Wal-Mart announced today that it would combine an abandoned Sam's Club with an existing Supercenter to make the biggest U.S. Wal-Mart Supercenter ever opened. This new monstrosity in upstate New York will be 260,000 square feet, roughly 25% larger than the average Wal-Mart Supercenter. This comes amid news of new energy efficient Wal-Mart stores, and stores with new fangled light bulbs, and Wal-Mart stores that will suddenly be good for the earth because they sell mulch made of recycled plastic. It sounds a little suspicions then, that at the same time they'd open this mega-supercenter. Apparently when Lee Scott said Wal-Mart wasn't green, and that the environment wouldn't stand in the way of growth, he meant it!
Here's the article from the AP via CNBC:
ALBANY, N.Y. - Upstate New York will soon be home to the nation's largest Wal-Mart store.Workers are combining a standard-sized Wal-Mart store with space left vacant by a failed Sam's Club warehouse outlet on the outskirts of Albany to create a 260,000-square-foot, two-story "supercenter" selling department store merchandise as well as groceries, liquor and automotive and other services.
That's more than 25 percent bigger than the average Wal-Mart supercenter, which typically measures around 205,000 square feet, said Phil Serghini, a Wal-Mart spokesman in New York.
Real estate planners at the Bentonville, Ark.-based company _ the world's largest retailer with more than 4,100 stores in the United States and 3,100 more overseas _ never set out to build their biggest store in New York's Capital Region. In fact, the larger stores tend to be built in rural areas, Serghini said.In the 1990s, Wal-Mart co-located a Sam's Club _ its members-only warehouse store _ with a Wal-Mart department store in a dual-level shopping center, with the Sam's Club on the lower floor.
The company closed the Sam's Club in 2006 because of low membership and decided to use that space to turn the department store into a supercenter.
"It's the largest one really only because of the situation involving the former Sam's Club," Serghini said. "But it is unique, and the customers are going to be very pleased with the layout."
The company had kept the project relatively quiet, not formally announcing it to the news media or to customers. Construction started about a year ago, but the transformation only recently became visible when workers opened up the newly renovated bottom floor and installed escalators.
"I didn't even realize anything was happening over here until I came back from winter break and all of a sudden there was a big hole in the floor," said Susannah Coon, a student at a nearby university who has shopped there since she started classes three years ago.
Denise Clow, who lives in suburban Albany and said she has shopped at the store since it opened, was particularly impressed by the escalators, which move both people and shopping carts. A hook grabs the bottom of the cart, which is then pulled along a track in the center of the escalator alongside the shopper riding the moving stairs.
"That's so cool," she said.
Aside from the newfangled escalators and wider aisles, the nation's biggest Wal-Mart won't be all that different from the rest. It will have the same kind of merchandise and services that are available at other supercenters, Serghini said.
The store plans to celebrate its grand opening in May.
Posted by Taylor - March 19, 2008 03:38 PM - In The News
I don't know where you get your information about Wal-Mart employees being forced to work off the clock, but the Wal-Mart I work at, if you are caught working off the clock, you get in trouble. They stress that you MUST be paid for EVERY minute you work.
Posted by Megan - March 19, 2008 10:06 PM
i can not wait to go there!
Posted by jinishia - March 22, 2008 05:37 PM
I work there Its almost done.. Cant wait till the grand opening.. Psst.. the date has been changed to May21st..
Posted by Gail - May 6, 2008 06:56 PM
I went to that store reluctantly. I didn't realise it was two storeys until I went inside. There's even an escalator for carts. It was unusual. It was a bit bigger than I'm used to. I don't really like going to Walmart anymore. It's more boredom for me than worker's rights (I'm on a withdrawl card because I'm sick).
In the Capital District in Upstate NY, there are almost no union stores. There's a Price Rite in Schenectady and CS-owned Grand Union in rural West Coxsackie (GU's old incarnation used to be prominent in the area). At large, if it's not "Wallyworld", it's locally-based Price Chopper or Maine's Hannaford (all three blacklisted by Local 464A and some other Northeast chapters). With gas prices and the economy, people might not go out of their way just do buy union. Non-members don't get it.
Walmart's new campaign is purely cosmetic and does not phase me much. I only go when there's nowhere else.
A proposed new Walmart near me was shot down by the town. Say yes to union!
Posted by John Sposato - August 17, 2008 09:43 AM