Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Warsaw Walmart Welcomes a Remodel (Part One)

Not to be confused with Wyoming County in the coverage area in PA.
As the first of a multiple part post, let me start off by providing a bit of background information on this remodeling Walmart location located in Warsaw, NY. As a smaller '90s store around 75,000 sq.ft., this store lacks the typical selection of food found at most larger locations. In fact this was one of the store that had its milk and other frozen foods up front by the cash registers. It hadn't been updated to this point, because there were plans in place for this location to expand into a full-on supercenter. (It has the room needed to do so.) Even though Walmart had pretty much all the proper permits needed to start construction, for some reason they abandoned the idea of expansion at the last second and decided instead to just remodel. I visited this location just in time to capture some of the '90s relics that this store offered because some of the remodeling work had already begun. Also, some of the relics were removed between the two trips I made to this store recently. I do want to note that not all of the pictures I took will be shown in this post(s), for a complete view of all photos taken here visit my Flickr album of this store.

Let's begin with my pictures taken on August 28:



I thought it was odd for a smaller store of this location's size to have a Subway.
Customer Services

All of the main actionways had more stuff in them them normal. Some even had full blown aisles running in them. (see a few pictures below)





The actionway aisle.

The shoe department had narrow aisles:
 



Fitting Rooms
Jewerly
The typical layout of a '90s Walmart didn't have electronics along the back wall. This store has evidence suggesting that it still retained that layout up until its remodel officially began in early August of this year. Here's my findings:



The store was in a transition phase of moving electronics to the back to fit the more modern layout of Walmart locations. As a result, you can see some electronics in the clothing area as well as the photo center in the old electronics area still.

Books and magazines.
The store's old layout from when it was built.
At the moment I visited in August, crafts was both in the old electronics area and between baby and books in the back of the store. You likely noticed the few crafts pictures above, but here's some from the old electronics area. You can see where the shelves used to lay for electronics.



Now for a look at the work being done in the new electronics area:






The future pickup area still features walmart.com services.

Now for some interesting sights that you wouldn't see at just any remodel:


This aisle was one of my favorite scenes I saw while visiting this remodeling Walmart.
Evidence would suggest this would be about where the old electronics area stopped. Cleaning Supplies was typically located behind electronics and the aisle scars stop here.



The store's furniture department is TINY. It is pretty much from the orange edge to one aisle after the where wall makes the 90 degree angel to go to the back.
Notice the box with the old logo and the scuffs on the wall.
The paint courtesy desk being prepped.
At work Remodeling

This is actually one of the store's main actionways, believe it or not.
Notice the garden center desk is actually in the store itself and not in the garden center. Also, notice the old TV camera here.
Moving on to the front of the store:


The empty shelves here would eventually become cleaning supplies.

At this time there was only 5 and a half aisles dedicated to food items.

Old styled Pharmacy.


This signage was removed when I returned on September 18th.
All frozen foods (mainly milk) at the front of the store.
Even the outside has some oddities:



As I mentioned this Walmart will be covered in multiple posts, so be sure to keep an eye out for the next part!