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.
Also the implication that countries outside the US don't have dumpy stores is laughable. Europe's got plenty of stuff like this, just usually not as large. Here in the Netherlands we have shops like Action and grocery stores like Lidl and they're a shitshow inside most of the time.
Target has been going downhill. Lots of crap in the aisles now, and inventory is stocked during the day. It’s like shopping in a warehouse.
It's incredibly difficult to find anything at Target, especially gender-neutral hygiene products since they hard-segregated hygiene into men's and women's. Just give me regular ass bar soap.
My partner was looking for coffee and looked all over the tea section and nope, naturally coffee belongs next to the liquor and red vines.
I hate going to Target, but I still take it over Walmart. At least I don't feel dirty shopping at Target.
Retail in general is hiring much less staff these days so they always look like shit. I heard on the radio that they are removing self checkout now too because of theft? I doubt they will increase staff back up to compensate. I kind of want to be there in rush hour the first time to watch the shit show.
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.
Pretty much anywhere you have overhead storage with forklifts, you're going to not have a drop ceiling. Otherwise you'd just have people hitting the damn ceiling with the forklift. They already hit the sprinklers enough.
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.
Ceiling design is intentional, it's cheap and it maintains temperature much better than a drop ceiling or whatever else you'd want up there.
Walmart normally has skylights too to let in natural light but I can't see any in the pic. That looks like a poorly maintained Walmart.
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).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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