack are all Prima Della. The American Cheese is Land o Lakes. If the grab and go section is any indication, the meat and cheese packs there have more short dated discount packs than ones that aren't. Also, I rarely see anyone at the deli counter at the one local Supercenter that has one. I don't think I'm the only one who does not trust Walmart for deli meats.

[ClownLoach]

Never seen a Walmart deli with anything other than Prima Della. I'm not sure I'd trust Walmart to keep up a program like Dietz and Watson. The couple times I tried getting anything from the Walmart deli it was crusty and tough, like the meat and cheese was exposed to air too long without any kind of seal.

I'm going to double check but I think Temecula kept Dietz and Watson after the remodel, at least a very limited line of their products. They had them before the remodel. I recall seeing only a few cheeses which were disappointing, white American, yellow American, Swiss and pepper jack.

Do the specialty deli meat and cheese providers sign exclusive or semi-exclusive contracts with grocers for specific areas? Around me Safeway has Dietz & Watson and Giant has Boars Head. I'm pretty sure that Harris Teeter has Boars Head as well. Maybe the three major traditional grocers in my area having the two big specialty brands is why Walmart around here hasn't sold any specialty product even in small selections.

Walmart has such a limited selection of deli meats and cheeses of what they do sell that it almost seems like a waste for them to have a service deli. Only one of the three Supercenters near me has a service deli. American, Swiss and Pepper Jack cheese and turkey, chicken, ham and bologna for meats is about all they have. The meat plus the Swiss and Pepper Jack are all Prima Della. The American Cheese is Land o Lakes. If the grab and go section is any indication, the meat and cheese packs there have more short dated discount packs than ones that aren't. Also, I rarely see anyone at the deli counter at the one local Supercenter that has one. I don't think I'm the only one who does not trust Walmart for deli meats.

I think there are regional deals, nothing exclusive. SoCal Ralphs in better areas have Boars Head, Albertsons and Vons have Dietz and Watson, Pavilions has Boars Head (not Vons), Sprouts has Boars Head, Target has Kretchmar in Super locations that still staff the deli.

Also I checked and the Temecula Walmart does show they sell D&W still. I just see enough sanitation issues with deli meats and especially slicer maintenance out there that I would be very hesitant to trust Walmart with getting it right. I've had to tell poorly trained employees at Ralphs to throw out the batch of meat they sliced because they let it all fall onto the dirty metal surface under the slicer without the plastic sheet so it was instantly contaminated with who-knows-what, I could see pieces of meat and juices on there. Yuck.

[storewanderer]

I think there are regional deals, nothing exclusive. SoCal Ralphs in better areas have Boars Head, Albertsons and Vons have Dietz and Watson, Pavilions has Boars Head (not Vons), Sprouts has Boars Head, Target has Kretchmar in Super locations that still staff the deli.

Also I checked and the Temecula Walmart does show they sell D&W still. I just see enough sanitation issues with deli meats and especially slicer maintenance out there that I would be very hesitant to trust Walmart with getting it right. I've had to tell poorly trained employees at Ralphs to throw out the batch of meat they sliced because they let it all fall onto the dirty metal surface under the slicer without the plastic sheet so it was instantly contaminated with who-knows-what, I could see pieces of meat and juices on there. Yuck.

I've spoken to store managers and proceeded to abandon deli purchases so many times after seeing this... (I don't tell the employee to fix the issue, I just abandon the purchase)... another one that drives me... is when they have to "come around the front and take a slab of lunchmeat out of the case" and do so with the same gloves they just put on (I hope they just put them on) to slice the meat and they touch the case from the customer side to flip it open and get the slab out, then with those same gloves go handle the meat.

You may also wish to communicate what you are seeing to Boar's Head as part of the "service" their distributor is supposed to provide to the stores is to train employees and they spend a lot of time on how to properly slice meat in their training.

Anyway I was shocked to see the Wal Mart with Dietz and Watson product there in AZ. I wonder if this may be why Albertsons/Safeway quit selling it in that market? I was in a lot of Wal Marts but only really looked seriously at a few delis. Only one deli I saw had this Dietz & Watson program going.

Wal Mart's deli operation is no less risky than any other supermarket in my opinion from a sanitation standpoint. I can't say I've ever bought sliced lunchmeat from them but if they had Dietz & Watson I would make some purchases.

Some Sprouts used to have Dietz & Watson, maybe not anymore.

[BillyGr]

Also I checked and the Temecula Walmart does show they sell D&W still. I just see enough sanitation issues with deli meats and especially slicer maintenance out there that I would be very hesitant to trust Walmart with getting it right. I've had to tell poorly trained employees at Ralphs to throw out the batch of meat they sliced because they let it all fall onto the dirty metal surface under the slicer without the plastic sheet so it was instantly contaminated with who-knows-what, I could see pieces of meat and juices on there. Yuck.

No wonder prices go up so much, when customers make them discard perfectly good food!

If anything, they could simply remove the bottom slice or two, since the rest of the slices NEVER touched "the dirty metal surface" (if it was even dirty - anything on it would have come from other items sliced, thus only an issue if someone was dangerously allergic to one particular type of meat) - a little beef on a piece of turkey won't harm anyone otherwise (or no restaurant would sell sandwiches with a mixture of meats!).

But instead, they throw out many dollars of product, then have to charge everyone else more for what they do sell to make up for it.

[veteran+]

There are specific food safety laws that cover this.

Cross contamination can deadly.