I'm not in the US but what makes you feel this is run down?
The ceiling looks incomplete with no wall and the color scheme is drab and dreary.
For large chains in the suburbs this is totally normal. They're basically warehouses in a sea of parking lots filled with shelves and racks. Sometimes there's carpeted areas in between the tile walkways or displays that go up high enough that it feels enclosed. For smaller or more urban stores, you don't see this kind of construction.
You're in a Walmart.
They claim to be cheaper so they can have that drabby distopian look.
In the good parts of town, they look nicer. In the poor parts of town they're legit worse than that.
Fwiw, I'll pay the extra dollar per shopping cart for the superior look of a target. Target is generally cleaner and crisper looking. As always there are exceptions to that rule.
The "unfinished" ceilings are common in warehouse stores. It is largely a feature of practicality. Since electrical, water and ventilation typical run overhead and needs to be serviced occasionally, putting drop ceiling tiles up would make them difficult to work with, particularly when you need a scissor lift (rather than a ladder) to reach the utility lines. But it also has some benefits like higher lighting fixtures which means less direct/more ambient lighting, fewer places for pests to roam in the building or dust to build up, etc. It may just be that I'm used to it, but it doesn't bother me as an aesthetic. Drop ceiling is more common in smaller stores.
Not sure what you mean by the drab colors. The floor looks like it could be whiter and probably needs a polish, but the blues look nice enough to me. There's not much to decorate though as most of the story is wide open with very few surfaces that aren't covered in products for sale.
Oh yeah, this is super standard. Honestly I had to scroll down to find what was even notable to you about this picture. I live in a major city and basically every store I go in to looks identical to this.
That's not run down, that's a warehouse. Is it falling apart? Is the flooring worn? Are the walls cracking? Ceilings leaking? That's what run down means, not whatever your weird complaint is about the decor and color scheme is.
This is totally normal for Walmart to look like. It's basically a warehouse with extra steps.
Can you show us what you think they should look like?
Coz I’ve seen Americans, Australians, and Europeans call this normal looking. So I’d love to see what you think isn’t.
That ceiling is supposed to be that way. The insulation is on top of the roof deck, and the lack of a suspended ceiling gives it a more open feel. That's why they painted all of the roof structure white (it also allows them to use less power for lighting). Walmart has a lot of problems, but store design isn't one (although retail layout is, IMO).
that's pretty common for big box stores. they're put up cheaply and the buildings are only rated to last 15 years in some cases.
Even the worst store in Germany looks better than this.
How is this mildly infuriating
If you eat inflammatory foods every day, anything can be mildly infuriating
It’s mildly infuriating because op doesn’t like the color scheme, therefore it’s “run down”
If this is "run down" I wanna see what you would consider normal.
So in other words "yes" 😁. Honestly the floors look clean, stuff is on shelves, I have no idea what OP is complaining about.
I assume they mean more like... Sterile? Walmart always puts me off by how cold and uninviting it is. Just a white warehouse with metal shelves, fluorescent lights, and linoleum floors. There's no life to them like other smaller stores.
You had me zooming in looking for something. Like others have said, this is the "passing the savings along to you" look.
Target is a little more lively with an actual ceiling and brighter color scheme, but it's really the same thing with a little extra polish.
This is a Giant Supermarket. Same overall feel as the Walmart, but slightly less warehouse like to make things look more appetizing.
Aldi has done a pretty good job of remodeling. It's a value brand store where just about everything is store label, and it used to look rougher than Walmart. Now it's become almost trendy and chic, but prices are still good. Makes the others really look like penny pinchers.
A large part of it is probably stores are so big making it nice would be "cost prohibitive" since they'd require more cleaning and maintenance.
Aldi has really cleaned up it's act in the last decade or so, but so have all the other grocery stores in my area. Customers want to have a luxury feel and passing along the savings really isn't necessary if supermarkets syndicate themselves properly.
I love Aldi and it's where I get 75% or so of my groceries. I enjoy cooking, so it's easy to get basic quality ingredients there, and I'll grab the occasional prepared food as a treat, especially during German week!
They've expanded their offerings and still manage a good price. We've gotten there ground bison and lamb and dinner frozen duck breasts that have all been great. I like their flake style imitation crab. They have some good seasonal offerings.
Their not having any name brands seems to help them beat the price collusion the other stores have. Giant has bought out most of the stores near me, which doesn't help, but I buy little enough there I don't complain much about it.
Seriously though, what's wrong with them? Have I been living in a dump and not realizing it?
I'm really questioning that myself. I've been to all the stores I posted and they've always been fine.
I just looked up a Tesco and a Carrefour from Europe and they look about the same as the US stores, so I'm wondering where OP lives where box stores are beautiful.
This is how most supermarkets (Walmart/Kroger/Target, etc.) in the U.S. look brand new - they're effectively warehouses that sell product directly to customers. Smaller shops and boutiques have finished ceilings that hide the ductwork and such because they're meant to be more flexible commercial/office space, but large stores like this do not, except for specialized locations like electronics, jewelery, or pharmacy, that can be gated off from the rest of the inside of the building for reduced operation and security.
Ignorant American here: what looks "run down" about it?
The big box store chain esthetic. Ostensibly about passing value onto the customer (we put a roof over the products, what more do you want?) but probably more about maximizing shareholder value.
In fairness from the perspective of someone who has had to pull a lot of network cable in buildings before, drywall ceilings SUCK, drop ceilings are fine but can really be a pain, and open ceilings are chefs kiss soooooo much easier to work with. I promise that's true for your HVAC, fire sprinklers, electrical/lighting, and plumbing guys too. Particularly when you have to work on a scissor lift for those high ceilings, rather than on a 6ft ladder. From a practicality standpoint, open ceilings are way better for maintenance and new installations.
Looks like a normal grocery store to me. If you want run down looking you should see what family dollar stores look like.
Yeah dollar stores are the worst. They usually only have 1 or 2 employees and everything is everywhere. I don't blame the employees, the store management needs to hire enough people to staff the fucking things.
Latest John Oliver on Dollar stores:
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WDYM run down? Bro that looks really good.
As a retail manager, it looks fine? If the people in front of you are all waiting to check out, they should probably grab people from other departments to cover a few extra registers for a bit, but the store itself looks nice to me.
Could probably be me being ignorant, but how does this look "run down" exactly? It looks like a Walmart, and them looking like this is not strictly a US thing. Walmarts look exactly like this in Mexico too, and from what ever little I seen of em, also look the same in Canada.
But to answer your question, no. Not all shops in the US look have the Walmart look.
Boy oh boy. Go to some of the save-a-lots in Cleveland OH. You’ll see the “run down” feeling. It’s just supposed to be the cheapest store to buy stuff, which makes sense they don’t go all out
If you think this is run down, check out John Oliver's recent piece on "dollar stores" in the US
This can’t be a walmart in america, where are the 50 american flags?
It’s not, it’s a Meijer (Midwest chain).
European here: looks perfectly normal to me.
Same, looks identical to what I’d see here in Australia.
Based on your and the other guy's comment this sounds like European/Old-World identity bias (and a bit of availability bias); Assuming that other countries within one's group-identity are very similar and [non-European country] is a lone standout when it comes to some aspect that one just learned they differ on. It's so common to see these kinds of comments on posts of the form 'why do American's do this one weird thing different than everyone else'.
Pretty much par for the course for a Walmart/any other store like it. Also they look exactly the same in Canada. Cruddy lighting, cheap beige laminate floors... Bleh.
Nah, usually some of the lights are out and there is mushy spots on the ceiling.
That is from the dystopian hellscape that is known as Walmart lol, not all shops look this way but it is an extra depressing take on big box stores.
Looks like a typical Walmart.
Ever been to a dollar store?
The reason is that they often need to have just 1-2 employees to cut costs and stay competitive.Are those stains or shadows?
Yes
You should see Walmart in Canada. Makes US Walmart look like a luxury store.
In the US I don't really shop at a lot of these big name department/supermarket stores but I appreciate the deprioritization of superfluous building fashion.
But from what I understand, if you compare our hospitals to those abroad, the values are flipped on their head. We have granite marble waterfront facilities with grand fountains in the lobby and the patients and health care staff are treated like ass, we have poor outcomes that bankrupt us. But at least the place we shouldn't want to be in looks sharp.
Hmm. I wonder if our hospital architecture affects medical staff’s attitude toward patients. Perhaps hospitals should be more down to earth, to elevate the patients, like the Temple of the Human Spirit
Yeah this is what they look like unfortunately. When it comes to size, decoration tends to suffer
Dude, you're in a Walmart. You can't have peopleofwalmart.com AND have a polished ceiling. There's a reason their stuff is so cheap.
I think it's a size thing. At some point it just doesn't make sense to put in a lowered ceiling, because it costs a lot of money for no purpose and still looks like shit. Large stores in Europe also have visible airducts and supports etc.
Also, some malls have rules for what tenants are allowed to do with it, either for safety reasons (water sprinklers/fire alarms) or just because they don't want to repaint or remove whatever the tenant did with it before they went bankrupt.
When you shop at big box stores, the money leaves the community and goes to the wealthy 0.01%ers.
But the evil of their methods is that typically once they move in there's literally no other options left. Everything else either goes out of business or your wages drop so low you can't afford anything else.
These are a blight on American society.
These types of stores didn't used to be possible for various reasons. But removal of anti-trust regulations and a focus on car-centrism have enabled this hellish combo of monopolistic box stores that can pop up, kill the competition and leave a wasteland behind in which it is both financially and legally impossible for the local population to bring back local stores.
Local stores tend to be in the older town areas where dense-buildings were once legal, and are grandfathered in. These get bought up and flattened and replaced with a mcdonalds or a gas station while the walmartification is in full swing. Then once walmart implodes there because no one can afford it anymore, walmart closes and the other chains close as well. No one can afford to replace walmart or the gas stations at scale for the obnoxious amount of land they use, but they also can't replace them with more dense buildings because its literally illegal.
This is what every Meijer I've been to looks like. Yes, this is a Meijer, not Walmart.
Actually looks pretty clean to me. The ceiling having nothing but beams is pretty standard issue.
If you think this is run down looking you should see shops in other countries
What's wrong with it?
man getcho ass off ya high ass horse. ghoof aah
This fool shops at Erewhon and pays $10 for cucumber water
As a Texan, I'd be remiss if I didn't post about HEB:
Practically every store is different, they tailor them to the neighborhoods they're built in.
https://thcshoanghoatham-badinh.edu.vn/descubrir-70-imagen-heb-interior/
Should go into a Dollar General. They aren't all dumps, but a whole lot of them should be shut down by the local fire Marshal, since they got boxes and product right in the isles, turning the store into a labyrinth, and forcing customers to step over things.
I am honestly not noticing anything particularly bad myself. I could take picture of a local store in worse condition but its mostly due to the fact it's alpt older than all the other grocery establishments near by and I think the company has deemed it unnecessary to support as much.
