Posted on 07/28/2012 1:23:29 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
HUNTINGTON BEACH Families and couples clustered near the produce section, inspecting the fruits on display. Other shoppers flocked to the meat section. Kim Dematteo went to the condiments aisle in search of organic products like coconut oil.
"I'm trying to go organic ... have a healthy lifestyle," the 40-year-old Huntington Beach resident said. "Here, they have herbs and vegetables and the prices are great." After the ribbon was cut Friday morning, Huntington Beach became the first city in California to have a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. In contrast to a typical Wal-Mart store, the neighborhood market carries fresh produce, bakery items and features a pharmacy and a grab-and-go hot food section. The market also tries to stock locally grown organic fruits and vegetables, said Rachel Wall, senior manager of community affairs for Wal-Mart. The fruits of their attempts were displayed prominently in the form of Camarillo-grown strawberries, located close to the entrance of the store.
The Beach Boulevard market in the same shopping center as Big Lots and Mamas on 39 also caters to its beach surroundings, carrying boogie boards, sand toys and an entire rack of sunscreen.
Friday's grand opening ceremony tried to evoke a sense of community, with an invocation by a local pastor and appearances by several Huntington Beach City Council members, including Mayor Don Hansen, as well as State Sen. Bob Huff and California State Assembly Member Connie Conway. "Eight years ago, when I took office, I said I wanted to revitalize the older shopping centers," Hansen said.
"(Walmart's) going to be serving our community in ways it has never been served before."
The market created 65 new jobs, positions that received 9,000 applications in total, Wall said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
For these locations, Wal-Mart has come up with a new, smaller store format called a Neighborhood Market, which is mainly groceries and pharmacy. The first store of this new format opened in Huntington Beach yesterday.
As a sign of the continuing economic difficulties here in California, please note that the store received 9,000 applications for 65 new jobs.
Walmart’s brilliant - they understand the population’s getting older - and lots of people don’t want to shop in stores the size of a football fields.
Now if they’ll just take the water out of their meats and package according to realistic use... (hint: the old days of six in a family are o-var)
Walmart’s brilliant - they understand the population’s getting older - and lots of people don’t want to shop in stores the size of football fields.
Now if they’ll just take the water out of their meats and package according to realistic use... (hint: the old days of six in a family are o-var)
Not a big Wal-Mart fan but a much bigger fan of competition, and always happy to see the unionistas defeated.
Now if Wal-Mart would provide a market channel for local food growers and farmers, they might actually be helping the community. 65 jobs with low pay and minimal benefits...not so much.
The prices are “great” for California but in other parts of the country Walmart may not offer a deal comparable to the local chain grocery.
Hannefords is doing this in NE. Especially in upscale communities.
Hanneford knows its days are numbers because of walmart so they are looking in smaller markets.
A Wal-Mart opened up in an ever-so-hip California city and the world did not end!
One of these opened in my area. Went to take a look last weekend. It is a manageable size store. The one odd thing is the shelf height. The top shelf is almost six feet high making it hard for shorter people to see some of the products.
Not to be nitpicking but this "new concept" has been around for a long time....Wal-Mart have these type stores all over Florida for several years now...
It started as a concept store that was under 100,000 sq ft to get around stupid liberals cities regulations ...that concept did not work in a Superstore format or Sam's Club format....so was born the Neighborhood Market... the rest is history..
It's great to see them making inroads in California against union thuggery and socialist stupidity...
So your saying that zero dollars per hour is superior to Walmart average wage in California of $12.79 per hour and a 6% 401K match?
“The market also tries to stock locally grown organic fruits and vegetables, said Rachel Wall, senior manager of community affairs for Wal-Mart.”
How is this different from any other Wal-Mart, or Sam's Club? They are all like that.
I'm just back from 2 trips to CA -- a total of 4 weeks out of the last 7. The supermarkets there are dreadful, compared to Wisconsin. And I mostly shop Sam's, Costco, and Piggly Wiggly in WI.
The grocery store chains in some of the Orange County neighborhoods, charge such outrageous prices that young families cannot afford to shop their. I noted that a box of cereal could be as much as a dollar more at Ralph’s than it was at Target and a dollar and a half more than at Target in Phoenix. $5 dollars for a box of Wheat Chex that would only feed two people is unbelievable.
Yup...most neither noticed or cared.
A small Wal-Mart is being built near us in Torrance, CA. I love it because Target is doing lots of improvement to prepare for the competition.
Not sure whether Ralphs will be any more responsive to this than they are to anything else. A more significant source of competition for Wal-Mart will be some larger Asian supermarkets in the area, which are attracting customers beyond their ethnic base due to cheaper produce and fish, and FreshnEasy (from Britain), and a produce store called Sprouts.
I am convinced that the reason that most liberals hate Wal-Mart is because poor and otherwise undesirables shop there.
Wal-Mart Stores
NYSE:WMT
$74.52
You misunderstand Walmart and business in general.
The reason to be in business is to make a profit. Keeping control of costs is one factor among several. The competition pays bloated union wages and will not be as profitable or perhaps even able to withstand the competition.
Walmart has devised a strategy to serve customers in yet another manner.
I saw HB and had to click on the thread to see if it was my HB! It is. Huntington Beach.
Cool that Walmart is going in this direction. Because their big boxes suck. The people in there make me ashamed to be American. First off most of them aren’t even American. Second, the one and only time I even went into one, an obese lady in one of those disabled scooter carts nearly ran over my kids, screaming, “Out of my way! Low battery!”
I vowed never again.
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