Wal-Mart plans smaller convenience stores - Detroit mentioned

[esp1986]

The article below says that Walmart is looking to expand into urban areas. Using convenience type stores and offering groceries. The article mentions Detroit as one of the first destinations. If they are willing to take the risk, what are the chances that Detroit will actually see one of these in the city limits?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com..._blg=1,1806160

[rid0617]

As long as it's not typical Walmart with 5 registers and only one open

[rooms222]

I love the 42,000 square foot [[average) WalMart Neighborhood Markets in Tampa. One is right off from the downtown. It is essentially the entire grocery section from a Super Walmart with a few other items from the rest of the store. The article above says the new Walmarts are planned to be between 20-50,000 square feet.

[DetroitPlanner]

20-50k is not a convience store size. It is more like a typical grocery store. This makes sense for Walmart because there are a lot of markets that they cannot tap because of 1. exclusionary zoning which makes it next to impossible to build Big Boxes in many communities [[hence the large variation in size) and 2. penatration of markets where you cannot find lots large enough to site a typical big box store [[older developed cities). Another plus is that having smaller stores puts them within a reasonable distance to the consumer. It may be worth your while to shop at a Walmart if it is close to you, or if you are buying a ton of stuff you know it is worth the extra time and cost travelling to the store. Wth the smaller stores being closer to the conumer these start eating into the market share of competitors like Family Dollar, Kroger, the corner party store, or even Eastern Market.

That being said, Walmart is the devils spawn!

I do recall Walmart grouping these stores so that one may have food while the other has clothes and a third may have home goods and electronics.

[esp1986]

As far as Detroit is concerned, with no name grocery stores, I think we will take what we can get. If they decide to have nothing but groceries, I think even that can do well.

[313WX]

No surprise here. Detroit is a ripe fruit waiting to be harvested with no other competitors.

I'm wondering if they do open & expand here to a certain point how would they impact the Chaldean markets, epseically considering their stores tend to have higher markups than Wal-Mart.

[esp1986]

No surprise here. Detroit is a ripe fruit waiting to be harvested with no other competitors.

I'm wondering if they do open & expand here to a certain point how would they impact the Chaldean markets, epseically considering their stores tend to have higher markups than Wal-Mart.

I am a little curious as to where they would open a store. The article says they want to target "urban areas," leading me to believe that they mean downtown or midtown areas. Or perhaps they just have a diluted view of urban areas like the rest of the country and will open it somewhere in the "city."

[DetroitPlanner]

I am a little curious as to where they would open a store. The article says they want to target "urban areas," leading me to believe that they mean downtown or midtown areas. Or perhaps they just have a diluted view of urban areas like the rest of the country and will open it somewhere in the "city."

Don't get too excited everyone. The Census counts M-59 and US-23 as part of the Detroit Urbanized Area. Needless to say this is a large net and they want to try to improve thier ability to catch as many fish [[dollars) as they can. Now a lot of Detroiters driv a long distance to find stores. This will most likely be like large versions of the Family Dollar.

[Hypestyles]

we'll see.. there needs to be more quality grocery options in the city..

[esp1986]

Don't get too excited everyone. The Census counts M-59 and US-23 as part of the Detroit Urbanized Area. Needless to say this is a large net and they want to try to improve thier ability to catch as many fish [[dollars) as they can. Now a lot of Detroiters driv a long distance to find stores. This will most likely be like large versions of the Family Dollar.

I look at it this way though... they are looking at different options for urban areas... in Livonia, they will soon have two large superstores... if Livonia qualifies as an 'urban area' then why the need for a change if they already have the bigger stores there?

[Baselinepunk]

How ironic would it be for a great big swath of urban farm / prairie get scraped and leveled to put a WalMart on top of it?

[Baselinepunk]

"if Livonia qualifies as an 'urban area' then why the need for a change if they already have the bigger stores there?"

lol. I know someone who claims they live right next to Detroit ... from Livonia. They talk about "tha hood" as if it is right on their doorstep, and act as an authoritarian on all things "Detroit".

[rooms222]

I look at it this way though... they are looking at different options for urban areas... in Livonia, they will soon have two large superstores... if Livonia qualifies as an 'urban area' then why the need for a change if they already have the bigger stores there?

The need for the change is to allow them to fill in areas where a Supercenter is either inappropriate or cannot be built because of available land. I think I mentioned before that one of the reasons they built the second Supercenter is because there are no close Walmarts North, East or West of the 7 mile one. Because of land costs and zoning/opposition, it might be difficult for Walmart to put a full store in Farmington/Farmington Hills/West Bloomfield. It could be a lot easier for them to put a neighborhood market there for weekly grocery shopping, with the idea people would make monthly trips to Livonia or Commerce Township to go to a Supercenter.

[douglasm]

Reading another article about Wal-Mart's idea, I got the impression that it's similar to Target's thought when it comes to urban stores. With a revival of "urban" living....Seattle, for example, has more condos in the urban core than you can shake a stick at....stores that have relied on a suburban customer base [[and have grown about as far as they can grow out there) are looking more at "downtown" or central city locations.

One of the things investors look at is growth, and as national big box stores and chain resturants see sales growth decline, they are beginning to look at "non-traditional" markets. I live in a 50,000 population Central Washington market that in the past 15 years or so has seen a Shopko, Target, and a Wal-Mart move in. Red Robin is now here, Olive Garden has just opened and Red Lobster is looking for a location. These are chains that would have turned up their nose at markets like this 10 years ago. These stores are reacting to the problem that slaughtered McDonald's earnings a number of years ago, that is, no growth using their original game plan.

[MrSam]

I look at it this way though... they are looking at different options for urban areas... in Livonia, they will soon have two large superstores... if Livonia qualifies as an 'urban area' then why the need for a change if they already have the bigger stores there?

The question should be why do livonia[[a dying old surburb with nothing but old people)have 2 walmarts, especially since I'm sure way over 50 percent of its employees & shoppers come from detroit.

Why not just build in Detroit in the first place? That weak theft argument that surburban opponents can only be used so much, if that was a valid argument, wouldn't the dearborn, livonia, & warren locations be closed by now since way over half of its shoppers & employees are detroiters.

Hell, I think any development that brings jobs into city of Detroit is good. MORE JOBS, MEANS LESS CRIME, MEANS A BETTER IMAGE OF METRO DETROIT!

[DetroitPlanner]

Another advantage of these mini Walmarts could be that they will fit into existing stores. This would lessen the development cost tremendously, and I am sure that in Detroit you can buy an empty store cheap. An example would be the several empty Farmer Jack Stores around town. If they sell grocoeries then they would also have a proven market. Granted, its not a perfect scenario as if they were such great stores they still would not be abandoned, but Walmart has the capital and know how to sell cheap crap and make a profit.

BTW, I still hate Walmart

The southern Walmart services an area much larger than Livonia, as does the northern one. What is really puzzleing to me is why Livonia has 2 Costco stores as they need a much higher population to support them. For example the from the southern store a couple miles will put you in Redford, Westland, Garden City, all of which do not have a Walmart. The N store is situated by Redford, Southfield, Farmington, Farminton Hills none of which have Walmart. Livonia had vast open areas ripe for development and Walmart took advantage of them.