Just had a new super Walmart open off Hwy 65 in Branson, MO. I was not impressed, in fact disappointed. The store layout is all chopped up and if you are looking for housewares in the new stores, forget it. I needed a funnel...they didn't have one...didn't notice any shelf markers that indicated that they even carried them. Very few pyrex pieces, a bread pan for $6, limited silverware selection and dishes were in several different places. The number of appliances has been greatly reduced. I like the old Walmart with all the kitchen stuff in one aisle and a variety of things to buy. There are few choices in the bedding and kitchen linens sections. Puny pet department. I could go on and on. What happened to the store I could find everything I needed in? I find better stuff at the Family Dollar store and the prices are much better.

OK, off my soap box. Wanted to see if anyone else noticed this or I am just a whiner!

dennise

Super Walmarts can only be made so big. Heck with all the made in china stuff they need to carry, I am not surprised that you couldn't find half the things you needed.

I noticed the same thing with the new Super Walmart in my hometown of Guymon OK. I live here in south TX at Portland and the S Wal here in town is great! Very well stocked. The one in Guymon only has about half the shelves stocked. I dunno what is going on.
Don

Don't even want to mention 30 check out registers and only 5 are open. The service and products went in the grave with Sam Walton.

Joe

Interesting; I've noticed the same product number/variety and shelf space allotment decline in Wal*Mart in different areas of CA. And, it's not just Wal*Mart; several other big box stores, e.g., Target, and large chain grocery stores, e.g., Safeway, appear to be cutting their overall inventory and offering fewer product lines and product choices within those lines. (And, higher prices for what they do have, of course!) The changes are subtle, but they're there!

It is the customer service that I notice is askew.

Bill went to Walmart in SC to get a new fishing license. It took 45 min. to get it done. The employee didn't know what she was doing, lost it in the computer, he gave all the info again, lost it again, etc.

Only 2-3 registers open with lots of customers. The next day, same thing.

They have cut so many employees.

Mona

Lets give Walmart credit for one thing, the $4.00 drug program, they've got their compeditors following. Four of mine were less expensive then I could get them at the VA.

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that WalMart is trying out a new look in some of their Super stores. They are trying to make them look more upscale and are laid out more like a Target than their traditional layout. I agree with the OP. I go to WalMart because of the prices and because I know where to find things, even in different stores. Sometimes the layout is reversed, but things are still in the same relative position. I am lost in the new look stores and think they should stick with what works. If I wanted an upscale store like Target, I would go there instead.

Looks like our local Super-Walmart is getting the new layout. There is a new sign posted saying that the are hiring 80 people for the remodel.

I think we may have been a test market area for the "new" look, before they went full ahead with it. We have 2 Walmarts in town. Both are called Super Walmarts, but are very different.

The only I like the best is the orginal, it (in the past) has had more variety of product. It is also laid out in the plan that has been around for many years.

About 4 years ago they built the second one. It has never had the same about of product and is laid out totally different.

I live sort of in the middle, but go to the older, busier one because of the product choice and lay out.

Rif, I think hit the nail on the head. He is correct that Wallyworld wanted to "upscale". And they also wanted to be (more or less) something for everyone. Well I wish I could count how many American business operations in the last ten years wanted to be something for everyone. And they failed big time. Find or stay in your niche and go for it. Again to Rif, Target has a whole lot of nothing.

Sandee, we have both types of superstores also. Inventory is different and when it is the same, the prices are different, lower at the old store in the older, less affulenmt part of town. Amazing, isle width is much different, lighting is different etc. just our experience. Gene

The inventory is shrinking because disposable income is shrinking. Wal-Mart has one of the most sophisticated computer systems around and they can adjust inventory very quickly to match what is selling and what is not.

Barb

The important thing about Walmart is that if they would keep putting stuff in the same place in all their stores, I would never have to wander around like a lost goose looking for somebody to ask "there is ___". They never know anyway so why bother. Also, don't go to the Walmart in Rock Springs, Wyoming, unless you have loads of time and patience. We went there once every two weeks (lived 100 miles trip from town). It would take a minimum of 45 minutes in the check out line. Usually they had 5 checkers at most. There would be so many people waiting to check out that you couldn't get through the store to finish shopping. My husband would go stand in line while I shopped. It's really great we are not there anymore. They have so much competition from the oil industry for workers that anybody that can pass a drug test, an eye test, and read can get a job making $25+ per hour driving a truck for the oil industry. They have permanent "help wanted" banners all over town. Walmart is not going to compete for those workers by paying comparable wages.

I noticed the same thing in the housewares department at the WalMart here in Missoula. It's not just WalMart, either. For years I've shopped at the shoe chain, "Famous Footwear". I went to the one in Missoula a few days ago and walked out empty-handed. Everything on the shelves is geared to the much-younger crowd, i.e. ballet slippers, sandals on 3" platforms, chunky pumps. All I wanted was a simple pair of flats. One pair in the store on a sale rack, too big for me. Shelves empty; clerks nowhere to be found. What gives?

Bev

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