Archive for the ‘Walmart’ Category

• Rain out

  Date: 2011.03.07 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Norristown, Walmart | Response: 0

  I was out and about this afternoon and stopped by the WaWa in East Norriton, a rarity for me. I needed smokes and was headed in that direction plus I could use some air in my tires and it’s free there. Yes it’s true 7 Eleven charges for their air but this isn’t a pissing match. I grabbed smokes and filled my tires in the rain, and I was on my way.

  There were some nice rolls at home and I was getting hungry. I started thinking about a prosciutto hoagie. I thought this was all very convenient as I could swing by Talluto’s grab some fresh meats and do a review all in one. No such luck as they were closed.

  So I turned around and before I knew it I was in the barren zone. The first thing I noticed was they’re really making progress on whatever it is they’re building where Woody’s used to be (I know it was ‘Wood’s’ – what do you care!). The second thing I noticed was that for the life of me I couldn’t think of anywhere else to get fresh prosciutto but I knew Genaurdis would no doubt have some vacuum packed. I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of going to Genaurdis but it was close and a guarantee and I wasn’t feeling real adventurous today.

  Naturally the whole shopping center was mobbed so I slipped in the entrance near staples with the gourmet foods and such. I wanted to grab soda and paper towels too, but there was no way I was paying top dollar for it at Genuardis. So I grabbed the prosciutto and some provolone and headed over to Walmart. It always comes back to Walmart.

  You can guess how this went.  I grabbed the usual – which I might add is becoming easier at East Norriton Walmart.  They had plenty of cherry limeade, and I grabbed some water and soda for good measure.  Also surprisingly despite the multitude of customers around the checkout, I got out of there quick because the 20 items or less lanes were open.  Those lanes are never open.  But in the last couple of weeks there has been a noticeable increased management presence on the sales floor.  Not just the leads and such, but also a trio of suits that sometimes walks around together plotting the execution of innocent endcaps based on inventory stats and sales figures.  I don’t know what exactly these guys are building, but they have definitely increased overall productivity and general effectiveness within the last month or so.

  It was raining still when I left and had a pretty uneventful ride home.  It was mostly focused on how to optimize my entrance so that I could make my hoagie the fastest.  Within minutes I had an excellent prosciutto hoagie with roasted red peppers and provolone cheese, on a nice roll with some oil.  Unfortunately I was so hungry I really didn’t have time to get any pics of it, so I got nothing for you right now in terms of images within this post.

• Walmart Store #3565

  Date: 2011.02.06 | Category: East Norriton, Walmart | Response: 2

  According to walmart.com the store in East Norriton is #3565. I also never mentioned their hours. It’s very standard and I’d much rather it was 24 hours but it is not. West Norriton is 24 hours though. But the East Norriton location is only open from 10 – 12? I think. The hours may vary though as there’s been plenty of times I’ve pulled up and been shocked they were closed.

• Updates

  Date: 2011.02.06 | Category: East Norriton, Walmart | Response: 0

  So I updated the site with my header that I mentioned a few weeks ago in Wal Mart Expedition.  Unfortunately I had to switch themes.  And while this theme is nice, I don’t appreciate those circles invading my personal space.  If anyone knows how to get rid of that please do tell.  I stuck with the orange though because, well East Norriton has always been unusually orange.

• Bottom Dollar Food

  Date: 2011.02.06 | Category: Dining, East Norriton, Everywhere else, Grocery, Norristown, Walmart | Response: 3

  As I promised a few weeks ago, I finally checked out the new Bottom Dollar Food in Northtowne Plaza.  I only needed a few things and had planned to go to the Dollar Tree, but I figured this was a good chance to give Bottom Dollar a day in court.  At first I was dissapointed that such a new store could have a light out already in it’s sign. 

  

  How is a light out already!

  Fair enough I figured, for all I know they could have asked the leasing company that owns the strip mall about it weeks ago.  I’m not gonna assume anything though, and I’ll just take it for face value.  As I entered I was suprised that before me was a minitaure supermarket!  

  I didn’t know what to expect, but I did not expect anything like this.  It was like someone took a regular supermarket, stripped away all the bullshit that you don’t need or want, and left you with everything you do!

  

  Nice layout!

  At first I didn’t know where to go.  Should I get a cart?  Nah I’m tough enough to carry everything.  The first thing that happened was truly miraculous and I don’t ever expect it to happen again.  I grabbed a 24 pack of water of the shelf and it was ice cold!  I looked around as if I was guilty of receiving such a blessing.  I checked it again, my hands were not deceiving me, this water was already cold.  Now, they were stocking the shelves so I have to assume that this water literally came right off the truck out of the cold Pennsylvania winter night.  Now I don’t know what the odds of that happening again are, but I can tell you in all the years I’ve been buying bulk bottled water, I’ve never experienced it. 

  It appears that one of the methods Bottom Dollar uses to keep costs down, is by not providing free bags for your purchases.  I’ve seen this before in Ireland while I was there on my honeymoon.  It was at a department store called DUNNES in Ennis, Clare.  Really cool store by the way.  Kind of like a small super walmart, but much more upscale.  

  In any event bags were 5 for 25 cents or somethin like that.  I also grabbed a membership card and was on my way. 

  Next I was heading for Church’s Chicken in Norristown to pick up some dinner.  I had a coupon for a 12 piece chicken strip meal plus fries*, AND biscuits.  No way I’m passing that up.  It took a while though because that menu item is “cooked to order”  It was fairly uneventful.  Use your imagination.  There was a bunch of other people standing around waiting for their cooked to order meal.  It’s my understanding now that quite a few items on the menu are cooked to order.  When I got home I harrassed that box of chicken and then sampled a biscuit.  Thats when I decided to start working on this post.  Which is just about over. 

  

  Uneventful night at Church's

  *The coupon was actually for mashed potatoes but the cashier was gracious enough to let me swap for fries.

• Wal-Nite

  Date: 2011.01.27 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Walmart, Weather | Response: 2

  So the office closed early today due to the expectation of more snow.  It still hasn’t arrived, but everyone is betting on it. (Update: it is definately here now in the form of ThunderSnow!)  I needed quite a few things and I had planned my route before leaving work.  First I stopped at the Walgreens on the corner of Township Line and 202 in Blue Bell.  Walgreens really is a superiour pharmacy and has the best retail goods out of all the chains.  However this location is not open 24 hours!  Sometimes I wonder about this area and their obsession with non-24 hour stores.  Surrounding East Norriton you really only have Giant and 7-11 in Blue Bell.  Sure there’s the 7-11 on East Johnson Highway but I prefer the one on Swede.  Come to think of it there’s also the one down Germantown pike towards the WaWa.  Of course there’s another Walgreens there but again it’s not 24 hours.

  I did what I had to do in Blue Bell Walgreens, and even grabbed my smokes there since it would give me more freedom of line choice at Walmart.  Coming into the parking lot at Walmart, I noticed one of East Norriton’s finest parked in the fire zone.  No one was in the vehicle, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary inside Walmart nor a police officer.  Maybe he just needed milk or rock salt.

  Since I had gotten out of work early I grabbed a cart and took my time tonite.  One of the first things on display in the front was a near empty pallete of rock salt.  Sure I’ll grab one of the last bags.  I was also extremely pleased to discover that they had cherry limeade again!  So naturally I stocked up on a few more boxes.  I also grabbed a packet of those Tassimo Maxwell House coffee discs.  I really do love my Tassimo machine, but I had a syrup problem with it before we moved.  Sometimes when you use the hot chocolate cups, the chocolate syrup goops up the dispenser.

  When I got to the registers there were only a few open and they were all packed.  The one I picked quickly became the slowest.  This woman was paying for her items with a huge stack of unidentifiable gift cards.  They were blue with multi colored dots on them and she had to have at least 25 of them.  She only used maybe 5 of them to pay so I’m guessing they were $10 or $20 amounts.  What do you know while I’m waiting for all this, the cigarette line opens up completely so I wound up in that line anyways.

• Valentine’s Massacre of aisle 5/6 endcap

  Date: 2011.01.25 | Category: Consumables, East Norriton, Grocery, Walmart | Response: 0

  Noo – Why!!!  My precious cherry limeade endcap is gone!  Sure I knew it was simply a matter of time before the endcap changed, but I didn’t think it would be in just over a week.  They sure moved a ton of cherry limeade in the past 10 days.  Now it’s been reduced to an assortment of Valentine’s day baked goods and marshmallows.  Which I’m sure are products worthy of endcap selection, but they don’t help me.  To boot they don’t even have any cherry limeade in the regular mixed drink aisle either.  Ahh what am I gonna do, at least I stocked up last week.  I still have 1 unopened 10 pack.

  

  cherry limeade is gone

  There really wasn’t much going on tonight.  Usually it’s kind of a struggle to make your way past the registers into the body of the store.  I think they should have a ramp and overpass for the people who aren’t in line.  But you could sell the same crap as they do in the lines on the overpass.  Why do the baseball cards have to be confined to one register?  What if that line’s really long and people are all squashed in there?  You’re gonna be the guy who tries to say excuse me to a bunch of irritated smokers waiting for cigarettes?  Speaking more to that, it amazes me that so many non smokers at Walmart go though that line even though it’s always the longest, and they don’t purchase anything else aisle specific like the “As seen on TV stuff” or the baseball cards.  Either way the sun has set on the cherry limeade endcap, I enjoyed it while it lasted.

• Wal-Mart expedition

  Date: 2011.01.14 | Category: East Norriton, Grocery, Walmart | Response: 3

  

  East Norriton Walmart holding it's own on a cold winter night

  After work I went by East Norriton Walmart to grip up some water, soda and cigarettes. Of course singles packets of great value cherry limeade would be a nice bonus but let’s be honest, east norriton hasn’t had them in weeks. It was just about dark when I got there, and I managed to snap a few nice pics. One I’m gonna hold out on showing you cause I think I’m gonna use it as a site image. It’s a nice shot of east norriton from atop the walmart parking lot looking down on the intersection of 202 and germantown pike. If you know the area, I pretty much turn around from where I’m facing in the shot of the walmart storefront.

  So I’m going about my normal business grabbing water and soda, and I decide to stop by powdered drinks to see if BY CHANCE there was a stray box of cherry limeade. Guess what? No such luck. They have this HUGE display of every friggen flavor imaginable, but my east norriton and norristown brethren snatch up the cherry limeade like it’s gold. And personally I’m not willing to argue otherwise. There’s usually a hole somewhere in the middle of the shelf in between “cherry” and “raspberry lemonade”. Which I have to admit looks like a pretty good classification system. Hmmm, no hole – maybe I’m luck out after all. Strike 2! It was just an extra row of cherry. I grimaced to myself and started peeking behind some of the other flavors. You know when one shopped for Starting Lineup’s in the 90′s, or GI Joe figures in the 80′s. (Like at the east norriton Kiddie City which no longer exists )

  I had enough, but instead of heading straight for the register – for some reason I decided to head deeper into the heart of the store and was aimlessly wandering the outer fringes of the food section, where it bumps up against office furniture and the sorts. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see the beacon of hope that was about to shine upon the good residents of east norriton. It cannot even be conveyed with words, which is why I snapped this likely to be Pulitzer prize winning photo.

  

  The most glorious endcap in east norriton walmarts' spotted history

  That my friends is indeed something to write home about.  Not even West Norriton Walmart has ever been capable of such pomp and circumstance.  Now I can tell you that endcap is pretty new.  And look how many are gone already!  Why?  Because it’s so good!

  TREASUREMAP:  The cherry limeade display is located between aisles 5 and 6 facing the rear of the store.

• East Norriton Wal Mart

  Date: 2010.10.12 | Category: East Norriton, Grocery, Walmart | Response: 0

  So they added a new refrigerated and freezer section. I have to admit it’s a nice selection, however it still has along way to go to compare to West Norriton’s. I give the new a addition a generous +1! Keep up the good work!

• Great Stores in East Norriton

  Date: 2010.07.15 | Category: Consumables, Dining, East Norriton, Fashion, Grocery, Local Bullshit, Nostalgia, Recreational, Tech, Walmart | Response: 30

  I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot here with all of you East Norriton die hards like myself.  I shuffle through East Norriton every day, but I will concede that West Norriton far and away has the better Wal Mart.  But now that’s out of the way, let’s focus on what makes East Norriton awesome!  My most visited store in East Norriton has got to be Smokings.  Great little tobacco store with all the fun stuff like lotteries and beverages.  And the people are so friendly.  Seriously when you get to know them, you feel like you’re receiving the kind of small town service you would have at a family owned general store in the 1800′s. 

  Around the corner but in the same shopping center is the best Game Stop in North America.  No question about gaming will go unanswered there and midnight releases are a blast, AND efficient for that matter.  They move so fast that even though you’re excited to get home and game,  you kind of feel like hanging out a little longer with all the other pumped up gamers.  These are both located in Northtowne Plaza.  This is the most happening of the 4 shopping centers located at the intersection of Route 202 and Germantown Pike.