Walmart Neighborhood Market Photo for GreerToday.com
The Walmart Neighborhood Market will feature ammenites like this full-service cafe. The Greer Neighborhood Market will be the first in South Carolina for the Walmart brand.
The produce and vegetable section in the Neighborhood Markets will be fully stocked.
The Greer Planning Advisory Committee discussed the city’s code and ordinances leading into the construction phase with David Graffius of Gray Engineering Consultants.
The parking lot and façade is scheduled for completion this summer and the first Walmart (NYSE: WMT) Neighborhood Market in South Carolina is tentatively planned to open late this year or the first quarter of 2013. The store typically opens with about 90-100 employees.
David Harner, Vice President and Senior Development Manager for Paramount Development Corporation, is handling the Greer Plaza and Neighborhood Market engineering for Walmart and overseeing construction of the former Winn-Dixie on Wade Hampton Blvd. “We’re tentatively saying the first quarter of 2013,” Harner said. “Greer Plaza parking and façade will begin in June or July.”
Construction bids will be let. “Typically we bid the projects and the lowest bid will be awarded,” Harner said.
“This is an old infill redevelopment,” Reno Deaton, President of Greer Development Corporation, said. “Smart growth is great growth.”
Phil Rhoads, Greer Director of Building and Development Standards, said Walmart moving its grocery store concept to Greer and South Carolina, is practical. “Walmart is moving to grocery stores because there’s not a lot of people who want to go through a bunch of people in a big store to do their grocery shopping.
“Walmart is just like Milliken, they’re always a step ahead of everybody,” Rhodes said.
Langley and Associates Architects have been hired by Paramount for the façade’s design. “Our work must be done before Walmart opens,” David Langley said.
Walmart claimed the No. 1 spot in the Fortune 500 for the second straight year in 2011 and eighth time in the decade as America’s largest company. The store’s sales topped at $421 billion and earnings increased 14 percent to $16.4 billion.
Walmart Neighborhood Market and Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) arrival in Greer, also scheduled late this year or early 2013, has already impacted the renovation of both shopping centers. Piedmont Market Plaza is undergoing complete renovation to its parking lot with lighted and landscaped islands. Tractor Supply Company’s façade is nearing completion.
“For economic development and Greer Plaza this has a very direct impact what is going on there and at Piedmont Market Plaza,” Deaton said. “This gives Greer greater leverage and creates more active prospects.”
Deaton said Walmart and Kohl’s (No. 142 on Fortune 500) present excellent talking points with business and industry looking to locate in Greer. “When you think who the developers are and their sheer numbers it presents additional opportunity for smart growth.”
Glenn Wilson told GreerToday.com (Jan. 18) that the Walmart Neighborhood Market, “Is a relatively new concept and we have an aggressive growth plan.” Wilson said a typical Neighborhood Market has about 40,000 square feet and is a full-service grocery store, with deli, dairy, household products and a pharmacy.
The Walmart Market concept debuted in 1998 as the Neighborhood Market in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. It was an avenue for Walmart to learn the grocery business.
The Neighborhood Market stores are typically open 24 hours a day.