Is it " TIME " to rethink Walmart?

[dpep]

Back a decade+ ago when I was organizing the West Virginia rides I discovered that every 'town' of at least one stoplight (and some with none) would have a Dairy Queen and a Family Dollar store. It was so certain that I used them as checkpoints (usually the DQ) when mapping out routes.

I frequently trade at Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores myself though I live in the middle of the city. I like being able to park just a few feet from the door and not having to traverse furlongs of aisles to find the one or two items I may need.

[Suzukian]

I have found that Online Walmart is really fast.

[rphillips]

Love Dollar General Store, may not have exactly what you want but always something to suffice. In and out before you can get in at Walmart.

[Cipher]

traditional retail is doomed taking the careers and jobs it provided and the community roles it served into oblivion with it.

The efficiency of internet commerce compared to store shopping is simply too great to allow anything beyond select niche in-store markets to remain viable going forward. I am not making a judgement (it's complicated); i am just stating the inevitable.

Groceries are one area where due to the nature of the product some local store presence with on premises shoppers will likely survive. But even that will likely be some hybrid of the current model and online.

I must confess that most of the money i spend in a typical month is with amazon or aldi. I also do a fair amount of grocery shopping at winn dixie supermarkets. They have the rotisserie chicken i chop up for my dog. There was a report in the paper here last week that the winn dixie chain has been sold.......to aldi.

traditional retail has been gone since the advent of shopping malls.
50 plus yrs.
The only thing i can say about walmart is they saved me 3 dollars on a 7 dollar item.
Good bye auto parts place..
I recall some folks sending a request for a local store. It came and took a non fatal bite of the market.
Mind you the petitioners were of a fixed income.

Also walmart is no longer competitive for things i buy.
Amazon is king but you need to be discerning as search results are weighted heavily to sponsored ads and the like.
Best way around it is discrete part or product numbers. Do a vague boolean string your screwed if you buy.

[trent]

Good bye auto parts place...

I was looking at some old pictures of family members , aunts ,uncles, from around late seventies.
kinda funny when my dad and his brother( and many of their friends) were still in high school they worked at auto parts stores...

They told me back then there were so many locally owned parts stores around ...like two dozen in our town....and they all got most of their parts from same warehouse, an old coca cala plant. And the older guys that worked the counter knew their stuff...no computers ..

Now just four chain stores where half of the people working there don't know anything but a computer...lol

[rphillips]

It's amazing how little the folks in Auto parts stores today know as compared to 40 yrs. ago. Back then most the folks in the store knew a lot about mechanics and what you were probably going to get into when fixing your problem and have tips on things you may not know or have thought about till you get started. Today they do good to be able to tell you what isle the wiper blades or oil filters are on....Not bragging on Walmart but, Oil changes $39, rotate & balance tires for life of the tires $12.50 pr. tire, Tire pressure sensors, I've just found they have them, they furnish the new sensor, remove, replace, reprogram for $29.95...I've just got to go there.

[LAB3]

In a car culture where maintenance is low and people wait until something is broken before they fix it your "one stop does all" solution to car care makes sense. It's not like the good old days when you had to pay attention to things to make sure you had a ride to work on Monday that's for sure.

[slayer61]

I will go out of my way to give MY money to a local Mom & Pop shop, before I give the Waltons or Bezos any money. They got plenty & don't need my tuppence. I made plenty of money during the 80's when Sam Walton proceded to "build a Walmart across from every K-Mart in the country", building walmarts, but they're all "the Devil" now.


Your experience may be different.

[rphillips]

No doubt, We all probably see the point. But we all don't have the means to pay the 1/3 more to support the Mom and Pops.

[Vmass]

I live in a town with a population of 35k and we have two Walmart supercenters. I wonder if they will be making some changes soon, as I have to believe that Amazon grabs some of their " regular stuff " sales. The food portions will likely remain.

I don't retail much so I don't have any baseline to know how busy they are at any given time. I know at least one of them was a 24 hour store but I think they changed that a few years ago.

This thread certainly made me realize that I do virtually 0 shopping for general living, and I like it like that!

[trent]

I know a lot of people that use walmart app, make a list, walmart employees round the stuff up and bring it out to your car....now I know why it's self check out...cashiers are too busy rounding up groceries for the app users.