Are there too many Walmarts in Jacksonville?

[acme54321]

I don't know about the rest but the Walmart on Philips closes at midnight.

[uptowngirl]

There has always been too many walmarts...it's a travisty...they suck money from people by selling crap from a country that would love to take us over..i'd love to know exactly what percent of their merchandise is from the USA....

There are several links on this, but most agree that around 85% of their merchandise is NOT made in the USA. Then again, it is hard to find merchandise like Wal-mart sales being made in the USA. I am OK with a free market, I am not OK with what some countries (ie China) is putting in their products. How often do we hear about a product recall on say baby formula, dog food, kids toys all with some type of poison in them. Ahhhh welll I guess you get what you pay for!

[blandman]

The best business schools take on a lot of private sector guys.  They were CEOs first and academics second (in semi-retirement).  Nice try.  And it's not like all the academics are predicting a downfall of WMT or ragging on the company, either.  It's actually a case study for good business, hence why it may be the most studied company in Harvard Biz Review (either it, Disney, or Apple).

I'm in business school, and it's a decent one.  Not a ton of professors here from industry.  Sure, they come to speak all the time, but not many professors. Walmart is definitely talked about, mostly in a supply chain or operations context.  Disney and Apple are discussed less frequently than Toyota and Southwest.  I didn't say anything about the impending downfall of WMT.  I just pointed out that not all research on the economic impact of WMT is as obviously positive as you argue.

[Doctor_K]

I don't know about the rest but the Walmart on Philips closes at midnight.

The ones at Beach/Southside and Monument/9A I believe are both 24-hour.

[PeeJayEss]

Walmart: Low prices, low quality. Its success is based on the desire to pay less for items in the present, regardless of their long term durability or quality. Instead of buying a product for a lifetime, you buy one every couple years. You don't actually save money in terms of present value, but you save money today. It's not like Walmart gets high quality products and is able to bring the price down only through low margins at a large scale. Its cheaper because they are buying products that cost less. Hence, Walmart sells and XBox for the same price as everybody else, because there is no cheap "generic" version of these to sell.

No real problem with Walmart as a company. It behaves as a company is meant to. Mainly, making money. For the largest company in the world, it is a surprisingly benign enterprise, using its size to force suppliers to be more environmentally efficient, for example. Of course, there are the labor and gender issues, but I don't know enough to comment. As they say, you get what you pay for.

[Doctor_K]

And not to stray too far from the spirit of the thread topic, but I think there's a case to be made by replacing "Walmarts" in the thread title with other ubiquitous things around town like "pizza joints," "sushi bars," "CVSs," or "Mediterranean restaurants" and the like.

It's not a Wal-Mart thing, it's a general over-expansion across-the-board thing.

[copperfiend]

I don't know about the rest but the Walmart on Philips closes at midnight.

Really? Is it a Super Center? I don't think I've ever seen one that closes.

[mtraininjax]

Secretly the Chinese own Wal-Mart since more than 51% of the Big-Box Mart products are made in China.

[KenFSU]

Walmart: Low prices, low quality. Its success is based on the desire to pay less for items in the present, regardless of their long term durability or quality. Instead of buying a product for a lifetime, you buy one every couple years. You don't actually save money in terms of present value, but you save money today.

In some cases, definitely, but WalMart's economy of scale does allow them to price every day staple items significantly cheaper than other stores. I can buy things like razors, batteries, coffee, paper towels, cereal, office supplies, small kitchen appliances, and hundreds of other name brand items at Walmart for a lower cost than I can anywhere else. To me, that's a good thing. Big box or not, it's good for the economy in that it allows that extra $20 you save over shopping somewhere else to be used for something else. If a low income family switches to shopping at Wal-Mart, by virtue of this simple shift, they might suddenly find themselves able to afford to go out for pizza on Saturday nights. That's what I mean by improving quality of life and putting more money back into the economy. I have a hard time taking issue with that.

[arb]

I love Wal-Marts prices, but there are just to many of them here, but I'm more concerned about restaurants, small shops, etc. I hate the chains, and wish there were more small business'. In Seattle and Portland all you see are small business'.

[I-10east]

Walmart: Low prices, low quality.

Based on what? Gimme some examples on brands that aren't up to par? They have quality name brand products (Tide, Coke, Brawny etc.) just like everyone's beloved and overpriced Publix. Even Wal-Mart's generic products (Great Value) are very good. I actually think that there are too many Publixes in this city; Have anybody ever been down Beach or Atlantic lately?    

[mtraininjax]

Have anybody ever been down Beach or Atlantic lately?

Nope, the developers ruined Beach Blvd. I used to be able to drive from Avondale to Jax Beach on a Sunday without hitting a red light. Those days are long gone. Beach and Atlantic keep the stop light people in business.

[thekillingwax]

I don't know about the rest but the Walmart on Philips closes at midnight.

Really? Is it a Super Center? I don't think I've ever seen one that closes.

It does. Both of the ones on Philips close. The one close to Emerson I can understand- that's probably the sketchiest one in town. I asked why the other one closes and the manager at the time said it was due to the area that it was in and that it was already usually dead by 11pm. I think that's kinda evidence that they've reached their limit for that side of town.

I work nights so Walmart is beneficial to me but I'm careful about going. The last time I went to the one on Beach near Southside, four young guys tailed me around the store for about 20 minutes. I'm normally pretty careful about parking lot safety but I'm really on-guard when I go late at night.

We're in a 24 hour society now and I guess Walmart is the only one financially able to step up to the plate or maybe no one else is interested in it. Home Depot did 24hrs for a little while- that was some of the oddest, most fun shopping I've ever done.

[thekillingwax]

Based on what? Gimme some examples on brands that aren't up to par? They have quality name brand products (Tide, Coke, Brawny etc.) just like everyone's beloved and overpriced Publix. Even Wal-Mart's generic products (Great Value) are very good. I actually think that there are too many Publixes in this city; Have anybody ever been down Beach or Atlantic lately?   

I thought we had a lot of Publix stores until I went to Tampa. There's one every couple of blocks it seems. I actually think walmart has much better store-brand products that Publix. Walmart's salsas are actually really good. I haven't had any issues with most things I've bought from Walmart. I don't think I'll be furniture shopping there and I don't really care for their meat or produce but then again the produce everywhere is usually a ripoff compared to the Beaver St farmer's market.

[Jaxson]

Once upon a time, our nearest Wal-Mart was in neighboring St. Johns County.  Back then, Pic-n-Save was the go-to store for those who wanted savings.  The problem is that no local retailer was prepared to compete with Wal-Mart as this kind of store was something that really threw most retailers for a loop.  If consumer demand were different or local stores more strategic, we might have had a different outcome with regard to the number of Wal-Mart stores in our area.