What Happened To This Walmart? | Retail Archaeology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ต.ค. 2023
- In this episode we visit an old Walmart location that is stuck in the 90s.
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If you'd like to visit this place, this is the Mesa, AZ location. In the next episode, we're going to the mall 🙂 Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing places like this! It’s fascinating. Places like this are why your channel is a success versus many other channels that focus only on dead and dying mall or retail. You go with what feels fun to explore, your voiceovers are like you are having a conversation and the music is just perfect. Nice work as always!
I work for Walmart and about 12 years ago I "closed" the old location and setup the new one. The old location couldn't expand because, one, it was in a shopping center, and two, there is a grocery store at the other end of the shopping center. Maybe five years ago or so, the old location was split up into a few businesses. The one end that had the Auto Shop (Tire Lube Express) was converted into a self-storage. The other end was converted into a _Gabe's_ , which is similar to a TJMaxx/Ross Dress Bran/Marshall's. And the middle third portion turned into a couple of studio spaces. There's a karate studio, a dance studio, and a gym.
the wording makes it seem like we’re kids going with dad on a road trip :)
I worked at a Walmart similar to this one; the checker floor area was for a Radio Grill kind of a 50's motif they carried over. However, after they clearanced most things in the old Walmart and transitioned to the Super Center it became a thing of the past.
I just found your channel. Just scrolling through your videos, do you reside in AZ? Bc I do!
Restaurant supply stores do a lot of call and online ordering and delivery. They’re not busy in person usually and the stores are more of a warehouse/showroom setup. They’re really fun to shop at.
Yes, online shopping what what I was thinking.
If you need anything for a kitchen or a house really from cups and plates to knives and pots to decor they have usually good quality and it is cheap
It's the only way to buy pots, pans and utensils. The quality is usually better than the name brand stuff you can buy elsewhere and super cheap.
Tell that to Resturant Depot. I go with uncle sometimes and it's always extremely busy.
Restaurant supply stores are the best! I remember going shopping with my mom back when I was a kid in the early 90's in Texas as the cups and other kid proof items for cheap made it ideal and affordable on a budget.
This definitely IS the kind of thing your regular viewers (like me) are interested in! This video is particularly great as you have the liminal strangeness of both the repurposed Walmart and the fact it’s a business-focused shop, so everything is larger than life and slightly unreal.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love how they took that run-down diner area with the flaky lighting and turned it into their clearance center for scratched and dented products. It's like theming.
Despite having such a sprawling floor space, the ceiling looks so low and makes it seem small. Most Walmarts I've been to in recent years have really high ceilings. The plastic clear cups!!! You just unlocked a memory- my dad bought a big pack of those to use at home when I was in high school. I can still hear the clunk they make.
Very rare to see a modern Wal Mart with a dropped ceiling, Sunrise Towncenter in Florida is one of the few. Store closed for a few years after being damaged by Hurricane Wilma and has since been reopened & remodeled but seems small because of the old ceiling.
This one may of been a Walmart discount store that’s when they had ceiling panels and were smaller
There’s 3 Walmarts in Tampa, FL that have drop ceilings. 14941 N Dale Mabry, 1505 N Dale Mabry, & 7011 W Waters Ave.
Im glad you showed the plastic/glasses. Ive driven by this place but never stopped. I have a bunch of the amber glass glasses that were at the original greyhound park from the 1960s and 70s when my mom worked there. A few large ones have broke and all the small have disappeared or broken over the last 40 years. Plastic ones will blend in and wont break.
Thanks
And unlike the cheap plastic cups from the dollar store, you know these are not only dishwasher safe but extreme high heat sanitizing restaurant dishwasher safe
K-Mart built a flagship store directly across from Wal-Mart #1 in Rogers, AR. It shut down after a few years. It briefly housed a VW dealership before becoming the assessor's office and a thrift store. The thrift store side still looks like a K-Mart. They use the back room for boutique items, and the garden area for bicycles and sports equipment.
Kmart in my county closed in 2016. 5 years later, it was turned in to a CAL Ranch Hardware Store after the nearby mall anchor space lease ended.
I'm not sure if it still exists, but a few years ago I was visiting a lot of Wal-Marts for work, and I was surprised to see an old style Wal-Mart still in operation in Rock Falls, Illinois. It felt very nostalgic, I thought they were all upgraded. The products were modern, but all the departments were in the same place I remember from when I was a kid.
The area at 7:55 that you suspect is was a cafe probably was the Wal-Mart Radio Grill. I ate plenty of pretzels and cheese sticks on my lunchbreaks at the one I worked at in '98 that was nearly identical in layout and the checkered tile floor.
I wanted to comment and tell you how much your channel means to me. I used to live in Glendale, Phoenix, AZ, but have relocated out of state and your channel has given me a way to say goodbye one last time to all the malls and Phoenix stores that have gone downhill. I also get to visit my old favorite stores like Bookman's and Zia. Thank you for what you're doing, I'm a huge fan and look forward to every upload.
Had an accidental retail archeology excursion last time I went to spirit Halloween. Me and my friends were at a mall in Eugene Oregon and trying to find it and we opened a door to find a whole sectioned off area of the mall. All the previous stores in that area were shuttered but there wasn't any indicator that people aren't allowed there and there wasn't any security. Would have snooped around more if we weren't on a time crunch.
i’m assuming you’re talking about gateway mall? it’s so sad to see what is is today, a boring regular shopping plaza. i really miss walking through the old mall with my parents when i was a little kid. sucks how things change. i’m from eugene also btw
I miss old Walmart ❤ not same vibes
Taos NM they still have one if you want to relive the good ol days.
I have a former Kmart in my area that was turned into a U-Haul Moving and Storage location. You can tell just by the design of exterior of the building that it used to be a Kmart.
U-Haul did the same thing in Alton Illinois, with a old Kmart store there, also Turning it into U haul.
Same exact thing, our Kmart in Florida was also turned into U-Haul
Same in Manteca, CA
You can tell by the way that it is. Isn't that neat?
@@dayrkflaugh ive always liked seeing old stores getting reused rather than just sitting there and decaying away
Actually, our local Wall Mart is the same size as this store. The only reason why our store wasn't closed was because it's located next to a bunch of local colleges (so it's very profitable) and the town wouldn't give Wall Mart permission to build a new Super Center.
Was cool to see the bones of a Vintage Walmart took me back the the 90s for sure before all the Supercenters were built , we used to have some of those old style ones around here but they were completely changed as soon as WalMart moved out ..
I'm fascinated at some of the things this store sells that look like they were made decades ago but are presumably brand new. Seriously, the fact that someone is still making those brown ash trays is wild to me.
Also, on the topic of converted stores that still hold ghosts of their past, this store reminded me of a weird flea market I went to in Pennsylvania over the summer. It was housed in an old Jamesway, and despite the fact that the Jamesway had closed 27 years ago, it still retained much of the original decor. Even the original Jamesway sign outside was intact, just plastered over with a banner advertising the flea market. And much like this video, the flea market had a weird liminal space vibe to it: flickering lights, big empty areas, a general lack of people... doesn't help that I was there in the midst of a massive thunderstorm, and the pounding of the rain on the roof echoed through the building. It was pretty strange.
Were those ash trays reclaimed from previous use? I don't know that they still make them because they are amber
@@ryanglaser5336 Your guess is as good as mine, man. Maybe they're just new old stock? Like, made 30 years ago and just haven't been sold off yet?
@@IVR02 that's what I was thinking, they've likely been lying around since Mid Century; however, he threw me off with the scent of cigarette 🚬, even though that was a figure of speech it got me 🤔 wondering how those got there.
There are many areas of the country that believes in the freedom to run your business as you see fit and still allow smoking at the table.
@@grandinosour yeah but nobody is making the amber color, or are they?
I remember shopping at this Walmart in the late 90’s a time or two. Crazy to see retro restaurant equipment in an old Walmart!
Standard Restaurant Supply isn’t too bad for using that location, since they’re helping small businesses like local restaurants to get supplies without waiting for online shipping! Also I have a former Eckerds Rite Aid store that size, which is now a sporting goods outlet selling hunting and fishing gear. They still have the same blue striped walls and dirty floors from the early 2000s!
At around 7:56 where the weird lighting is. You are looking at an old Walmart Snack Bar. They were run by Walmart back in the day not contracted out. While I didn’t know this location I grew up with them around Houston TX. I would say that was definitely a Radio Grill format.
We had a prototype for it here in Houston while the Walmart is still there the restaurant is long converted to McDonalds and not even in the same part of the building. Pretty cool to see that again.
I have kitchen chairs and glasses from a restaurant supply store in my home. Not only are they a good price like you noted, but in gentle home use instead of much harder restaurant use, they seem like they will last forever. My wooden kitchen chairs are five years old and look like new.
I love this store. The glassware selection is insane. I've come here several times for pots and pans, etc. Good stuff.
Even back in the 90s and really early 2000s places like this were always dead. My mom had a food cart back then and we'd go get supplies pretty often and they were always really empty. I imagine a lot of their business is online and orders are either getting picked up in the back or shipped but I really don't know. This was a cool video. I think I'm gonna have to get some of those cups.
yeah, from what I've heard, a lot of restaurants supplies stores tend to primarily be online and delivery based, and use the locations as more of a storehouse/showroom.
This has to be the most surreal retail location that exists in real life. You took the words out of my mouth when you said “creepy in a good way”. I would love to visit this place in person!
My Walmart opened in 1995 and later expanded with a grocery section as it now called a supercenter. They also have 2 entrances, originally it was one in the center
One in the city next time mine was a old walmart that they added on to in 1998 and has had the updates over the years.
Mine became prety (90s or or further back probably < I forget, its a old one) big too in a poor rural area, thank god; its the only "nice" thing we have here, as everything else is waayy too far away to shop at. Ours had a nice food court too for a long time, hot dogs and coke, and snacks.
lot of small business's here are prety horrible here lol, they stilll exist and still suck at high prices and outdated stuff. Pay low wages too compared to walmart.
If you are ever on the East Coast, come to "Runnings" in Gloversville, New York. Also a former Walmart. It's got a lot of original fixtures.
Walmart stores are never big enough for the company. They never expand for the customer’s sake. You see a Walmart getting remodeled? Think it’s going to be a more pleasant shopping experience with more space? No way. It’s more room to cram more stuff in the store. Worse is the area now taken up by the online shopping/pick-up staging area.
Feels like this place would blow up if people knew what they could get for so cheap. I'd love to grab a bunch of cups, plates, a pizza tray or two, among some other things for as cheap as stuff seems to be there.
That's how I feel. The restaurant equipment is expensive, but things like cookware, utensils, dishes, and small kitchen gadgets are a bargain.
The Chairs I would pick up because them would last longer then the over priced ones you get a walmart.
The old Kmart where I live was converted years ago to a strip mall. Stores include a Dollar Tree, Hibbet Sports Maurice’s, two restaurants and a movie theater.
The restaraunt space was possibly a Radio grill, I think. That was what I remember in my 90s walmart before mcdonalds started finding their way in them.
The most interesting converted walmart here in town has turned into a place called pica pica, which is a largely Mexican themed market. Sorta reminds me of one of the malls you showed on your channel where it has all the necessary little shops in (barber, jewelry, etc) as well as unique vendors of different things, and food and drink. Different than like a flea market, it's a very neat place with a very local flavor. There's little there to tell you it was a Walmart aside from the exterior of the building.
I love cash & carry restaurant supply places that are open to the public.
It may have been slow because restaurants are busiest on the weekend so that may be a factor. Thanks for the video that is a very cool place.
For a while, one of our former Walmarts was a closed down flea market. It's a medical center now. That particular Walmart closed to be moved to a bigger location.
We had another one that was abandoned in 1996, but it got torn down a few years ago.
Dude! The cups! I have some red cups from my mother's late husband's mother. The cups were originally from a Sizzler. I love antique and nostalgic stuff
this was a really neat video! i love seeing you branch out into slightly different places. some of the stuff was really cheap, i noticed the microwaves, popcorn machines, roller grills and stuff were, at least to me, really expensive. though i imagine any of those machines would typically way outlive a residential version of same. has anything moved into the old fryes electronics locations? are all the crazy theme sorta fryes stuff still left in them or did they take/sell/junk them? one love!
Nothing has gone into either Fry's building yet. From what I've been told all the themeing and decor stuff was sold during fixture auctions.
Thanks for posting this. I found it interesting! Also, not that it matters much, but that food area with the checkered floor was probably the Snack Bar. That was a thing in the 90s Walmarts.
Im not shocked that restaurants are struggling atm given that places like Chipotle are charging $20 for a burrito (plus delivery fee and tip if using that service). Many are pricing themselves out of the market I think and the backlash is people not going out as much.
I'm 52, in 10-15 yr, QSRs will mainly be 🤖, AI or immigrants. Younger people won't really know where you sit and eat fast food or have table service, wait staff. 🍽
Its only going to get worse if forced to pay workers a living wage.
@@Boa_Omega They still expect tips.
I love stuff like this as well. After a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened up in my hometown, the old basic Wal-Mart I shopped at in the 90's was left dormant for quite a few years until the building was bought by a furniture store called Schewels. When I finally wound up going into the Schewels, the contents out on the floor had obviously changed, but you could still see many of the remnants on the walls and layout of what was the old Wal-Mart. It was a really surreal feeling, and a nostalgic one as well.
This supply store has everything you can imagine! I have never seen so much that I needed, and never knew existed. I'm a gadgeteer, and thought I had seen it all and had it all... Nope. This upped my enjoyment of my home cooking passion!
What a strange store, really interesting to see it
One of my absolute favorite channels, thanks!!!!
That's the best place to buy all of the tools and supplies needed for advanced home cooking, and is also excellent for things like kid-safe 'glasses' made of plastic that restaurants use. I highly recommend shopping there.
My uncle will sometimes redo the chairs and booths for fast food places in the Oklahoma area. He also does the casino chairs.
Thank you for making these videos! I always look forward to watching your content
We have an Antique Mall in Benbrook Texas, that's also an old Wal-Mart. It's also got the original interior.
You weren't lying about the "Backrooms" feel, lol. Even that flickering ceiling light towards the back in one of the shots! I had no idea that restaurant supply shops were open to the public, or had such useful items sometimes. Might have to go check in to my local one at some point!
There's a Walmart that's located in Jupiter, FL (about 20-25 minutes away from where I live) that opened in October of 1995 and then expanded into a supercenter in 2015, and it is still open to this very day as it does get pretty busy on the weekends (typical for any Walmart for the most part, go figure). It never moved, so even with the grocery section and whatever booths in the front of the store that anybody would expect to see in a supercenter, that store still looks like it's stuck in the late-90s. For a mid-late 90s Walmart that didn't expand until it was 20 years old, it seems to be pretty decent. Still has the white tile floor and drop ceiling tiles throughout the entire store (yes, even the grocery section).
How's it look on the outside? Modern logo, or no?
@SK438 modern logo, and the outside of the front of building is light blue and has a rather unique design.
in 2017 we had a Kmart that closed. It is since became a U-Haul facility and on the inside it is the exact same, same flooring, same painting on the wall same light fixtures. All it has is a bunch of storage pods in them. I even saw a few Kmart logos and unsuspecting places.
The diner area spaces were run by walmart and were called the radio grill. When Walmart got rid of the radio grill they then would rent these spaces usually to McDonald’s .
Checkered floor area was probably the old Walmart Radio Grill.
This was so cool. I didn't even know there were stores like this lol. Thanks so much for sharing!
Kmart in Boulder CO was converted into a Safeway after a complete redo of the front facade. Walmart in Lafayette CO became a mega church.
What an awesome place to explore! You're always finding the coolest spaces to share on this channel!
Smaller competing chains tend to do that, buy a bigger brand location and use the existing layout, here in México we had a similar groceries store named "Blanco", small competitor to the Walmart equivalent back in the 80-90s, its stores were always the same old look, but as son as the store was sold to a better chain, the new chain looks and improvements were huge.
A store that tries to save money, by not updating its interior looks, is doomed to fail.
That’s was their restaurant/eatery called “Radio Grill” most Walmart’s had them in the late 80’s-early 90’s before they got rid of the concept and put whatever fast food place in the stores. 8:10
Amazing video, great find!
The area with the checkered floor might have been a Radio Grill, that was the name used for the Walmart in store snack bar for a while
Great episode, the back area with the checkered flooring was so cool.
The Walmart nearest me was able to be expanded into a Supercenter, but the Kmart in Dale City closed and was converted in an At Home. The Kmart in Manassas was subdivided into an auto parts store and an Amazon Fresh, while the old Walmart there (which I remember visiting shortly after it open d in 1992) is a tile flooring store, an Ashley Furniture, and an international grocery. They built a new Supercenter just down the road at the mall in the 2000s.
Came for the walmart, stayed for the nostalgic restaurant supplies.
this seems incredibly relaxing-- just wander and look at all the cool stuff
I miss my 1990s Walmart (Kirkland, Quebec). It was the first Walmart I had ever been to (since Walmart was only just starting to expand into Canada) and I think it had the blue and red stripes.
It was small by Walmart standards since it was a former Woolco store that re-opened as a Walmart around 1994, if I remember correctly. It was demolished just over a decade later as they built a modern Supercentre-sized Walmart location right across the lot, on the site of the old Provigo supermarket that closed when the nearby Loblaws supermarket opened.
Kapuskasing, Ontario (home town of Terminator creator/director James Cameron) has a 1990s-style Walmart, or rather Wal-Mart with the hyphen since it's 1990s-style, that still had the blue and red striping at least as recently as 2020.
@@SteveBrandon I think there's a few 90s era Walmart left in Québec
@@marc-alexandrelaroche6632 I'm sure there are but probably not on Montreal Island. I think there were only maybe a dozen or so Walmarts on Montreal Island by the end of the 1990s. I'm not even sure where the closest Walmart to the one in Kirkland was in the 1990s... maybe St. Laurent? (Yeah, I know there's a Walmart on Hymus in Pointe-Claire now but that location was a Zellers in the 1990s.)
For one: There is a K-Mart near me that closed 2(? 3? idk) years ago that is now a Coastal Farm & Ranch store (the name is pretty self-explanatory, but I'm not sure if it's a chain outside of Oregon/the PNW). There are no longer any K-Mart vibes whatsoever.
For two: I love seeing all the channels that @cs188 supports! It's really fun to stumble upon new channels that cater to my interests and see other creators I enjoy supporting the...uh...other other creators!
The majority of GM (General Merchandise) Walmart stores were shutdown for Super Center locations. There are still some GM only locations that still exist, but mostly in rural locations (and/or in areas that may have strict zoning laws yet are still profitable). One such location is in Ozark, AR (a mid 80's GM model) in my area the 7 GM stores became the following two of them are now Atwoods locations (both mid 80's models), A Experian call center (shuttered due to C-19 mid 80's model), A local chain called "A-Z Variety" (mid 80's model), A Neighborhood Market so in a way it's still open just different format (late 80's model), Another location that became a shopping center that had a Toy's R Us (very early 80's model) and then their was the first one in from the mid 70's (when they were starting to branch out locations) it became a Indoor Flea Market, but it's now a Multi Commercial/Private Garage rental (70's model). BTW my area is the Ft. Smith/Van Buren AR area.
It was cheaper in most cases to just shut the GMs down after they built a new SC store rather than expand, however some cites frown on that. By the way you described things Phoenix must have rules (or other things) that made Walmart go with expansion first plan. Little Rock, AR is a city that is similar (and North Little Rock as well). Oh the "A-Z Variety" store has not only some of the original paint stripes, but some of the original Walmart 80's/90's signage in the back around the restrooms too. Also the GM stores only had their own Cafes it was the SC stores that leased to outside chains.
Oh one of our two K-Marts became a Sutherland's Hardware store just a block away from one of the Atwood's. The other became a shopping center with a Furniture Store, a Boutique Market, and a Goodwill (which still has traces of the old store).
Cool place. Thanks for taking us along to visit.
There's more than a few old Walmarts in our area. One former supercenter was famously converted to the largest public library in south Texas. The oldest Walmart in my home town is a community center now.
I remember a year or two ago, one of the Walmarts in my area was remodeling and expanding. The entire crafts and home goods departments were moved to the new section and it kinda blew my mind how large of a footprint those sections took up. For a comparison, the empty floor space was easily big enough for 2-3 full sized basketball courts and seeing people casually walk though such a large baren area in the middle of the store gave a real eerie feeling.
Thanks for making this video. I live in the PHX East Valley and never heard of this place before. This place looks awesome, esp with the former Walmart vibe!
The Walmart in my hometown of Greenville, Ohio, had a Radio Grill in it as the restaurant as there were a Subway and McDonalds already nearby. It did have the black and white checkered tile. They converted it to super center in 2000 and the restaurant has been gone ever since. I also cannot verify this, but I heard at the time they expanded this Walmart it was the largest in the country and a prototype for future Walmart Super Centers. It was at least the first one in the Dayton area.
You mention that you can really tell that it used to be a Walmart from the internal colors. The Asiana Market on Union Hills and 43rd Ave used to be an ABCO. They literally didn't change anything from that last pink southwest deco renovation ABCO did in the 90's before they all shut down (when they changed to "ABCO Desert Market"). They have great prices on stuff like bulk rice and sesame oil too, lol. Google Lens Translate will help there.
There's a small shopping center in my hometown. It used to be a Walmart until I'm guessing the early 2000s. It's currently occupied by several thrift stores, a hardware store and a dollar tree. I've worked in one of the thrift stores, and in the back rooms and break room you can still see some old Walmart signage/paintings on the walls!
In Hinsdale, NH there was an old Wal-Mart that was turned into a Runnings. One can't miss the Wal-Mart tile in the entryway and bathrooms are totally unchanged. For those who don't know what Runnings is, imagine a Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Auto Zone, Dick's, a small town hardware store and a gun store all rolled into one. It's amazing how they cram so much under one roof and still have a good selection. The same thing happened to the Wal-Mart that used to inhabit the space as the one in the video. There was no room to expand (owing to a mountain right next to it and a road on the other.) so they opened a new Super Wal-Mart a couple miles down the road.
We had a Kmart down the road from where I grew up in Dallas. It was a prime shopping destination for many in the 80's. It was abandoned for a long time with the Kmart sign still visible. Now it's a storage unit property. I don't know if anyone remembers Best or Service Merchandise. We had a Service Merchandise close to the Kmart a little further down. Now it's a hall for hosting quincineras. The Best I remember in Mesquite (a suburb of Dallas) is now a Big Lots. All these old stores bring back memories. The Best catalogues were like eye candy for children who looked at all the toys in anticipation of Christmas presents. Those catalogues were huge.
I love at 5:30 when you mention the restaurant cups. I have a red and brown one that I "borrowed" from Pizza Hut. 😉
Real restaurant supply stores are just lovely places to grab all sorts of niche kitchen things really cheap compared to the competition.
Right now I'm trying real hard not to buy a popcorn cart.
This is like a warehouse distribution centre that happens to be open to the public to make a little extra cash. The majority of this stock will be bought over the phone or online in a rush to be delivered.
This gives major The Medium Place vibes and I'm here for it.
When my kids were young I bought some heavy duty plastic cups from a RS store and we still use them today, over 20 years later! One downside is that they can melt (as you would expect) if they get too close to a dishwashers heating element. Otherwise, they look as good as the day that they were purchased.
Walmart is good at keeping their active stores up to date on decor, I've worked there for more than 10 years and have been through four remodels in that time. There is a rather small store close to where I live (only has one entrance) and it feels more like a K-mart.
I don't understand why they do stuff like pulling up and replacing perfectly good floor tiles.
@@Scooter30FTW That was because they started phasing out floor tiles, I've noticed a lot of stores now have polished cement floors instead. Unfortunately, the surfaces of the new floors are highly susceptible to damage from spills like bleach and vinegar.
Really interesting! :) For both the old and the current business!
The old "regular" Walmart here in West Monroe, Louisiana closed in the early 2000's or so, and a Supercenter was built practically across the street from it. The building was repurposed and split into two new stores, which are still there, an Office Depot and a Hobby Lobby. Being those are two large chain stores, all evidence it was once a Walmart have been erased. The "standard" Walmart across the river in Monroe was converted into a Books-A-Million, which is still there. The Walmart Supercenter there was built next door to the old location.
On a related note, after the local Kmart Supercenter closed several years ago and sat vacant for a few years, it was taken over by Academy Sports and Outdoors, which is still there.
A really interesting building that is similar to this is the old Merchant's Village in Pittston PA. I know that JPVideos did a video on it a while back.
A new episode of Retail Archaeology on my birthday.
Happy birthday 🥳
@@RetailArchaeology Thank You
I used to go to that location, I remember the fazolis! That location also super close to the old AMC Dealership that was before my time, but was famous for this super fast v8 Gremlin they had
I work in a large, old department store in Australia, online department. I remember packing a gigantic order for a new pancake business, opening in a regional part of my state. Whilst we had a massive sale on, kitchenware was 40-50% off, they ordered two huge suitcase boxes worth of baking goods and serving ware. It probably only scratched the surface of what they needed, and would have cost several hundred. I always remember that order because packing a box shouldn't be that fun lol
My childhood walmart was split in half, one side is an Ocean State Job Lot, the ither is a movie theater/arcade combo. Ocean State Job Lot was there for almost 10 years before the movie theater moved in. It is nice to see the whole building being used again.
Never knew what Walmart stores looked like in the 90s. What a nice channel you run.
Great video, and I'd like to add that you do a nice job of mixing in the background music with the narration!
I think the real cherry on top of the entire video is seeing how empty that parking lot was. 😂😂😂
There's an old Walmart in the town where I grew up that has been turned into a nice mall and community center. Those type of conversions don't always go so well but this one did. It helps that there is a good pizza place and a bar/restaurant in there. Same story there as here, Walmart wanted to expand but they didn't have the room. So they built a new store closer to the edge of town. There is also an old KMart that has a TSC (Tractor Supply Company) store in there now, and another larger empty KMart that has been sitting empty for almost a decade now. Maintenance has been done on it and there are some lights on inside so it isn't totally abandoned. There used to be a little Caesars pizza in that KMart. They did a good pizza for the money there.
Cool vid, still a few classic Walmarts left. Was in one last year in Taos NM.
This was my Walmart growing up! Weird! And cool!
Amazing how dark it is even with the narrow overstocked shelves removed. If there's one thing Target did right it was the brightness of the shopping floor.
It's been years since I've seen the blue-and-red theming in a Walmart. I know that when the local Walmart opened up back in 1992, that was the common aesthetic. However when I started working there in 2004, that theme had gone away, and it's my understanding that depending on region, stores will generally get a revamp every ten years or so to make them feel more updated and consistent with one another, with a few exceptions here and there. This particular store might have closed up long before its first or second refresh.
It does very much remind me of the Walmart I worked at as far as layout and floorspace. When I was helping to open the Supercenter that would replace it, I remember coming back in to the old building for supplies and realized how _small_ the building actually seemed, as well as dim and dingy. It hadn't been apparent to me after having worked there for nearly a decade, and honestly I can't see working in a place like that anymore without feeling life slowly draining out of the body. Kind of glad that the majority of Walmart stores no longer have that cramped vibe anymore.
That was great. Thanks.
Here in the Midwest, Walmart was notorius for leaving dead retail space in small towns. They came to my area in the late 80's-early 90's, sometimes developing an entire strip mall along with the store. After maybe six or eight years in their initial location, they opened a Supercenter nearby and pulled out of the strip mall, which invariably caused some businesses there to fail given the lack of traffic. Before long, you had a blighted, neglected retail space to go with all the local stores in town that they killed off.
There's two former Walmarts near me, they were three miles apart. One was a Supercenter that was open for about a decade that closed about three weeks after I started working for Walmart, and the other was a Neighborhood Market that was open only three years. Both were plagued by issues of extreme theft(especially the market), but the supercenter in particular was located near the crux of two interstates and the state decided to do a decade long overhaul near that interchange, so Walmart decided to close the store, it wasn't economically viable anymore.
I did get to go to that supercenter after it closed and it was a bit surreal. So empty, all the fixtures and shelves gone. The refrigeration was cut off, nothing left to sell.
Funnily enough, we had both a Walmart and a Kmart across from each other that closed their locations. Kmart closed permanently and Walmart moved down the street because they needed a different location to expand. The Kmart turned into a Spectrum call center, and the Walmart actually turned into our city library. It's the largest single story library in the entire United States. You couldn't tell it was a Walmart it's been changed so much, but it's definitely a big building for a library.
There's an old Walmart in my neighborhood that was converted into an indoor flea market of sorts. The exterior was altered a bit but remains mostly the same. Inside it was completely remodeled, with little stalls for vendors to occupy. There are rooms available to rent for parties, baby showers and the like. The automotive area of the Walmart was turned into a gym, during nice weather they open up the garage doors to let in the fresh air. And the gardening area is a trampoline park. Another old K-mart in my neighborhood was closed years ago, but has since been turned into a kind of strip mall with a DDs discount store, Melrose and small vocational school. The chuck-e-cheese that opened with it is still there, and they recently expanded the building to include a discount party supply store.
Yea the checkered floor and the flashing lights was cool. 😁👍
I have that EXACT same checkered tile in my bathroom