Walmart Market coming to Somerville

[msr-tim.livejournal.com]

 Not really in Davis Square I know. It's going to be in the old Circuit City location next to Home Depot.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/07/22/wal_mart_to_debut_market_grocery_store_in_massachusetts/

Seems like we have a lot of supermarkets here already. Star, Market Basket, 2 Johnny's Foodmasters, Stop and Shop and Kmart (OK that's a stretch). Also a Whole Foods and a Shaws right on the city lines.

Comments

[ron_newman]

That's a lousy location -- very hard to reach from any Somerville neighborhood. Wonder why they chose this instead of moving into the former Winter Hill Star Market?

(I don't think our K-Mart sells food, though there are larger K-Marts elsewhere that do include a supermarket)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

We may have a lot of supermarkets, but we don't have enough. Since the Winter Hill Star Market closed, that area is poorly served. Though I don't see how a new Walmart right across from the Stop & Shop is going to help.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Eww. I am actually surprised at the poll results at that link. I personally will not shop at Walmart and will not check out the grocery store.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

This times a thousand. I just recently discovered that there's a Wal-Mart closer than I realized (in Lynn) and still won't shop there.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

it's readily accessible by car and the highway, which is a lot more important for a box store.

[ron_newman]

Mystic Avenue is one-way northbound, so I don't see any way to get there from any residential part of Somerville without first going to the intersection of Broadway and Mt. Vernon. Seems a lot easier to just keep going to Market Basket.

Also, this isn't a big-box Walmart, it's just a grocery store.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

But I think Walmart is claiming that this will help the "food desert" "issue" in this area... which given how not walkable that location is, seems hard to believe. Frankly if you have a car and you are already driving to a grocery store, you might as well go to the shaws (or is it stop and shop) that is just beyond there as the parking lot is easier to get in and out of.

Should you decide you desperately want a walmart...

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

That one in Lynn is pretty much impossible to get to. It's actually faster from Somerville to drive up 93 to one of the Walmarts in the North Shore than it is to drive to Lynn.

[freedmam.livejournal.com]

Once Wegmans opens in Burlington, I'll never stop at a another grocery store again.

Yes off topic...but I'll take any opportunity I can find to talk about Weggies!

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I think they suspect it will get a lot of driving home from work and weekend traffic. I dunno if that's true.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

It's also a few blocks over from the far more accessible (in all respects) Stop and Shop. As in, all of Somerville will have to drive past that Stop and Shop in order to get the Wal-Mart Market.

I'm happy for the jobs, such as they'll be, and also for the gleeful schadenfreude to be had as the Anti-Wal-Mart drones roll out, but if this thing happens, it's got two years max.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of wondering how that would work. It's pretty much inaccessible by car, it's even worse on foot, and one lone bus...

:::facepalm::: When's the IKEA opening again? That's why they're opening this: they think they can get the train traffic.

[amy-s1.livejournal.com]

Wait - you live in Somerville and you are planning to buy all of your groceries in Burlington? Wow, must be an amazing place.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

It's right off the exit from 93N, no?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Kind of, but it's not very convenient: you have to get off the on-ramp, go all the way down, turn into the shopping complex, then drive all the way back up. There's a lot of asphalt spaghetti in that particular area: it's a nightmare no matter what method you use to get through it.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

It's especially impressive since he means Burlington, VT.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking, but that train station isn't due to be there until 2014 (so maybe it'll be in by 2020?).

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Completion is targeted by 2014 (so, yes, 2020), but I think the station itself will be open as soon as next year if I remember the timeframe correctly: Somerville REALLY wants that IKEA.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I do really want that IKEA.

[ron_newman]

They probably expect to beat Stop & Shop on price, or draw them into a price war.

[ron_newman]

Sort of. Right into the Sullivan Square rotary, then most of the way around the rotary, out onto Mystic Ave -- not a lot of fun driving.

[ron_newman]

This won't be within a reasonable walk of the new train station, though. If anything it's closer to Sullivan station (and still an unpleasant walk)

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Who'd have thought it possible: the space is being filled by a company with even worse customer service and employee relations than Circuit City.

I'll keep shopping at Market Basket, thanks. I suspect most of Somerville will do the same. I suppose it is slightly more accessable on foot for a small part of East Somerville, though the walk there is incredibly unpleasant.

Re: Should you decide you desperately want a walmart...

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I saw some Harvard students on the T, carrying bags of stuff from Wal-Mart. I was amazed they were able to get there and equally amazed that they would want to.

Re: Should you decide you desperately want a walmart...

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and there are so many better and closer options! I bet they didn't know that Kmart was in Somerville!