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So, at some point in 2013 Corvallis will be home to a new Walmart Neighborhood Market. Just what will this mean, how will customers react, and will the concept succeed in Corvallis? Because I am not a regular Walmart shopper I wanted to do some research first before writing one word either in favor of the idea, just being neutral or taking the position of not looking forward to Walmart invading the bucolic community of Corvallis.
Doing a few key strokes on Google I came to find that Walmart has several of these "Neighborhood Markets" in the Denver, Colorado metro area. These new stores have just recently opened in June of this year. The concept is to sell a full line of groceries in a more compact size store and presumably entice shoppers to come to this style Walmart several times per week. Sounds similar to the concept of Trader Joe's, Market of Choice and The Grocery Outlet. A personal note here, I find myself shopping either in Market of Choice and or Trader Joe's several times a week.
Walmart actually began this concept in 1998. These stores would focus on bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, & wine. These Neighborhood Market stores are typically 36,000 to 42,000 square feet in size. This proposed Walmart will be the anchor tenant on the nine acre site on Ninth Street. My research suggests Walmart will hire between 80-100 employees to staff the store.
Had the news been that Walmart wanted to build a Super Center in Corvallis I would have absolutely been against the plan. What Walmart has effectively done is an "end around" on just about all the factions in Corvallis. It appears that Walmart will have met all the conditions to build on this site and will not require any extraordinary approvals, at least at this juncture.
The powers that be at Walmart headquarters surely do their homework and know that there is a substantial senior market in Corvallis. This senior market would be a good starting point to build from at least conceptually. Since I fall into the senior category I want to take a step back and see what we really have here? Is Walmart part of the Invading Hordes from the Steppes of Russia in the Middle Ages? Not quite, but Walmart is out to increase their market share and they never seem to be interested in taking prisoners if you will.
It will be interesting to see how shoppers will react after the initial "outrage" has passed over this news. Perhaps Walmart coming to Corvallis is akin to a Politician getting out the bad news early and hoping that voters will forget it over the course of time. By July 2013 we will all have a better idea of what level of Success Walmart will have in Corvallis. Which niche market in Corvallis will Walmart succeed in, if any? Time and local Corvallis consumers will provide the answer to this question.
Therefore, since we live in a society based on Capitalism and have no moat built around Corvallis, at least not literally, I am obliged to take neutral ground on a Neighborhood Walmart in Corvallis, at least for now!
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