Walmart observations

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Re: Walmart observations

Post by cjd »

It’s surprising to me how many out of stocks Walmart has, and these seem to be somewhat permanent, yet items on display/and or shelf space left for them.

There’s are a few items I’ve been looking for, one has been out of stock for nearly a year, the other was in stock a few months ago and gone since.

A few stores are listed as having it in stock sometimes, but majority are out of stocks.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Brian Lutz »

In general I rarely get checked when leaving Walmart anymore, but it seems that having certain highly shoplifted items in your cart (such as laundry detergent, long a target for shoplifters) might trigger a receipt check.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 27th, 2022, 5:19 pm How will the new reusable bag policy go? Will this increase receipt checks or make it faster?
The policy is still receipt check on unbagged items, especially large items, need a receipt check. It doesn't matter what kind of bag you have (their bag or your own). They aren't going to receipt check an unbagged bag of potatoes in your cart full of groceries or an unbagged gallon of milk, typically (how they are trained anyway). Some stores make their own policies up.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Wal Mart locations around Reno have a ton of Christmas left. I think they had perhaps 60% sell through at best (that may be an exaggeration). They were sent so, so much product. Each store probably got 10 times the amount of product Target got, I have no clue what they were thinking. Reportedly 75% off will start 1/2 and the 90% off will start 1/9.

One store I went to I found pallets of popcorn tins and pet beds out on the floor that I had never seen before until today. I guess they just found those, probably stuck in one of the 50 trailers behind/beside the store. I wonder what else is in those trailers.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by Alpha8472 »

That is very strange. The Walmart stores near me do not have storage trailers. These are much higher volume stores and there is much less unsold Christmas merchandise. There are some tins of popcorn, but the other Christmas merchandise is mostly gone. The only things left are Christmas candies and food, which seem to sell slowly.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by ClownLoach »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 29th, 2022, 3:50 am That is very strange. The Walmart stores near me do not have storage trailers. These are much higher volume stores and there is much less unsold Christmas merchandise. There are some tins of popcorn, but the other Christmas merchandise is mostly gone. The only things left are Christmas candies and food, which seem to sell slowly.
Most Walmart stores I see have between 50 and as many as 100 storage containers (Long Beach, CA on Carson easily has 100). They clearly order way too much merchandise and then it gets lost out there. At the end of summer they were bringing in pallets of patio furniture that clearly went into a trailer and never saw the light of day until then. They were blowing it out at about 80%-90% off.

Walmart, and some other chains including Target and Michaels deliberately get stores with smaller back rooms than they need. They save on rent and then plop down storage bins for the peak season. Walmart probably couldn't get most of their buildings approved if they actually had stock rooms large enough to fit all of this product inside the building. They would need many, many more parking spaces because of typical zoning requirements that determine slots by square feet. All of them ship their bulky seasonal product during the deadest sales periods all up front in only a couple of waves. This helps to balance the volume of goods coming in and out of the distribution centers and prevent the need for additional trucks. But it also causes the chaos of stores getting 20+ trucks of Christmas goods all in August and September that go right into storage and sit until space opens for the sets to occur. I think Walmart has also been able to get away with not properly expanding some locations because their landlord allows containers on site. Many locations built with expansion pads to the side in California, like Laguna Niguel and Murrieta, have still not utilized that space. Murrieta also has at least 75 containers, at least it did two weeks ago.

Also there are some locations where the lease or local zoning does not allow for storage containers on property. Many of those stores use off site storage at local warehouses. There is a large Target on Harbor Blvd. In Costa Mesa for example that has an off-site warehouse. They have their own box trucks and take product to and from the off-site. The closed Walmart in Irvine had a similar operation. I would imagine that if you're seeing a high volume Walmart with no containers then it is for the same reason. You might be surprised how many stores do this... I was told by a Inventory Service Manager from WIS that the Victoria's Secret at South Coast Plaza has an off site warehouse triple the size of the store itself.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 29th, 2022, 3:50 am That is very strange. The Walmart stores near me do not have storage trailers. These are much higher volume stores and there is much less unsold Christmas merchandise. There are some tins of popcorn, but the other Christmas merchandise is mostly gone. The only things left are Christmas candies and food, which seem to sell slowly.
I suspect they are not allowed to have these trailers at the locations in your area. Perhaps there is no space for them, or there are zoning rules that prohibit the trailers from being present.

You should see the Wal Marts in Reno/Sparks- they have so much Christmas left it could be November 1. And they seem to keep finding new stuff to unpack.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: December 29th, 2022, 6:17 pm

Most Walmart stores I see have between 50 and as many as 100 storage containers (Long Beach, CA on Carson easily has 100). They clearly order way too much merchandise and then it gets lost out there. At the end of summer they were bringing in pallets of patio furniture that clearly went into a trailer and never saw the light of day until then. They were blowing it out at about 80%-90% off.

Walmart, and some other chains including Target and Michaels deliberately get stores with smaller back rooms than they need. They save on rent and then plop down storage bins for the peak season. Walmart probably couldn't get most of their buildings approved if they actually had stock rooms large enough to fit all of this product inside the building. They would need many, many more parking spaces because of typical zoning requirements that determine slots by square feet. All of them ship their bulky seasonal product during the deadest sales periods all up front in only a couple of waves. This helps to balance the volume of goods coming in and out of the distribution centers and prevent the need for additional trucks. But it also causes the chaos of stores getting 20+ trucks of Christmas goods all in August and September that go right into storage and sit until space opens for the sets to occur. I think Walmart has also been able to get away with not properly expanding some locations because their landlord allows containers on site. Many locations built with expansion pads to the side in California, like Laguna Niguel and Murrieta, have still not utilized that space. Murrieta also has at least 75 containers, at least it did two weeks ago.

This is what I see in Reno, also what I have seen in other places I've traveled to this year. The story is supposedly Wal Mart had a bunch of stuff backlogged at cargo yards early this year and initially was going to pay to store it at the cargo yards. Then they changed their mind because the cargo yards cost too much and decided to push everything to the stores. So the stores were allowed more trailers than before, months before trailers are typically allowed, but then have this very chaotic inventory situation to deal with and many stores in my view have completely lost control and are overwhelmed.

The other thing is Wal Mart will use the garden centers to store extra freight when those close or as they partially close in many places. I know in CA this is different as garden is open longer. I have heard some stores were also storing freight in a couple of bays of the auto repair departments, but have not personally seen that, so that may not be true.

I am still waiting to see when these inventory issues cause something that shows up in Wal Mart's financial results. So far they've been able to overcome it due to the high profits on groceries. It is certainly convenient their grocery logistics system is from different distribution centers and has a different receiving area than the non food side, as they take the grocery loads much more seriously and get that stuff put out and stocked immediately; none of that goes into trailers.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by cjd »

I noticed the Walmarts in my area had quite a bit of Christmas items left. This is unusual for 3-4 days after Christmas. Usually this stuff is completely gone a day or two after.

I noticed a lot of it is still stuff like wrapping supplies and hooks and just stuff that generally doesn’t sell as much, but there were still lots of lights and ornaments left too.

There are some cute items this year such as gift card holder aluminum tins. One is a Walmart spark shaped tin and one is a pickup truck like Sam Walton’s with the Walmart logo on the side.

I did not notice the Christmas villages being available this year.
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Re: Walmart observations

Post by cjd »

I don’t know if Walmart and Home Depot replenish their stock and Lowe’s does not, but I notice Lowe’s looks thinner in stock of these Christmas items starting around early/mid December. They also start marking certain items down a few weeks before Christmas.

This results in them having a lot less to liquidate after the holiday than other stores do. I noticed this last year as well.
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