Which Walmart layout is the best?

[tolbs17]

For me, I vote option 1 (Home and Pharmacy on the left and Grocery on the right) because that's the layout that I'm used to.

[ozarkman417]

Option one describes the Walmart supercenter I visit most frequently (of the five supercenters in Springfield). The Gaming section is always in the back, no matter the layout of the rest of the store, from my experience.

Another Walmart question: WHY do some Walmarts have the 'enter' door on the left, and the 'exit' door on the right?

[oscar]

There are other layouts. The more significant differences (which I think are more important than the ones in your poll, none of which I care about) are:

-- one entrance or two
-- restrooms up front (between the entrances of two-entrance stores), rather than in the back
-- whether there is at least one group of self-checkout machines (some two-entrance stores will have them next to both entrances)

The one-entrance stores tend to be smaller, and have restrooms only in the back or in unexpected locations up front. They often also don't have self-checkout. For those reasons, I prefer two-entrance Walmarts.

Also, you have the larger Supercenters (better grocery sections -- though lately their product selection seems to be going downhill, especially for frozen food), and regular Walmarts. The store directory included in the Walmart editions of the Rand McNally atlas will point out the difference.

Urban Walmarts have their own quirky layouts, often driven by parking in garages rather than surface parking.

Because there are so many layout variants (some of which I might not have mentioned), I suggest not modifying the poll to try to cover them all. The poll isn't really useful anyway, people can just post their preferences as I have.

[jeffandnicole]

Option one describes the Walmart supercenter I visit most frequently (of the five supercenters in Springfield). The Gaming section is always in the back, no matter the layout of the rest of the store, from my experience.

Another Walmart question: WHY do some Walmarts have the 'enter' door on the left, and the 'exit' door on the right?

The Exit doors are usually the ones closest to the registers.

So in their normal stores where the registers are between the two sets of doors, the Enter door on the left side of the store will be on the left, and the Enter door on the right side of the store will be on the right.

[Max Rockatansky]

The one I don't have to go to. 

On a more serious note I absolutely despise shopping at Walmart.  I attribute this to a couple things; the crappy parking layouts which don't encourage ease of parking in the back lot, extremely slow cashiers and a general atmosphere of clutter which I find claustrophobic.  From what I've observed there really isn't any difference in the floor plan other than it being reversed if food is located to the right or left of the front entrances.  Some Walmart's like the one in Sanger are nice but most are a dumpster fire like the one on Kings Canyon Road in Fresno.  If I need cheap food I usually get it in bulk at Costco or in piecemeal at Food Maxx.  Aside from the heavy discounting there isn't much in the Walmart brand of stores that is really top tier among retailers. 

Something new I've noticed a lot of Walmart's lately is how aggressive the door greeters are getting at checking receipts.  My wife was told at one Walmart that it was "mandatory"  to which I  responded to simply that "it wasn't."    I was recently asked to have my bag checked when I bought three clearance hose nozzles for $1 dollar each, again wasn't happening.  I'm good with consenting to a receipt check at a place like Costco where it is part of my membership agreement but I'll never be okay with it for blanket checks at a general retailer.  It's not like those door greeters really scare people away from shoplifting nor are empowered to actually stop them. 

[jeffandnicole]

The 2 I frequent the most have the grocery on the right, but since the grocery layout is so vastly different in both stores there's no comparison.

[thspfc]

The one where they don't build the Walmart is my favorite.

[wxfree]

Option one describes the Walmart supercenter I visit most frequently (of the five supercenters in Springfield). The Gaming section is always in the back, no matter the layout of the rest of the store, from my experience.

Another Walmart question: WHY do some Walmarts have the 'enter' door on the left, and the 'exit' door on the right?

About the doors, my observation, which hasn't been extensive, but the conclusion is logical, is that the entrance is on the side closer to where the carts are pushed in from outside.  That way if you need a cart, you can get one without crossing the exit traffic.  The entrances are toward the edges, while the exits are toward the center, so people walking away from the check out area don't have to cross entering traffic.

[Max Rockatansky]

Option one describes the Walmart supercenter I visit most frequently (of the five supercenters in Springfield). The Gaming section is always in the back, no matter the layout of the rest of the store, from my experience.

Another Walmart question: WHY do some Walmarts have the 'enter' door on the left, and the 'exit' door on the right?

About the doors, my observation, which hasn't been extensive, but the conclusion is logical, is that the entrance is on the side closer to where the carts are pushed in from outside.  That way if you need a cart, you can get one without crossing the exit traffic.  The entrances are toward the edges, while the exits are toward the center, so people walking away from the check out area don't have to cross entering traffic.

Funny thing about those entrance/exits they open automatically from both directions.  The signage is essentially worthless aside from suggesting the store's preferred route of ingress/egress. 

[sprjus4]

^ And the fact just about nobody actually follows them.

[Max Rockatansky]

^ And the fact just about nobody actually follows them.

Kind of begs the question why they bother with signing them at all?  At Target the doors will only open automatically from one direction and have a separate atrium.  Walmart seems to line to stuff a cart garage in with the doorway along with vending machines/games which probably contribute to why the entryway/exit is so wide open.  The older stores had a similar similar entrance/exit set up to Target. 

[cl94]

Re: restrooms, every Walmart I have been to (both Supercenters and "discount stores") has two sets of restrooms. One is in the front near customer service, the other is in the back near what was Layaway. Back of store generally has a single-occupant restroom.

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

[Max Rockatansky]

Re: restrooms, every Walmart I have been to (both Supercenters and "discount stores") has two sets of restrooms. One is in the front near customer service, the other is in the back near what was Layaway. Back of store generally has a single-occupant restroom.

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

Some of the older ones had that set up but most had the barrier removed to make more room for shopping carts.  Usually in those older stores the Customer Service desk was located either immediately left or right of the entrance door depending on the building orientation. Again the floor plan with those stores essentially was a mirror orientation based off where the entrance door was. 

Speaking of foot traffic flow in Walmart I've found that their floor loading process to be incredibly obstructive.  Walmart stores tend to drop pallets of freight off on the floor in early morning hours.  This leads to a lot main aisle access issues when the path is bottle necked or strewn with tripping hazards. 

[sprjus4]

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

One Walmart near me has this setup, though I don't go to it frequently.

It was installed about 6 months ago.

[Big John]

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

One Walmart near me has this setup, though I don't go to it frequently.

It was installed about 6 months ago.

Installed in the last month for the one closest to me.

[tolbs17]

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

Yes, pretty much most walmarts have them but the one on 10th where I live doesn't have them.

[hbelkins]

The three Supercenters with which I am most familiar have completely different layouts.

Winchester has groceries on the right, health and beauty on the left, and pet supplies in the very back in the center of the store.

Mt. Sterling has groceries on the left, health and beauty on the right, and pet supplies in the back of the store to the left of center.

The Lexington Hamburg Pavilion store has groceries on the left, health and beauty on the right, and pet supplies to the right of health and beauty.

I know where to go when I enter one of those stores, but get frustrated when I go into a store that I infrequently visit (Hazard, Paintsville, Richmond, Pikeville) where things are vastly different.

[tolbs17]

The three Supercenters with which I am most familiar have completely different layouts.

Winchester has groceries on the right, health and beauty on the left, and pet supplies in the very back in the center of the store.

Mt. Sterling has groceries on the left, health and beauty on the right, and pet supplies in the back of the store to the left of center.

The Lexington Hamburg Pavilion store has groceries on the left, health and beauty on the right, and pet supplies to the right of health and beauty.

I know where to go when I enter one of those stores, but get frustrated when I go into a store that I infrequently visit (Hazard, Paintsville, Richmond, Pikeville) where things are vastly different.

Also, all of them are organized differently. In some newer and bigger Walmarts (I think built around 1998 and newer) that are at least 180,000 square feet and bigger you would sometimes find a separate beverages section. In our Walmarts here, they don't have it. if you look at Washington (NC) or Rocky Mount, then both of their Walmarts have a separate beverage section.

[jp the roadgeek]

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

One Walmart near me has this setup, though I don't go to it frequently.

It was installed about 6 months ago.

Yup.  The one in my town just added them about 3 months ago.   Plus, the layout (a former Caldor) is such so the entrance is all the way to the left, so the only thing to the left is seasonal, greeting cards, and crafts.  Pharmacy is along the front wall about half way down the length of the store just before health and beauty.  Pet supplies is all the way down the end of the front wall.  Grocery is along the side wall all the way to the right.  Electronics is in the back parallel to the registers.  Hardware is in the far back corner.  Plus, during the remodel, they turned many of the home goods aisles perpendicular to their original alignment so they run lengthwise rather than depth wise.   

[US 89]

Yes, pretty much most walmarts have them

I have never seen one with them. For what it's worth.

[cl94]

Yes, pretty much most walmarts have them but the one on 10th where I live doesn't have them.

Most Walmarts do not have them. I've only seen them at one location.

I'm talking about these things.

[tolbs17]

Yes, pretty much most walmarts have them but the one on 10th where I live doesn't have them.

Most Walmarts do not have them. I've only seen them at one location.

I'm talking about these things.

When I went to Washington, the one here in Greenville on Greenville Blvd, and Rocky Mount, and I'm sure the one in Tarboro has them.  Yes those are the gates I'm talking about. I don't really like them that much, honestly.

[SSOWorld]

That's not my walmart.  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[dlsterner]

No poll option for "I avoid shopping at Walmart at all" ?

[J N Winkler]

Has anyone else seen a Walmart with European-style automatic gates as you walk in that guard the entryway? These force you to exit through the registers.

They have been added here--how recently I cannot say, since I am fortunate enough to be able to go for months without having to visit Walmart.  Gates I had to clear on one visit were locked open on the next, so I think there has been a significant amount of customer resistance.

I don't like receipt checks at Walmarts, especially when I am carrying bulky things like jugs of motor oil, so I generally keep the receipt in one hand, make eye contact with the person working door control, and keep on walking.

I dislike Walmarts that have angle parking since circulation is typically set up so that you need to stop at least once at the front of the store to wait for pedestrians to cross to the entrance.  I generally try to park at the foot of such lots so that I can drive forward over unoccupied spaces to make an easy exit.

My biggest gripe about the Supercenter layouts at the Walmarts nearest me is that the auto department is catercorner from the self-checkouts, which are typically adjacent to the groceries.  As a result, buying motor oil and a filter--my usual Walmart errand--involves a lot of walking:  entire length of the parking lot, then the entire width and depth of the store, both ways.  However, I suspect the auto department is typically at the back of the store because there is normally no other logical location for the Auto Center.