Bottineau Walmart opening in December (Bismarck, Grand Forks: oil , businesses, price)

[SCGranny]

Much of your fresh fruit now comes from South American countries like Chile. Everyone wants fresh fruit and vegetables all year round, and the ones at Wal Mart are like redheaded stepchildren - no one knows where they come from, no one knows what their ancestry is, and no one knows how they were raised before they got them.

Farm raised and free range is best. Better flavor, and better for you - unless its wild. Had a friend whose doctor told him his cholesterol was too high - so he shot and caught his own food. Deer, shrimp, fish, wild hog, turkey, and homegrown chicken and vegetables - his cholesterol drooped 60 points in 6 months and he lost 30 lbs. Of course part of that was the act of growing and hunting his own! ;->

[MikeyToo]

I've heard recently that the opening is now slated for March. Was wondering if anyone heard about what restaurant they might be putting in? Hope the move to have a walmart in Bottineau works out for everyone.

[MikeyToo]

For a short news story about the new Walmart opening in Bottineau check out this one from KXMB:

http://www.kxmb.com/News/Dakota/191642.asp

Just click on the bank under construction to watch.

[chester]

If you are referring to the restaraunt within the wal-mart, chances are it will probably be Subway. All the ND super-wal-marts so far have Subways inside. (or they do in Minot, Williston, Dickinson, and Bismarck anyway) These towns already had Subways, I think they were hoping for something different that they didn't already have in their towns.

[Chris19]

I personally have mixed opinions on Wal-Mart. SC Granny brought up some interesting points of Wal-Mart. I get a few basics there such as motor oil, fuel injector cleaner, and a couple of odds and ends, but I do most of my shopping elsewhere. Wal-Mart has a place and has the basics and would be good for the people who want to make their dollar stretch. On the flip side, Wal-Mart is not the best on quality for produce and meat. I would rather go to a local grocery store or a Midwestern chain to buy the meat, since the meat would be more dependable than Wal-Mart. I wish there was country of origin labeling for meat and other food products. I would place a higher value for American goods and those countries that produce good products. I agree with SC Granny that Wal-Mart focuses too much on money and overlooks common sense in regards to handling personnel matters.

In the Sioux Falls, SD area along with other areas, Wal-Mart is not always the cheapest and stores such as Hy-Vee, Sunshine (local grocery chain), Shopko, Target, K-Mart, and Lewis Drug (a local drugstore/discount store chain) hold their own. Hy-Vee, common in eastern SD, eastern Neb., northeastern Kansas, northern Missouri, most of Iowa, lower Minnesota, and western Illinois, generally do not get hurt with a Wal-Mart arrival, because the grocery store is reasonable with their prices but offers items Wal-Mart does not offer and focuses on service and having clean stores with a greater selection of organic food, meats, and produce than Wal-Mart and the stores have excellent Chinese food. Hy-Vee has its other niches that keep it thriving with increasing competition from the Wal-Marts and Targets of the world. Econofoods in South Dakota have disappeared in Yankton, Sioux Falls, Pierre, and Mitchell and usually after an opening of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. My guess is that the same people who shop at Econofoods (which were the price leader supermarkets in the aforementioned areas) ended up chosing Wal-Mart instead. Usually, those who shop at Hy-Vee are price-concious to a degree but are more loyal shoppers and ones who like service and more amenities. It is maybe easier for a city of 150,000 with a metro of over 200,000 as opposed to the communties of 15,000 or less to withstand negative effects of a Wal-Mart coming to town.

A Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Vermillion, SD, pop. 10,000, nearly two years ago. The store's coming was very controversial and a number of locals fought it tooth and nail. The store initially hurt the two other grocery stores, one local and the other a Hy-Vee, but the competition has bounced back. Hy-Vee is more competitive and the local grocery store has a very strong loyal following. The Supercenter there is smaller, due to Vermillion having 70-80 percent of its people college students and being sandwiched between three larger cities that have greater retail draw than Vermillion within an hour. The Wal-Mart makes it more convenient for these students to get more of the basics instead of having to run to Sioux City, IA, Sioux Falls, SD, or Yankton, SD, especially with the higher gas prices.

My take on the Wal-Mart coming to Bottineau is that it will be good for the locals to have additional shopping options. The other stores competing with Wal-Mart need to find their niche such as offering quality meat or offering what Wal-Mart lacks for service or product to keep people in town. The community needs to promote both Wal-Mart and the local businesses and work to grow the community to keep both local businesses alive with Wal-Mart in town.

[chester]

Chris, I tend to agree with your post. So far, no large grocery stores have closed in western ND's larger towns of Bismarck, Minot, Williston or Dickinson because of the opening of their 200,000+ sq ft. Wal-mart superstores. (Bismarck ended up with 2 of them) The prices on some items are much cheaper in super-wal-mart, but then you go to Albertsons or Econo Foods in Williston, and they have their own store brands that are ALSO just as cheap. Wal-mart tends to promote their own brand (cheaper)...other national chain stores offer other national brands (more expensive) and also their own in store brand (cheaper). We look at Super-wal-mart as an "all in one" store to shop for conveniences, I sure don't shop there just because of the prices. However, when Wal-mart starts going into small towns like Bottineau (pop. of only 3,000 people) I can see why the locals there are concerned...Wal-mart can pretty much replace most businesses in town. Especially when the town can only support one grocer, one hardware, one dept. store, etc... but so far, the larger towns of 15,000+ I previously mentioned, haven't had much negative impact from super wal-mart...people like having them in town. It will be interesting to see what happens to the local economy in Bottineau...maybe nothing bad will come of it at all, and then again...maybe an economic disaster.

[Chris19]

Fortunately, the smallest communities Wal-Mart has its store in SD is Vermillion and Spearfish, both around 10,000 people. I think there may be the similar issue if the company opens stores up in Winner, Mobridge, Sisseton, and Milbank, all of which are a little larger than Bottineau, ND. Chamberlain is about the same size and would have some effect but a Wal-Mart may fare better there due to having I-90 next door and being abuzz with tourist activity in the summer.

[Roloff1976]

one thing I don't like about the new Super-Wal-marts, is they don't ever have enough help. They put in 20 check out stands, but usually only 4-5 are actually open. Then what really kills me is ONE of the tills is a full service line, but the other 4 are the 20 items or less express line. So of course you stand in line for nearly 45 minutes just to get checked out. Why don't they open up the full service lanes and only a couple 20 items or less. Everyone I see in line have shopping carts full of items and can't use the 20 items or less lanes. Usually what happens is the people with full carts get mad and go through the 20 items or less lanes anyway. Not sure what it is like everywhere else, but that is how it is in Bismarck.

I'd like to see the self-check out lanes in the ND wal-marts. They say they don't put them in because they are about customer service, people helping people. But I'd rather check the items out myself than stand in line like we do.

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by Roloff1976

I'd like to see the self-check out lanes in the ND wal-marts. They say they don't put them in because they are about customer service, people helping people. But I'd rather check the items out myself than stand in line like we do.

We have the self checkout lanes at the Grand Forks superwalmart.

Dan

[chester]

Really? That is great. I wonder why they left them out of the western part of the state. Most of the grocery stores in western ND have the self checkouts...but not Wal-mart. They really need a few of them to ease the workers shortage in this region.