Vacant Walmart stores

[bassoon1986]

Colfax, LA and Waskom, TX both had a Walmart express open and then close less than a year later. The bad thing is it closed other small grocery stores and then after WalMart left, the towns were left without anything.


iPhone

[abefroman329]

Related fun fact: Seattle proper has no Walmarts. In fact, King County only has 7 locations (1 of them being a neighborhood market), of which 3 are located in a 9-mile triangle around Federal Way and Auburn.

There aren't any Walmarts in NYC proper either.

Because they would have to charge double on all that they sell. 


Plus where in Manhattan can you put one without leasing.

I'm almost positive Walmart leased the spaces where they put Walmart City Edition locations in Chicago or whatever they were called.

In all likelihood, the brainchild for this concept was community opposition to building Walmarts in major cities.  "See?  We built a little one and the sun still set in the west and rose in the east.  Now, let's build a HUGE one!"  Didn't quite work out that way.

[doorknob60]

There used to be a Walmart on the south end of Redmond, OR. It closed when they opened a new Supercenter on the north side of town. Now it's apparently "BasX Solutions", some type of manufacturing plant or something.

Almost Walmart, there used to be a Sam's Club in Nampa, ID, immediately adjacent to a Walmart Supercenter that's still open. I believe it closed shortly after Costco opened their Nampa location. Now it's part of College of Western Idaho.

Not quite on topic, but there's a former Walgreens on the Garden City/Eagle, ID border, that's now a Dollar Tree. I just think it's odd seeing a different business inside something that is very obviously a former Walgreens.

[Scott5114]

When they built the west-side Supercenter in Norman, the old Walmart hung around, vacant, for a few years. I think it was actually a megachurch for a little while. At some point, Walmart reacquired it, demolished it, and built a Sam's on the location.

The non-super Walmart at the Tri-City shopping center in Newcastle OK was left vacant for a little while before it was acquired by the Chickasaw Nation. They now use it to subject their employees to insanely boring training classes that aren't relevant to their job duties.

[webny99]

This might be the saddest vacant Walmart. I believe it came up on this forum in a thread about food deserts and remember reading an article about it that was pretty sad and depressing. It's obviously open in the Street View link, but closed in 2016 (IIRC).

I'll link the article if I can find it later.

[Bruce]

This might be the saddest vacant Walmart. I believe it came up on this forum in a thread about food deserts and remember reading an article about it that was pretty sad and depressing. It's obviously open in the Street View link, but closed in 2016 (IIRC).

I'll link the article if I can find it later.

Would it be this Guardian article? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/09/what-happened-when-walmart-left

[webny99]

This might be the saddest vacant Walmart. I believe it came up on this forum in a thread about food deserts and remember reading an article about it that was pretty sad and depressing. It's obviously open in the Street View link, but closed in 2016 (IIRC).

I'll link the article if I can find it later.

Would it be this Guardian article? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/09/what-happened-when-walmart-left

Yep. I couldn't remember what thread it came up in, but anyways, that was it. Thanks for finding it!

[elsmere241]

There is a Walmart in downtown Washington, D.C., with its own parking garage.

Walmart took over a site a couple of miles from my house several years ago that had been a Zayre, then an Ames, then eventually a Caldor (it might have been something else in between) and then finally a KMart.  They lease the land, but built a new building.  At one point they tried to expand the building onto an adjacent parcel to expand the grocery section but they withdrew it.

Speaking of incentives, there's an Amazon fulfillment center right down the road from that Walmart, where a GM plant used to be.  They had the plans all approved and ready to go, but then asked the state for money to actually build it.  The state complied.

[Road Hog]

Lots of OG Walmart shells, before the Supercenter concept got up and going, are still around. Those are the ones that became locations for DG, Mardel's and other stores. The old one in North Little Rock (technically Sherwood) is now a very thriving Tractor Supply.

The Smallmarts in North Texas abandoned the small towns, but a lot of them got taken over by Spring Market, which is a Brookshire's joint.

[GCrites]

This might be the saddest vacant Walmart. I believe it came up on this forum in a thread about food deserts and remember reading an article about it that was pretty sad and depressing. It's obviously open in the Street View link, but closed in 2016 (IIRC).

I'll link the article if I can find it later.

2015 was the last time the Google Car was through. I swear that thing will drive through the same suburban subdivision twice a year but god forbid it would ever drive in Appalachia. There's major roads in the region that haven't been done since 2007.

[ibthebigd]

Rural King in the Midwest has gone in a lot of old Walmart and especially K Marts

SM-G996U

[hbelkins]

This might be the saddest vacant Walmart. I believe it came up on this forum in a thread about food deserts and remember reading an article about it that was pretty sad and depressing. It's obviously open in the Street View link, but closed in 2016 (IIRC).

I'll link the article if I can find it later.

That's the one in Welch that I mentioned upthread.

The sad part about that is the community had a Magic Mart (regional discount retailer) for years, and it closed sometime after Walmart opened. The entire Magic Mart chain closed down a couple of years ago.

[Road Hog]

I remember Magic Mart (barely). The ones in my area sold out after a few years and became Alco stores. Gibson's was a discount player too.

Of course, Walmart built bigger stores and put all of them out of business.

[CoolAngrybirdsrio4]

One of the closer Walmart locations in Ypsilanti, MI have closed around two years ago, it still remains vacant.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2421+Ellsworth+Rd,+Ypsilanti,+MI+48197/@42.2304796,-83.64916,3a,75y,217.67h,75.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1soFcTD4W6DFVZusQqhzCpsg!2e0!5s20210601T000000!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x883ca890e26d960f:0x94d5aeb8de92917c!8m2!3d42.2304951!4d-83.6493771?hl=en&authuser=0

[Flint1979]

One of the closer Walmart locations in Ypsilanti, MI have closed around two years ago, it still remains vacant.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2421+Ellsworth+Rd,+Ypsilanti,+MI+48197/@42.2304796,-83.64916,3a,75y,217.67h,75.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1soFcTD4W6DFVZusQqhzCpsg!2e0!5s20210601T000000!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x883ca890e26d960f:0x94d5aeb8de92917c!8m2!3d42.2304951!4d-83.6493771?hl=en&authuser=0

That store was just expanded into a supercenter like 5 years ago.

[apeman33]

The Walmart in Baxter Springs, Kansas, closed in 2015. It was the anchor store for a strip mall on the south side of town. It was still an old-school Walmart without an extensive grocery section. It's still empty.

https://bit.ly/3BpHZol <--Joplin Globe story which includes a mention about Walmart Express stores getting ready to open in a few months, one of which ended up being in Columbus, the county seat.

Prescriptions were transferred to a Joplin Walgreens for whatever reason. But Walgreens struck a deal with a local pharmacy so people don't have to drive clear over there. The sign on the building says something like "(Local Pharmacy) with Walgreens service."

There's a vacant Neighborhood Market in Liberal, KS. I think the main reason it closed is that it was only one mile west of the Supercenter, so why not just go to the big store? I've noticed that when a town is small enough that it has only one Walmart (regular strength), if a Neighborhood Market comes in, it's most likely to thrive when placed as far away from the main WM (and any other grocers) as possible.

Many Walmart Express stores in SW Missouri were bought by Harps. In Noel, MO, they moved from a very old building in the downtown area to a WE building near I-49.

I saw one of the WE buildings that Dollar General bought in Rose Hill, KS. Ironically, DG had just built its own new building a year earlier so now it sits abandoned about a half mile south.

[Dirt Roads]

It's not vacant anymore, but the old Walmart in Hillsborough, North Carolina relocated back in late August 2003 and sat vacant for more than 10 years.  Orange County began leasing the building and developed a spacious Social Services office since then.  Several years later, the County filled in the area north of the old Walmart building where the outdoor garden center once was.  That connected to the other storefront building that used to house Lowes Foods and several small shops.  Nowadays, the podmall appears to be one continuous long building, but it still has two separate owners (who also divide the large parking lot).

Somewhat off topic (as this thread seems to go sometimes), when I type "old Walmart" I have the urge to type "Wal-Mart".

[hbelkins]

The old Walmart in Frankfort, Ky., finally got torn down a couple of years ago.

Both Richmond and Winchester are on their third Walmart locations. In each town the original is now a Peddlers Mall.

[GCrites]

Both Richmond and Winchester are on their third Walmart locations.

That's hardcore

[thenetwork]

Neighborhood Markets are decked out in green, as opposed to regular Walmart's blue, right?

I have been in one Neighborhood Market, a few years ago. Looked basically like a Walmart grocery section with the expected home goods one would find in a grocery store.

There may be a few older empty Walmart buildings in my area. One I'm fairly sure hasn't had anything move into it is the one in Welch, WV.

It seems like the green, Neighborhood Walmart Markets are being converted to blue Walmart [city name] Markets.

My first encounter was a Walmart Spanish Fork (UT) Market about a month ago, and now the Neighborhood Market in my neck of the woods is turning blue and being retitled Walmart Grand Junction Market.

Oddly enough, this is about the  2nd or 3rd remodel of this store since it was built about 5-6 years ago.  I'm sure if this idea (going from green to blue) doesn't fly, I'm sure Walmart will remodel it again in a couple of years.

[Scott5114]

I'm not really sure what good changing the color scheme does for the customer–the green branding helps identify it as a Walmart with groceries only and no clothing, oil changes, camping supplies, dishes, etc...

On the other hand, I'm guessing they save some amount of money having everything be blue. I've noticed that the green-handled carts at the Neighborhood Market (or as we call it, Smallmart) near my house have slowly been replaced with blue-handled carts like you find in a normal Walmart.

[thenetwork]

I'm not really sure what good changing the color scheme does for the customer–the green branding helps identify it as a Walmart with groceries only and no clothing, oil changes, camping supplies, dishes, etc...

On the other hand, I'm guessing they save some amount of money having everything be blue. I've noticed that the green-handled carts at the Neighborhood Market (or as we call it, Smallmart) near my house have slowly been replaced with blue-handled carts like you find in a normal Walmart.

At least Walmart tries large scale testing of store concepts on a regular basis.  Some changes become permanent, some disappear as quickly as they appear (entry one-way security gates), and others are still being evaluated (all self-service checkouts at the markets).

...unlike other big box chains that leave/left things as-is for decades (JCP, Sears, Kmart)

[Scott5114]

Eh. Part of what I like about my regular grocery store, Crest, is that they have left things more-or-less as-is for the decade or so the store's been open. I don't go to a grocery store to see what fun and exciting things they've been up to in the week since I saw them last, I go there because I need a can of diced tomatoes, and I'd like it to be in the same place it was the last time I was there.

I've found that whenever I do shop at Walmart, I spend far more time trying to figure out where a familiar item might be than anything else. Meanwhile, at Crest, even if I've never bought an item before, I can usually guess exactly which aisle it's going to be in and be right on the first try.

[Bruce]

Soon to be vacant: two stores in Portland. https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/02/walmart-to-close-portland-stores-at-hayden-meadows-eastport-plaza.html

[GCrites]

I blame hipsters.