I found out recently that our county is going to be entering the late-20th century in an important way: We're getting a Walmart. This is important to us because it's going to be built adjacent to a subdivision we're considering purchasing a new house.
But that's a separate issue. The issue at hand for this post, though, involves the fact that the Walmart will be a Supercenter. Meaning that it will be another grocery store just down the road from Food Lion.
Walmart is increasing its presence in our area. Just a few weeks ago, one of the older Walmart stores just finished up its upgrade to a Supercenter. I shopped there this past weekend. It was late-ish Saturday night and only a couple of registers were open. The line I found was four deep.
I wasn't standing there for more than a minute before the lady at the jewelry counter offered to check out my groceries. That was kind. She didn't have to do that. Got me out of there about ten minutes faster.
Compare this with my experience tonight at Food Lion:
- The only cashier that was open had to be called back to her register.
- She was in such a hurry to get out of there that I loaded the groceries into my cart myself.
- There was a guy vacuuming the carpet in front of the only exit, and I had to lift my grocery cart over the extension cord.
- On the way out, the same guy said, “If anyone comes your way, tell them we're closed.” It wasn't that close to closing!
Uh, yeah buddy, I'll get right on that for you.
I don't think Food Lion is going to last long after the Walmart comes around. Since I've moved to the county they've cut their hours three times. They used to be open 24 hours a day. Then they closed at midnight. Then eleven. Now ten.
And maybe I'm harshing on Food Lion a little bit, but shouldn't they be trying a little harder to keep their customers happy with Walmart setting up shop down the road? As of right now I have to drive for twenty minutes to get to a Walmart, so there's a barrier that makes Food Lion relatively more appealing. But if the new Walmart's employees treat me with the same kind consideration that the jewelry counter lady did, the choice between them and Food Lion will be really, really easy.
Not a good idea to alienate your customers with Walmart coming to town.
Thanks to Suburban Dollar for including this post in the Carnival of Personal Finance.
Hmm… I almost always get an opposite response. The Wal-Mart employees are the “not-so-nice” ones, and everyone else is friendlier and quicker. But Wal-Mart beats everyone else in price.
I have the same problem as Anthony. I have bad experiences at WaMart. Once a year. That’s as often as I can bring myself to shop there. It is a yearly reminder to not shop there.