2024, Family, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Lost In Walmart

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Our city has a Walmart, a Menards, a Runnings, and a Tractor Supply. We also have two grocery stores. For the fancier shopping experiences at places like Target, Sam’s Club, and Costco we have to drive 100 miles to Bismarck. Macy’s is 300 miles away in Fargo.

For some reason, our Walmart store has done a complete redo of their building, with aisles in places where there were none and super polished floors. There are different, somewhat more “upscale” products, and more self checkouts. They also moved things from where we were accustomed to find them to new and strange places. The pet supplies are where the infant section was, just across from the frozen food. Shampoos and toiletries are where the pet supplies used to be. Office supplies are where the craft section was. Even in aisles that still have the same products, the products have been rearranged differently, so if we go to, say, where the distilled water used to be, we find it has been moved to the other end of the aisle from where it had been.

It has become a community joke that shopping at Walmart now takes twice as long because people can’t find what they need since it has all been moved. People laugh as they pass each other for the third or fourth time unsuccessfully finding what they are looking for. One problem is that the signs telling what are in the aisles haven’t been changed yet and the old signs are still there.

We don’t go to Walmart all that much. I go more often than Husband. He can’t stand the store as the noise is hard for him to take because of his hearing aids. I had seen some of the renovations, so when we both went to Walmart yesterday, I was somewhat prepared for the changes. Husband wasn’t at all prepared, and was bewildered by the rearrangement of items. We laughed and waved at people as we passed them multiple times as we searched. Husband says he will never go there without me, as he is afraid he will get lost and we will have to send a search party to find him.

Any bewildering changes in your big box stores? Where do you like to shop and where do you loathe to shop?

29 thoughts on “Lost In Walmart”

  2. I think Walmart has done the “Upscale” redo in quite a number of their stores. They’ve done it in our area and I am not impressed at all. The products they carry are definitely not “upscale” quality. And now it is difficult to locate items you once could find easily and check out quickly.

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  3. Oh, that’s hilarious about meeting people several times while hunting! Heads should roll for them not re-positioning the signs. Sounds like very poor management – did they close temporarily during the renovations?

    I much prefer anything smaller than Walmart, plus I avoid them whenever I can because of all the little businesses that went under over the decades, because they came to town. But by that logic, I should also avoid any big box store…

    I like our local Midtown Foods, the last non-chain grocery. Target is at least smaller than Walmart. (And during Covid I went where the staff were best about masking, so Menards won out over Fleet Farm.)

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  4. I’ve only been in Walmart once or twice in my life so I can’t comment on them but the Targets in the city have taken to sequestering much of their merchandise in locked cabinets. Which items they choose to lock up is puzzling and seemingly random. Laundry detergent? Really? It’s bewildering to me why anyone would put up with that. I certainly don’t. Target is no longer a place where I might wander and pick up multiple products on impulse. One has to summon an employee to unlock the cabinet for each item. In the suburbs, Target is an entirely different store, with well-stocked shelves and no locked cases.

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  5. We like Runnings , especially in the spring when they sell ducklings, chicks, and young turkeys. We also like Tractor Supply for gardening supplies.

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  6. I’m not generally a big box store kind of person. I like to get there, get what I want and get out. I’m a strip mall kind of gal I guess. In fact, I’ve started going to Aldi more since I quit getting dairy delivery because I can go in, go down the one aisle, get the milk, pay and come out. Very fast.

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      1. …and a day later you get an email asking you to “tell us how we did”. It’s especially true of online shopping but also happens with brick and mortar if you’re a preferred customer. My feeling is, “It was a transaction”.

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  7. I’ve only been to IKEA once but don’t ever want to go again. The way that you are ushered through the store and basically can’t escape unless you go through the entire store reminds me way too much of the House on the Rocks.

    YA and I do both shop at Target although I haven’t actually been inside of a Target building for many months. There are two Targets equidistant from my house and I am completely addicted to the drive up service that started during pandemic. I will admit to having even gone to the Target pick up once in my jammies.

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  8. Rise and Wander Off Seeking What???? I forgot, Baboons,

    I rarely go to Walmart because I just do not like the stores. On a good day when I have been at some while traveling, that franchise seems disorganized and hard to navigate. And that is when it is NOT being re-modeled. Actually I loathe shopping almost anywhere and only do it under duress. I have tried online shopping for groceries, but I am never satisfied with the quality of the produce when I do that. All grapes are not created equal! So that means that bad food is more aversive than picking it out in the store myself.

    Once while in a Sam’s Club many, many years ago, a mouse ran out in front of me. I did not like that. I also do not like it when grocery stores re-arrange the products for any reason. Because then I cannot find anything which makes me mad.

    OT: I did not get on the blog yesterday because it was an overwhelming day. We were training a new, back up caregiver for Lou here, while at the same time my neighbor’s 18 year old son was hospitalized for a blood clot on his kidney. That was alarming! My cousin in Iowa whose parents died during the same 15 months around when my mother died, is sorting pictures and slides that she and her siblings found in the house. Since Sunday she has been sending photos of our childhoods together. Emotionally it is overwhelming, but also fun. All the events of the day just was too much.

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  9. Like most folks here, I don’t go to Walmart much. But as someone else mentioned, I think they’re doing the remodel to most of their stores, because it’s happening here too. I used to hate going to Walmart, and actually refused on principal because of the low light, grimy feel, depressing aura given off by the few Walmart stores I had visited. But they’ve upped their game in recent years, not quite as depressing. Plus, they often have items that Target doesn’t, so I go to Walmart rather than drive 40-50 miles to another town where there are more options.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  10. I think the appeal of the big box stores is convenience. Over the years, I’ve done a fair amount of shopping in both Sam’s Club and Costco because it was efficient use of my time, but to my mind, it’s devoid of any charm whatsoever. I think of it like driving on the freeway as opposed to driving through neighborhoods; you’ll get to your destination faster, but you’ll miss most of the local charm. That of course, depends on where you live.

    The local Walmart is the only Walmart store I’ve ever been in, and that only once or twice when it opened about twenty years ago. I didn’t care for the store itself; something about the layout and the lighting was unappealing to me. What surprised me was that it seemed to attract a customer base quite different than the customers you’d encounter at, say, Target. When Target opened a grocery section with fruits, vegetables and a deli, I tried it a couple of times, but found that they didn’t reliably carry the variety of items I wanted, so I returned to Cub. Nowadays, Hans does most of our shopping at Aldi and Costco. I shop weekly at the farmers’ market, the butcher shop, Morelli’s and occasionally at various small specialty shops.

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  12. I went to the Walmart in Faribault – once – because I was sent there by a coworker to get an item she needed for a meal she was making for our clients, and she wanted to use a coupon she had. I have never been back. It was really filthy in there, everything seemed sticky, and people seemed really unhealthy. I had to run all over looking for the items my coworker needed. I didn’t like it at all. It made me feel really stressed out.

    I’ve heard people say that some big box stores rearrange everything that way so that customers are forced to walk past all of the products in their search for the one thing they really came in for.

    I like to shop at my local Co-op. I like the products they carry. They will order anything I need that isn’t immediately available. They almost never rearrange things. I can run in for one item and run out quickly. Plus, many of the products are sourced locally, keeping the money local. I also like the thrift store in Northfield. Proceeds support FiftyNorth, and I like that. I get a lot of my clothes at thrift stores (except for this “Ope!” Walz t-shirt I’m wearing!) I got that on Etsy (online big box arts and crafts store).

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  13. HI- We have two Menards stores, one Fleet Farm, two Targets, and two Walmarts. I could use another Fleet Farm on my end of town.

    I can most everything I need at Menards. And some specific farm stuff from Fleet Farm. After that, Target. I avoid Malwart.
    And I really despise IKEA. I take all the short cuts I can find; I’m a guy: in and out. Which is really hard at IKEA.

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  14. Here in Western Michigan, we have, of course, Walmart. But I don’t go there. I’m too much of a snob. We also have Meijer’s, which is kind of like a Walmart. I also, typically, avoid there. I do my grocery shopping at Aldi’s, but have taken to purchasing tortillas at a locally owned bodega. For hardware there’s the local Ace, which has friendly people. Over at Menards the people are friendly, too, but the constant earbanging of announcements and jingles on the PA system sends me out of there pretty soon. I go to Menards for stuff that Ace doesn’t carry. I don’t need to be reminded every 90 seconds that I’m “saving big money”. In general, though, shopping is not my way of life.

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