Old Wal Mart near Reno and Midwest Blvd

[Bimmerdude]

Pass by the "hood" yesterday and noticed some cars parked at the old Wal Mart. What's happening over there? Are they renovating the place?

Daniel

[dmoor82]

Hmmm...I live right up The street so I'm gonna check this out,I thought The old walmart was used and an emergency response center and The old target was bought up by MWR hospital and I have NO idea what is of The old Albertsons!BTW texass or the pokies suck whichever you prefer!OU baby Big 12 champs!!!!!!

[usmbubba]

The Salvation Army is using it right now

[dmoor82]

^^Cool!

[bombermwc]

Doze it...

[Bimmerdude]

Yeah, it was sad to pass through there. I remember when that area was going pretty strong. Heck I remember when Target had that little gas station in the parking lot.

[Thunder]

Doze it...

I think not! That is a piece of history from all of our childhood life!

[OKCJapan]

Yeah, I remember that too!

[easternobserver]

yeah, we must do everything we can to preserve historic buildings. lets form a citizens group and get that building on to the national register of historic places.

[oneforone]

I am in as long as we can save the Hollywood Video and the Carl's Jr.

[bombermwc]

I think not! That is a piece of history from all of our childhood life!

Are you freaking kidding me? A Wal-Mart? It's amazing the stupidity that spews from your brain.

I'd start blocking you, but then I'd miss out on all the stupidity...

[Thunder]

Are you freaking kidding me? A Wal-Mart? It's amazing the stupidity that spews from your brain.

I'd start blocking you, but then I'd miss out on all the stupidity...

It is not a Walmart anymore. It is a historic building and it can still be put to good use.

[Stew]

It is not a Walmart anymore. It is a historic building and it can still be put to good use.

LOL, that walmart building isn't old enough to buy a six pack of PBR.

[Lauri101]

Are you freaking kidding me? A Wal-Mart? It's amazing the stupidity that spews from your brain.

I'd start blocking you, but then I'd miss out on all the stupidity...

The amusement factor pretty much pays for the pain. Just sayin'

[bombermwc]

It is not a Walmart anymore. It is a historic building and it can still be put to good use.

Historic = less than 20 years old box store now huh? I think there are some telephone poles around that are about 50...want to declare them historic? How about the fence around Glenwood?

[TaoMaas]

My wife and I were talking about that area this morning. I'm relatively new to the Midwest City area, but it amazes me that a corner which used to support a Target, a Wal Mart, and an Albertson's is seen as no longer being viable. Hello? I can understand how the area may have gone down and been unable to sustain three stores, but I think it's kinda crazy not to believe that you couldn't take the remnant customers from all three stores and support something that combined all three, like a Super-Wal Mart or Super-Target. I feel the same way about the Heritage Park Mall area. It looks like the Checkerboard Cafe has expanded their hours and Pelican's is full most every weekend, so why couldn't other businesses be successful in that area? Again...maybe the section of town has gone down some, but to me, that just means that maybe it's no longer a Dillard's crowd, but more of a Burlington Coat Factory or "1/2 of 1/2" type market, ya know?

[bombermwc]

Since your'e new to MWC - I'll repeat for the billionth time on this corner.

1 - Target - The hospital bought the property which is why target and westlake moved in the first place. It's phase 3 of their expansion plans. When they added the 2 new floors (which look retarted by the way) onto the Mullinex tower, that was Phase 1. Phase 2 is an expansion on the other end of the current hospital to include a physician's building. Phase 3 is a consolidation of physician's offices from around MWC into a more "suited" facility including a day care for hospital employees.
3 - WalMart - MWC prevented this store from ever becoming a super center because it didn't have the parking lot space to meet the space to square foot requirement the city has. They also couldn't afford to purchase Albertson's...it was cheaper to move to DC which made it really easy for them....and MWC still got one on 23rd and Douglas.
4 - Albertson's actually had been having problems for years. Their overly high prices are what killed them off. When Albertson's went under, no one wanted to purchase that store, so it closed. It had long been one of the poorest performing stores in OKC. The 240 store wasn't much better but it's proximity to the highway made it attractive enough for Homeland to buy....only to have now closed it after Crest opened. Again, a crappy interior, crappy employees, high prices, and low quality products = closure.
5 - Hollywood Video went bankrupt like most video stores (blockbuster is just around the corner from doing that as well).

It's just been bad timing for the corner. It's not like anything is out for the businesses there, but it's also not a high traffic corner. Go a mile in any direction and you'll see a higher traffic volume than that corner does. We really should count our blessings that the only big boxes that are empty without an owner are WalMart and Albertsons. I don't count Target since it's owned by the hospital with a long-term plan in place. K-Mart was repopulated with Anthony's when Fenton moved in. The old WalMart on Air Depot has been filled ever since it emptied.

So things aren't nearly as bad as they seem on the surface. It's just how the general economy has evolved....just so happens that a number of the companies all occupied the same corner.

[TaoMaas]

Yes, I'd heard that before, but I appreciate the update. My question isn't so much about the actual facilities, but rather the apparent turning away from the consumers who used to fill all those facilities. I think businesses are missing a tremendous opportunity. The homes in the area are still full and that means there are still customers in the area. I find it very hard to believe that a one mile stretch of road that used to support a mall, a Target, a Wal Mart, a Crest, and an Albertson's can now only support the small Crest. I understand that most of those customers are now going to out-lying Wal Marts, Target, and Crest, but I also understand that they don't really have any closer alternatives these days.

[Thunder]

Drove by the area yesterday and saw huge piles of dirt all over. They torn down the old grocery store and already rebuilding something there. Walmart is untouched there.

[Watson410]

Thunder- Sometimes people just have to shake their heads at things you say.... You have commented NUMEROUS times in the thread about what that "something" is they're building in place of the old grocery store.

[Thunder]

Thunder- Sometimes people just have to shake their heads at things you say.... You have commented NUMEROUS times in the thread about what that "something" is they're building in place of the old grocery store.

I don't understand. It was my first time to see the building gone and dirt everywhere and now there are erecting walls.

[Watson410]

http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=24410

[okcustu]

Another reason to hate Wal-Mart, could they not re-purpose the old building instead of letting it rot behind a new store? This is the corporate version of buying a new car and leaving the old rusty pick-up truck in the front yard. But then again, maybe they're appealing to their customer base.

[Watson410]

It would be AWESOME if some big company bought it and transformed it into what they did the old Wal-Mart in Edmond! THAT WOULD BE NICE!! I don't see anything like that happening though!!

[bombermwc]

Why is it that we always seem to hate Wal-Mart and not the other big boxes when they abandon a building? No one complained about K-Mart or Target. They both got bought but there really wasn't anything different from the Wal-Mart building. I mean Target left BECAUSE they got bought, so that's a bit different I guess. But K-Mart really sits mostly empty if you've ever been in Anthony's. Half the place has the lights off...it's pretty weird in there. And the old-old Wal-Mart across from the mall has been a million things over the years. TG&Y became Michaels. Anthony's became Langstons. The list goes on and on.

And remember, it was the City of MWC that put up the road block for that building being turned into a Super Center. Yes Wally could have bought up the Albertson's lot to correct the problem, but they weren't closed yet at that point...and eventually they did buy it for the new Market.

So there's 1 single big box store sitting vacant in MWC. I'd say it's pretty great that it's the only place that's empty. A lot of places aren't able to recover from that number of large vacancies.