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In Lake County, IL Walmart has been around as long as I can remember. The first one near my hometown is around 30 years old, and the last I saw it's still a "regular" not a Supercenter. But there are a couple Supercenters there that I know of.
Last edited by Tintlelli; 10-14-2012 at 03:05 PM..
Reason: "here", as in there, as in Lake County
In the 70s and 80s we had no walmarts here in Michigan. Seems like the first time I remember seeing one was around 1991 or so. After the first one appeared, they multiplied like rabbits. Thankfully here in Michigan, and a few other neighboring midwest states we have Meijer which is a much nicer store. Im not going to say I dont every go to walmart, but I would rather not.
Ever since I can remember in Lake Charles, LA where I grew up. They used to have one Walmart and then in the 90's built another and then replaced both of those with Super Walmarts.
Ever since I can remember in Lake Charles, LA where I grew up. They used to have one Walmart and then in the 90's built another and then replaced both of those with Super Walmarts.
I forgot to say this was early 80's that I'm referring to.
I am not anti Wal-Mart really, I just hate what they've done to the grocery market in so many places. Oklahoma City used to have Albertson's, Baker's, Food Lion, Safeway, Price Chopper, and numerous other smaller grocers I am probably forgetting. In the early 2000s, Wal-Mart decided to blanket this area with Supercenters and put nearly every traditional grocery store out of business. All of the aforementioned chains have pulled out of OKC because they couldn't compete with Wal-Mart.
Today, a few traditional grocery stores are starting to come back but its going to take a while for the market here to really correct itself. What's really holding this city back is the antiquated liquor laws. The big chains aren't going to come in and try to compete with Wal-Mart in this environment without being able to sell alcohol because that's where most of the profit would be.
I know most of you are going to say that its just because OKC is a poor and redneck but it's more than that. OKC was actually a test market for Wal-Mart to see how much they could really dominate the grocery market. Their marketing approach was different here and they were much more ruthless. They built a Supercenter every few square miles and built the smaller Neighborhood Markets between Supercenters. Before the recession hit, Wal-Mart was planning to expand the strategy they used to kill off every traditional grocery chain in OKC in a few other cities, including Austin.
The truth is, most people, unless they have a moral aversion to Wal-Mart, will shop there over the competition if its the most convenient choice.
I came across this .gif a while back that should shed some light on the subject. It shows quite an interesting growth pattern coming out of its hometown of Bentonville.
I'm glad you posted this, I remember seening this in a College class a few years ago.
The one I saw also had Target next to it. Wal Mart and Target have completely different business expansion plans. Wal Mart grew outward from Bentonville, Target jumped around in more of a strategic way.
Wal Mart actually competes with Wal Mart. They will actually close their own stores to open new ones a few miles away. That's their game plan.
This one for Target is pretty cool. I am from the Twin Cities, so there has always been Targets here, for as long as I remember. First Target, then Target Greatland, now Super Target is everywhere. In a 13 mile radius of my house there are 5 Super Targets. Check out Target's growth compared to Wal*Mart
Check out how Wal*Mart's growth expands from Bentonville. The strategy for Wal*Mart is to compete with itself, and really brought to use the distribution center, radiating from the center. Target grew pretty much were Wal*Mart wasn't.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
3,530 posts, read 5,132,725 times
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No Wal-Mart in San Francisco. We did just get a Target, though.
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