coreyshields.com

Since I'm in an opinionated and vocal mood today...

Our household is a "house divided". I have a deep dislike of Wal-Mart stemming from numerous cases where I was left as a dissatisfied customer. They are not in the customer service business and as a tradeoff the prices are lower. I can accept that as their way of business, and once in a while I forget that only to find myself reminded when I go back. My wife, on the other hand, prefers the low prices and can stand the mad rush of people (I get cart rage easily when people cut me off).. Being back in Bloomington, our wal-mart is on the other side of town from us so with gas the way it is right now its just the same for me to pay an extra dollar for my everyday stuff closeby at Target than to drive far to save a bit here and there. And I find their customer service to be a bit better.

With that disclaimer out of the way, something that has bugged me even more lately is the excess of leftover wal-mart buildings that seem to be littering the country as the company builds their new Super Wal-Mart stores, leaving the original Wal-Mart shells behind to a property owner who hopes for a new buyer in a tough real estate market and tougher retail times.

I just got back from a quick trip to Bedford, just 40 miles away from home. On our way we passed 2 of these shells with "for sale" banners on the side. Similarly we took an 8 hour drive to Iowa a couple of months back and I noticed many of these in the small towns we passed through in Illinois. I noticed one while in New York on the way to visit IBM. All of them vacant. All of them easily identified as a former Wal-Mart, with a bigger store likely around the corner.

I know of one that has been repurposed, the original Terre Haute Wal-Mart building is in use as a Hobby Lobby.

I think this begs for some kind of discussion:

• Why are the properties not being picked up? Overpriced? Low value? Lack of retail demand?
• What can you do with such a shell, anyway? Very few retail stores are big enough to fill that space and not already have space of their own (though there is quite a demand for Hobby Lobby as witnessed by Nicole's crochet skills)
• Why not expand from the space that is already in use somehow? Build vertically if the land is not available next door. Or even split up your offerings to a smaller store nearby rather than packing everything up and moving to a bigger store. I know, single-site convenience and all.

At the end of the day its easy to say "so what, what does it matter?" Well, you end up with a building that goes unused for years... Which doesn't hurt anyone, really.. And at worst it is just an eyesore. So, if the value and market are such that the buildings are not desired, I'd love to see Wal-Mart set up a foundation and work with city councils to turn them into community centers or something where the space can be used and you can help your soiled reputation. They would make a great YMCA annex and in some cases another location for such physical activity that would be a more convenient location. The buildings are already configured as a storefront, so donate them to the Goodwill. The space could be well used by a community college or alternative school, or even a church. I guess if the demand were great enough then this would already be happening, but I see places like these building new buildings just down the block from the empty shells so it tells me that the price isn't right. And they continue to sit unused..

Maybe this isn't even worth thinking about. Maybe its just me. I'd like to hear your opinion on it.