Walmart sighting...

rockyridgefarm · Feb 6, 2004

I work for some of the Walton family. The other day they were dancing with glee holding a photo of the latest WalMart sighting...

The pic was taken by the Mars rover, and there was rather red landscaping around the store. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Hurry up if you want an adjacent property....

poorboy · Feb 7, 2004

I guess that means they will be turning the old one on the moon into a Sam's Club?

Patrick

OkeeDon · Feb 7, 2004

Around here, old Walmarts become telephone boiler rooms. Our first Walmart was in a strip center. When they built a new stand-alone Walmart across the street, the old one became a call center. When they built a new Super Walmart about 1/2 mile down the road, the second one became a call center for Liberty Medical. We also have an old Scotty's lumber store turned into a call center, and one half of an older shopping mall has turned into a huge call center (the other half of the mall was purchased by the school board for new administrative offices). We're also the home of one of the huge QVC order centers, but they built their own monstrously big building filled with folks on the phone, taking orders.

Sometimes I think that half of our town is employed on the phone. If you've gotten any solicitations or placed any orders, chances are the call came from around here.

catscratch · Feb 7, 2004

golly gee folks,
if you love this ole USA of our's please try to make the big W.mart the last stop on your shopping trip.yeah you can save a penney or two here and there but this ole country boy feels like they are for sure the beginning of the end.try to help out some of the small guys that are left and really don't have a chance but are still hangin on... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

YanmarFever · Feb 7, 2004

Why are there no walmart stores in Iraq ??

They already have lotsa targets ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

catscratch · Feb 8, 2004

good one there ernie!!!
know why half inch chipboard hit 15$ a sheet????cause it's all going to iraq!!!sad but true!

poorboy · Feb 8, 2004

Cat, went to 22.00 a sheet just after we framed our house this fall.

Patrick

rtimgray · Feb 20, 2004

Last fall, I heard that the reason sheet goods pricing went up was that because "all of it" got shipped to Iraq. I did a little research (it wasn't hard to find articles on the 'net at the time) and it was actually less than 1.5 days of production (in terms of board-feet) that got shipped to Iraq. Other reasons for the price increase include:

wet summer last year (i.e. not able to log as much and get timber to the mills)

increase in new home construction/remodeling due to interest rates

harsh hurricane/tornado season/fire seasons (depending on the area of country) causing an increase need of building materials.

We were ready to start our new house last fall, and in between August and October, the price of sheet goods locally doubled and tripled. We decided to put off construction 'til spring, and prices have dropped substantially here, although they are still 25% to 50% higher than last spring.

I was able to buy all my 7/16" OSB at Home Depot in December for $8/sheet because they had a manager's special going. I thought that was good, but last spring they had a manager's special and sold 7/16" OSB for $4/sheet. If only had known then what I know now......I'd build a lot bigger house, because I would have won the lottery.

fivestring · Feb 20, 2004

I guess I'm lucky. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
We have one Super Wallyworld 12 miles SW of us in Gastonia. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
They're building another 11 miles South of us in Belmont, NC, although there is a lot of name-calling going on. One of the big issues is runoff from chemicals/pesticides/fertilizer ending up in the storm drains and ultimately in our lake that furnishes Charlotte's drinking water.
They're breaking ground on yet another 8 miles ESE of us at the NW edge of Charlotte, with a lot less name-calling and politics.

I guess there won't be many Mom-n-Pops left around these parts....

AMP762 · Feb 20, 2004

fivestring, did you know thet're building a new one on the werstern side of gastonia?

JerryG · Feb 21, 2004

I guess there won't be many Mom-n-Pops left around these parts.... 
When WM came to my small town, there were several small Mom-n-Pops that closed. With in three years there were several more that opened. There were more new ones opened that what there were that closed. The new ones also off more of a selection and have better customer service. There new individually owned Mom and Pops have better cash flow and are lot stronger businesses than the one that were closed.

AndyM · Feb 21, 2004

In NW Arkansas in 1962, Walmart WAS a mom and pop store.
As I've said before, these things come and go in cycles. 100 years ago, people would have laughed at you if you would have told them that Montgomery Wards would be out of business.

First there was downtown shopping, then we moved to strip shopping centers in the 1950's, then to malls (mauls) in the late 1960's and 1970's. By the late 1980's, people wanted to park right in front of the store they were going to and strip centers were back again. Now were back to smaller strip centers around the Walmart stores.

One of these local mom and pop stores owned by the small town guy in the pickup truck might be the next big thing... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif It's happened before!

JerryG · Feb 21, 2004

Andy,
I agree. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

MikePA · Feb 22, 2004

One of these local mom and pop stores owned by the small town guy in the pickup truck might be the next big thing... 
I am old enough (and I'm not that old, not near as old as Bird! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) to remember home delivered milk. The milkman would drop off milk (in glass bottles!), cream, etc. and pick up our empties. My mom would always leave a note in the milk box for anything special she needed.

We also had home delivery of meat, and no, it wasn't a guy with a deer carcass in the back of his pickup! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif It was a truck a little smaller than today's Mac Tool/Snapon trucks that had a mini-meat market in the back. The guy also had a retail store, but he also had a route for regulars. My mom would walk to the end of the driveway, ask about what was fresh, gab a little and walk back to the house with an armfull of vittles!

AndyM is right, these things run in cycles.

Bird · Feb 22, 2004

( as old as Bird! ) to remember home delivered milk )

And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

MikePA · Feb 22, 2004

And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox. 
Just for the record...I am not old enough to remember home delivery of ice. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

ronjhall · Feb 22, 2004

I'm not as old as Bird. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I do remember Ice Delivery, Milk Delivery, Vegetable Wagon, and the Junk Collector (not garbage). There was another phase for this person. But it's not P.C. to use the phrase any more. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I would sure like to see some of them come back. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

rdam · Feb 22, 2004

I'm 40 and I clearly remember milk delivey, in re-turnable glass bottles, into a "milk box" on the back porch. I also remeber "Charles Chips" delivery to the house.

Most people say "Yeah, right, potato chip delivery...."

jinman · Feb 22, 2004

( And home delivery of blocks of ice for your icebox )

Heck! Bird, I remember ice delivery and we lived just a little far out, so my dad would stop by the ice house and bring home a block in the trunk of his car.

I also remember milk delivery and how we couldn't have that either. I wanted it just because other kids had it and complained to my mom. She told me we couldn't get it because it would make our cows jealous. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
That sounded reasonable to me. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I also remember getting half-pints of milk in school for $0.02. They had that little round cardboard stopper in them that you could hold between your fingers, thump it, and it would fly across the room. I guess that was an early version of the Frisbee. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bird · Feb 22, 2004

Yep, Jim, we had the same kind of milk delivery; just had to go to the barn twice a day to get it from the cow, but my grandparents had theirs delivered to the door. And of course I remember those little cardboard stoppers.

Heck, I'm so old I still think we'd be better off if the milk, beer, soda pop, etc. came in returnable glass bottles. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif