Walmart Neighborhood Markets - The Giant Scales Down

[Toliver]

You can read a little more about them here: Walmart Neighborhood Markets

They built one of the "markets" up the street from where I live. As an aside, the parking lot seems to have been built and striped by someone who failed design school. Newcomers to the store have a terrible time figuring out how to get back out onto the nearby main street since there are only two entrances into the parking lot.

 

What's interesting is that the store is less than a mile from the nearest Von's grocery store which ruled the neighborhood roost, so to speak, as the area's sole grocery store for quite a number of years. Physically, the Walmart store is about the same size as the Von's. The difference between this Walmart and the regular Walmart stores is that it just sells groceries... no TV's, no mens' department, no toy department, etc. Just groceries.

This new Walmart store has definitely made an observed impact on business at the Von's. I think the Von's employees have been told to park closer to the store to make it look like the Von's is busy (when you walk into that store now, the aisles are seemingly devoid of customers).

 

The prices at the Walmart Neighborhood Market are a mixed bag. They're generally cheaper than Von's with the exception of the meat department which is priced about the same as Von's. Premium goods like Jarlsberg or Brie or your usual name-brand butter are still a little pricey just like any other store. But deals can be found. 

 

I wept...or came close to weeping inside the Walmart Neighborhood Market. There in the Walmart's hot rotisserie chicken racks were these small plastic black boxes with clear lids. I looked closer and saw that they were small individual pork roasts!    I swooned. I found out from the deli employee that they have the small cooked pork roasts everyday. This was news to me. The first few times I shopped in the store, I passed by the rotisserie chickens and just saw the chickens, not knowing that the pork roasts had sold out. 

The cooked, boneless pork roasts have a spice rub on the outside that may be a little spicy to some. The pork is cooked to about a medium (you can see some vague pinkishness here and there, which may scare some people away but the meat is moist and mild and delicious). The small roasts could serve about 3 people generously. They do come in different sizes and are priced pretty low for ready-to-eat pork goodness.

For the pork roasts alone, Walmart has my business.

 

Does anyone else have a Walmart Neighborhood Market in your area? What are your impressions?

[stckciv]

It's been many years since I have been to one. I had one a mile away from my previous home about 10 years ago and didn't find it any better than the other grocery stores around.

 

They recently opened a new one about 4 miles from my new home, I may have to check it out and see if it is any better.

[MSRadell]

We've got one within a couple miles of our home. We go there quite often but just for a few quick items, not only for a big shopping trip. There produce section and meat department aren't that inviting compared to some of the other stores in our area. We never go grocery shopping at the Walmart Superstore because it's just too crowded and frustrating to shop at. The Neighborhood Store is real easy to get in and out of quickly when you need a few small items. As stated earlier pricing is a mixed bag.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

We have no neighborhood Walmart grocery markets in our neck of the woods that I'm aware of yet. I did go to the Walmart super store for a grocery shop when my husband suggested they were cheaper. I'm always up for that, even though one of our local news stations periodically does a market basket shop for common staples, and Walmart never wins.

 

I was still willing to give it a shot for economy.

 

I started in the produce department, and loaded up my cart with the usual suspects. We don't buy many processed foods. Then we proceeded to the meats, and when I started looking at ground beef that admitted on its label it'd been gassed with carbon monoxide in the telltale deep styrofoam  containers with expiration dates an alarming week in the future. I went and found my husband, and he agreed with me we'd be better off shopping at our usual place which still has a butcher (just primals, no whole animals). They grind "beef" which I don't buy anymore after the pink slime mess, sirloin, round, and, my preference, chuck, fresh everyday. The price is no different for now, but I fear that less discerning customers in huge masses will support these neighborhood Walmarts and drive the very few independents out of business.

 

This is SO NOT good news to me. 

[lindag]

I don't mean to detract from the direction of this topic but I have to pipe up and gripe about the Walmarts in my city.

It doesn't seem to matter much what time I go to the store but I find the shelves unstocked!!  What's the matter with the management?

How can they sell if they don't have the products out.  This is primarily in the grocery and produce sections, I don't shop much for their dry goods.  This has been going on for years.  Does this happen in your Walmart too?

[SylviaLovegren]

I don't mean to detract from the direction of this topic but I have to pipe up and gripe about the Walmarts in my city.

It doesn't seem to matter much what time I go to the store but I find the shelves unstocked!!  What's the matter with the management?

How can they sell if they don't have the products out.  This is primarily in the grocery and produce sections, I don't shop much for their dry goods.  This has been going on for years.  Does this happen in your Walmart too?

They do that on purpose, sort of.  They have "just in time" stocking, which means they don't have items sitting around in the back that aren't earning money.  And they don't pay enough workers to keep the shelves stocked either.  But they figure, apparently rightly, that enough people will say "dang it!" when they see an empty shelf but then come back the next time anyway because of the cheap deals they'll get.  An unpleasant shopping experience for customers, poverty wages for the workers, and still, lots of bucks in the owners' pockets.

 

It's a horrible business model for (almost) everyone. 

[Toliver]

 

We've got one within a couple miles of our home. We go there quite often but just for a few quick items, not only for a big shopping trip. There produce section and meat department aren't that inviting compared to some of the other stores in our area...

I agree with this point. The produce department at the Walmart Neighborhood Market is noticeably different than a "normal" grocery store. A good example is their green onions/scallions. They stock Dole greens onions that come prepackaged in a plastic bag which cost about a buck. Whereas a "normal" grocery store would have unbagged bunches of green onions with a couple of small rubber bands around them selling for a lot less. This reminds me of when my local Trader Joe's first started selling fresh produce.It was all prepacakged and you couldn't pick out your own produce (just like the now-defunct Fresh and Easy stores). My TJ's actually seems to be reversing direction these days and is selling more "loose" produce.

 

I don't mean to detract from the direction of this topic but I have to pipe up and gripe about the Walmarts in my city.

It doesn't seem to matter much what time I go to the store but I find the shelves unstocked!!  What's the matter with the management?

How can they sell if they don't have the products out.  This is primarily in the grocery and produce sections, I don't shop much for their dry goods.  This has been going on for years.  Does this happen in your Walmart too?

It's been happening at all of the regular and super Walmarts. The problem is that they do have the stock in their backroom/storehouse but have cut back on their staff so much that they don't have employees to bring it from the back and restock the shelves. From what I understand, they're aware of the issue and are supposed to be hiring more staff for stocking. 

 

One of the (small) upsides is that this Walmart Neighborhood Market is stocking a lot of brands I've never seen before. I'm assuming they're brands known more familiarly in the Southern US.