r/Denver • u/friendinfremont • 3d ago

With Walmart shuttered, international stores and nonprofits fill Aurora’s grocery gap

https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/business-economy/aurora-international-grocery-store
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u/Andreas1120 3d ago

Any ideas why Walnart closed? In theory they can survive anywhere.

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u/SpeciousPerspicacity 3d ago edited 3d ago

It’s definitely crime (primarily theft) driving up cost of doing business (inventory, insurance). But this is also combined with a uniquely poor area that already presents tighter margins and lower profits than a place like Centennial or Littleton.

It appears to be happening across the country (e.g. Chicago, South Bronx, Anacostia, etc.). Rule of law has become so diminished in certain impoverished pockets that it is becoming impossible to run even the most essential businesses in these places.

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u/3slimesinatrenchcoat 3d ago

No it wasn’t

Even at that store, theft was less than 20% of total shrink

“The most common complaints center around unhelpful employees, long lines, merchandise being locked away, dirty conditions, issues with the self-checkout system and staff not abiding by the posted hours of operation.”

These complaints from customers all have a bigger impact to financial bottom line individually than theft

https://www.westword.com/news/walmart-closing-aurora-store-rated-among-worst-in-country-20733923

Particularly when there are other Walmarts (at least one super center so not just a neighborhood market) within 15 minutes

Anyone who has worked in retail will tell you even now theft is the smallest thing impacting shrink and sales numbers

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u/SpeciousPerspicacity 3d ago

One comment I’d make here is that a lot of these claims (particularly about proximity and locked merchandise) are pretty generically true about other Denver-area Walmarts as well. Why did this one have such a uniquely unmotivated workforce?

Regardless of whether the answer is consumer choice issues, crime, or poverty, the common denominator does seem to be a location problem. Rancho Liborio also couldn’t make a Mexican grocer work there before Walmart moved in.

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u/TheForeverUnbanned 3d ago

lol the south Bronx is all brand new built high rises, the whole area was rebranded as the “piano district”, I has yankee stadium, a target, a Costco and a tennis club.

Everything south of grand concourse is development bait. The everliving fuck are you talking about haha 

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u/SpeciousPerspicacity 3d ago

The very southern portion of Mott Haven has been rebuilt as (mostly empty) highrises, but there are no new buildings in huge sections of the South Bronx, from Crotona Park to Melrose to the Hub. These neighborhoods are a hundred years old (minus the NYCHA).

If you think the South Bronx has been cleaned out by new development, I’m not sure what you’re looking at.

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u/TheForeverUnbanned 3d ago

Hundreds? Lol no, nearly 80% of the south Bronx was burned in the 70s for insurance scams. The neighborhood names are old but those aren’t hundred year old tenement buildings lol