As Walmart Opens New Stores, Can it Quiet Remaining Public Displeasure?

As Walmart aggressively began expansion in years past, oftentimes displacing existing local grocers or mom-and-pop retailers in doing so, a groundswell of criticism often made news headlines as residents expressed concerns over the retail giant entering their communities. The 2005 documentary "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" earned two thumbs up from movie critics Richard Roeper and Roger Ebert, as well as endorsements from labor groups, and the discourse surrounding the blue-and-yellow brand was one of controversy when it came to the company's public image.

Things have changed substantially in the interim, as Modern Retail's Mitchell Parton detailed in an exhaustive report — although not entirely. As Walmart plans to open new Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets after a brief pause between 2021 and 2023, it faces some degree of familiar pushback from communities slated to play host to new locations.

"While in some cases, the retailer has flown through easily, elsewhere it has encountered opposition from some community members. For example, in Ankeny, Iowa, residents have been speaking out this year against a Walmart store proposed near their homes at the end of 2024, NBC affiliate WHO 13 Des Moines reported. Residents complained about increased traffic on main and side roads, increased noise and light pollution. In June, the planning commission of Edmond, Oklahoma, denied plans for a 44,000-square-foot Walmart Neighborhood Market grocery store — nearly 100 residents had attended a public meeting to voice concerns," Parton wrote.

"Still, a Walmart spokesperson told Modern Retail its three newest stores that opened over the last few months in Cypress, Texas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Eagle Mountain, Utah have been celebrated by their respective communities and have attracted crowds of people," he added.

Walmart Has Made Inroads Concerning its Public Image and Community Relations

And while Walmart's ongoing expansion into new communities is spurring petitions and a drawing criticism — largely on the basis of potential traffic load; noise, light, and physical pollution; or plain opposition to more construction near residential areas — on the other hand, some communities are welcoming the retailer with open arms.

As Parton highlighted, a lessening of opposition toward Walmart's ingress into communities where it hadn't yet established a footprint may have roots in several different factors.

For one, Walmart appears to have had success in improving its brand image in recent years, improving employee pay and store aesthetics while also increasingly attracting a higher-income consumer. Parton cited Bryan Gildenberg, founder and CEO of Confluencer Commerce, on the latter subject.

“A lot of more affluent shoppers relied on Walmart for e-commerce grocery delivery during the pandemic and have since discovered that Walmart’s not a terrible place to shop,” Gildenberg said.

“As a result, you don’t have the visceral reaction to a Walmart coming that you might if you walked into a Walmart store 30 years ago and found it to be a little bare-bones and underkept for your taste," he added.

As a secondary point, Gildenberg noted that retail had been supplanted by gig workers at the bottom of the deflating wage pyramid, taking some of the attention away from Walmart as a low-paying employer.

For Anne Mezzenga, CEO of Omni Talk and former marketing leader at Target, Walmart's substantial investment in supply chain, store renovations and facelifts, and fresh marketing efforts have been key to improved publicity.

“Their deep push into fashion right now — providing consumers really the only place to go right now for reliable low prices and the convenience of a mass retailer, [and] having everything that they would need to purchase in one trip — [have] changed the perception is of Walmart, and I think will continue to change it in the coming years,” Mezzenga said.

“Walmart, in particular, has worked very hard to reposition themselves as investing in the communities where they are building their stores and the people in those communities. I think that’s paying off for them now," she added.

Finally, Parton quoted Gartner retail analyst Brad Jashinsky on two further prongs leading to Walmart's improved image versus years-ago levels: The contemporary macroeconomic environment favors low-price retailers, particularly when value is being perceived across several income demographics; and there are simply many more retailers — including e-commerce enterprises — operating even in small towns.

“There are a lot more retailers that are coming in, whereas 20, 30 years ago, Walmart would be the big story for a year or two while it was [being] developed and coming into a small town. The landscape has changed significantly," Jashinsky said.