What the hell is going on here?

If I recall correctly, closing stores is Wal-Mart's standard response to rumblings of unionizing within those specific stores.

That, or it could be sub-standard plumbing that they really do need to fix before someone gets injured or sickened and they get sued.

The fact that this Walmart on Admiral and Memorial remolded just not too long ago, and it was so noisyand dusty that I almost couldn't believe they left the store open, but now it's not cool to remodel while open?

The commenters/customers seem to think something's odd as well.

Edit: added -

Pico Rivera

Flashback to November last year-http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/13/23-arrested-in-protest-at-pico-rivera-walmart/

Fast-forward to today -http://www.sgvtribune.com//business/20150413/530-pico-rivera-walmart-employees-laid-off-after-sudden-closure-of-supercenter

Brandon-Tampa Bay

Flashback to December last year -http://www.myfreedomfoundation.com/blogs/liberty-live/union-organizers-not-actual-employees-turn-out-for-walmart-black-friday-protests

Fast-forward to today -http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2015/4/14/plumbing_concerns_cl.html

Tulsa-

Flashback - http://m.newson6.com/story.aspx?story=24097204&catId=112042

Fast-forward to today -http://m.newson6.com/story.aspx?story=28799766&catId=112042

I posted this in another thread about this subject. If anyone has links for Texas, please link them.

I am pretty sure Wal-Mart hired the cheapest contractors. That can usually lead to issues...

^ This right here.

Before jumping to wild conclusions, let's do some research and see if there are common threads between the stores. It's entirely possible that Wal-Mart uses the same contracting company for construction. If that's the case then there's any number of reasons they could be closing a number of stores for renovation.

Just looking at the states involved? Oklahoma and Texas have fracking operations that could be ruining local water resources. It wouldn't take much contamination to rot out certain types of seals and pipes used in plumbing, especially if their contractors cut corners on the materials they use. Florida's water in a lot of places contains abnormally high concentrations of compounds like hydrogen sulfide. I don't recall exactly why, but if I remember correctly it has something to do with Florida's underlying bedrock / geology.

Or Wal-Mart could just be feeling the pinch in those states because of right-wing efforts to cut off funds for public assistance. It's not much of a secret that Wal-Mart's business model only "works because of the estimated $6.2 billion its employees receive in tax-funded public assistance every year. If those funds are drying up, and they likely are in the states in question, then these shutdowns are probably in part aimed at preventing their own workers from organizing for better pay.

Former Okie here- your fracking scenario makes sense, given the recent increased frequency and severity of seismic events in that area.
Admiral & Memorial is Edmond [a suburb north of OKC], just last week this happened between Edmond & Guthrie...could be connected.
Although your suggestion about attempted union organization definitely sounds like something WalMart would do.

EDIT: Ignore me, I haz teh dumb...

Admiral & Memorial is in Tulsa.

That store does have a high amount of theft.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/retail/wal-mart-closes-five-stores-nationwide-simultaneously-on-monday-citing/article_39ecacf6-ad98-5094-9bf5-62e053855492.html

shit, you're right.
And if you'll excuse me, I'll be in the corner trying not to drool on myself.

That store is akin to one of Dante's circles of hell. i'm glad it shut down for whatever reason. Several shootings at that store or in the parking lot over the last few years.

Don't get too excited about the Brandon store. I believe that was one of the poorer performing locations in that part of town. There's another Walmart Supercenter in a better location 5 miles away.

https://goo.gl/mWtSMN

Hell, you can't go for more than about a few miles in any direction without passing at least one more Walmart. Using their own store finder, there are 5 other stores within 5 miles, and 17 within 15 miles. Within 30 miles there are 50 other stores. They cut the search off at 49.3 miles, listing 74 other stores.

http://www.walmart.com/store/finder?location=33511

Around there, driving 5 miles to get to a store isn't unusual. For most customers, they'd just switch to a different Walmart store. No lost revenue, and increased profits is a very good thing for any business.

Shutting down 6 stores really doesn't put a dent in their revenue. A quick Google search says they have 4,177 stores in the US including 3,275 supercenters. That does not include their Sam's Club locations.

Their stores all work on city water. The issues with groundwater quality are taken care of long before it gets to the store.

It could likely be a plumbing issue, just like they claimed. It could also be all kinds of other things, like other construction issues, a risk of an impending sinkhole (Florida has them all throughout the area), changes in customer shopping behavior, or changes in local taxes. They may even a different purpose for that location, like switching it to be a Sam's club or other store, or even just outright selling the property.

This article indicates 2014Q4 came in low, and they expected 100 stores to close. 6 would just be the beginning of that. You can be sure that Walmart corporate analyzed it in detail before making any decisions.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101380735

For the FEMA death camp crowd, one Walmart building wouldn't cut it. Hillsborough county has a population of over 1.29 million people. The greater Tampa-St Pete-Clearwater MSA is in the top 20 populated areas in the country, at over 2.8 million people. Thinking one converted store would be useful for anything of that sort is just nonsense.

This is a huge issue. My dad works for a roofing company that does a ton of snow removal for Wal-Mart locations where we live (MN). If we get a lot of snow the roofs are at risk of caving in because they trim costs everywhere.

I do think it's strange that this is happening in locations so far apart, but it certainly may be shit construction.

Whatever it is, it's expensive monetarily and to their reputation. So they need to be avoiding the loss of or gaining enough money to offset.

Five stores for six months? 400-500 workers laid off at each site for the same, sketchy-sounding reason? Crazy.

I wonder how badly they were hit by the oil price crash - while shipping is cheaper, stores that were doing ridiculous business during the fracking boom (like the stores in North Dakota, where people just bought stuff by the pallet) probably crashed hard.

if I end up in a FEMA death camp in a converted North Texas Wal-Mart my LOLs will transcend the physical dimensions and emit a burst of irony so powerful that twitter's servers will be down for an hour.

Closed Wal-Mart = FEMA Processing Center

FEMA gas chambers. If Hitler saw wal-mart customers' he'd have gassed them too.

They have tons of empty non-super-size Walmarts around already.

thankyou for not being retarded like everyone else in this thread

Nah its not the actual camp, its just the processing center. The medical inspection offices, photo processing, etc.

Pretty hilarious...

Same, only here in Midland.

I've been using one of the stores in question. It's a nice store; bathrooms always work right, no smells. The one nearest me, which will have to absorb the customers of the closed store, and does have sewage smell and constant bathroom problems, is open for business as it's being remodeled.

You spend too much time in Wal-Marts, Stonebear.

Resistance was futile.

[deleted]

Call Guinness? I'm not sure if that's listed though.

https://www.intellihub.com/shit-hit-fan-large-empty-department-stores-wal-marts-converted-fema-camps-now/

Obviously, take this source with a grain of salt... but I do remember some talk about Walmarts being used kind of like how they used the Superdome in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina during emergencies. I tried to find more accurate sources, but this was all I found and it doesn't seem like a reliable source.

[deleted]

Yeah I hear ya. I just wanted to add that caveat because the specific article I linked isn't well sourced, and seems speculative. But yeah, this in conjunction with Jade Helm (and even that other vid on the front page of that veteran getting pulled over by an APC by a sheriffs officer in military fatigues in Florida) is kind of concerning. It's blatantly happening in front of our faces, and everyone seems nervously complacent about it...such an elephant in the room, but not many people want to have serious discussions about it.

Something is certainly fucky here. In my neck of the woods, when they build brand new stores they start with a bare patch of land and have the doors open for business in about 3 months. It's going to take them twice as long to fix the plumbing as it would to build an entire store?

You've never heard of or encountered a scenario where repairing existing infrastructure is more expensive than starting from scratch? It's a problem that faces civil engineers and contractors all the time, it's why cities provide "historical" development incentives to renovate old buildings instead of plow down and build anew.

Yes, I certainly have, but the plumbing in a Walmart would be very basic. These stores are designed to be bare-bones, specifically so they can be built in a hurry and have very little maintenance. Even if they had to cut into the floor and/or replace a main, that would take a month tops; realistically the job could be finished in 10 days if they were motivated.

I would just point out that if these are Walmart Supercenters (AKA attached grocery and prepared foods), then plumbing would have to be extensive enough to support a bakery, deli, butcher's shop and what amounts to a large restaurant.

You are correct. Plumbing would be extensive throughout these facilities. Based on some of the responses elsewhere, is very clear some don't even understand how plumbing works, let alone the realities of basic construction. Yet that doesn't seem to stop them from commenting.

[deleted]

None of my comments have been anything close to your characterization. All I did was explain how nothing here has strayed far from just any other day. Hell, many comments assume the extent of plumbing is a sink and a couple of toilets. Yet other comments make clear they know nothing of plumbing - as I said. There isn't anything of substance to rationally suggest it's anything other than unions or poor decision making during construction. Absolutely nothing.

If you seriously believe pointing out reality makes me an apologist, I can assure you I'm not the one with issues. I'm very open minded, but I need something more than a completely unsubstantiated theory and irrational reality avoidance.

My dad is a plumber and has been in the business for over 20 years. He has worked both in new construction for businesses as well as repairs/remodels, and in homes. He has worked in stores similar in size/scope to a Walmart Supercenter and he agrees that it would take longer because of all of the components you mentioned, but even then says it would only take 6 weeks max depending on man power, and that realistically it would only take about 3 or 4.

Repair can be very costly and time consuming. For example, if you have foundation issues, you have to tear up existing floor, jack hammer out concrete, fix the problem, pour new concrete, and reinstall the flooring. Just from a labor perspective, it can be massively more expensive and time consuming than the original installation per square foot. This is true for some types of roofing too.

Think you replied to the wrong person bruh

Apparently I replied to the correct person but misunderstood your statement. Sorry about that.

Have you ever considered that maybe these Wal-Marts were going to unionize, and the easiest way to deal with it was to allege plumbing defects, close the stores and lay everyone off for six months?

After six months, they all have new jobs somewhere else and you re-open and re-hire new people.

Wal-Mart is scared enough of unions to actually do this.

It makes more sense than "internment camps".

I won't go into great detail, but I have family that works for a company who does hundreds of millions of dollars of business with Wal-Mart. They have very strict guidelines on what is installed and how/when the work is to be completed. Vendors must meet these requirements or pay penalties for down time. Wal-Mart knows exactly how much revenue each specific section of their isles make and the vendors pay for those losses.

Having said that, Wal-Mart has their own construction and tradesmen supervisors who have the authority to ignore standards and requirements so long as timelines can be met. The pressures are enormous. Sometimes the decisions made by Wal-Mart cost Wal-Mart millions in do-overs. After hearing the many stories of WTF, it's not that far reaching to believe someone waved the rules for plumbing materials which back fired. Which in turn can cause a long laundry list of other, expensive issues. When plumbing is done wrong, you're talking about tearing up flooring too. Not to mention it can create huge runs which can pose safety issues to customers. Safety issues is a sure fire way to lose all business with Wal-Mart for any given vendor. As a vendor, you don't fuck around with safety issues at Wal-Mart.

I agree this is certainly a WTF, but based on the everyday stories I've heard, it doesn't sound any alarms for me either.

Edit: genuinely curious why this was down voted? Care to explain why relevant experiences shouldn't be shared?

Because you spelled the word vendor wrong four times.

Ty. Auto correct combined with Swype can be a bitch. Isn't technology wonderful.

Why are there cops guarding the loading docks and the windows blacked out so no one can see inside? Why the relunctance to explains more?

Its strange to me as well. Lets say the stores could lose hundreds of thousands in sales per day. Would it not be more profitable to pour a couple million into fixing it in a week or two than letting a store sit unused for 6 months?

Plus other places I am seeing people who called Walmart support about it are being told that the stores will not be reopened ever?

If anyone is local try and keep an eye for activities that dont look normal to a plumbing job.

Be interesting if they are using these as a home base/command center for the drills... Not sure why they would use a walmart though...

They're huge inside, have huge parking lots, have loading docks for semis to deliver/pick up supplies, and many have "Auto Centers." Seems like a PERFECT place, imo.

And they're everywhere. A FEMA deal with Wal-mart would make sense on some level, Wal-Mart is famous for their transportation infrastructure.

I live in midland so I'll keep an eye out, but all the job titles are already a little unusual as this is an oilfield town

Same here.

Pico Rivera, CA: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/04/14/pico-rivera-walmart-to-shut-down-indefinitely-due-to-chronic-plumbing-issues/

Walmart tries to hide low sales from investors by closing low performing stores for reasons other than they are bleeding money like mad. A symptom of the economy and Walmart's lack of transparency with investors. They made profits last year by forcing their employees to buy new uniforms so other pieces of legerdemain are not beyond them.

Idk about that, the midland location did pretty damn well

the Tulsa store was one of the busiest in the city, if not the busiest. also the most dangerous.

I wonder if it was having too many loses from shoplifting, and perhaps stuff walking out the back door?

possibly. that store is in a bad part of town. i can't speak for the other stores listed but this store has had multiple shootings with fatalities over years also.

The one in midland was actually in a better part of town and didn't have any issues to speak of.

Might be an insurance issue then? I know large companies do everything they can to transfer blame for their failures, to insurance companies, small contractors, anyone but management.

http://m.ktre.com/ktre/db_346247/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=CSQGbVrR

Have a friend who lost her job from this store.

More info on Midland, TX shuttering: http://www.mrt.com/business/article_54007448-e2e4-11e4-a13d-37d45baec046.html

I live minutes away from the Brandon, Fl ( it is actually in Valrico, Fl (fwiw)) and I have been unfortunate enough to visit it many times since it opened here. I have never seen or experienced any issues related to the stores plumbing. I can tell you the store shelves were fully stocked and they were putting new merchandise on the floor Sunday evening. I just don't understand what kind of plumbing emergency can crop up at 5 stores spread across the country at the same time. While I'm not surprised a company like Walmart would keep a potential closing secret from employees for as long as possible I am astounded that they would keep merchandise coming in that they know won't be sold because they are shutting down. The potential losses may run into the millions for each store. This is just so inefficient, not what Walmart is known for at all. I am curious as to what the reason really is. By the way the local news has uncovered that there have been no code violations reported for the Valrico Walmart adding even more fuel to the conspiracy theory they are also reporting that no plumbing permits have been issued or applied for yet. This is astoundingly inefficient management at best or it is simply not the truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1I7K0ufcyg

well, when they basically pave over a swath of land and build a Wal-Mart in like a week, my guess is there's some kind of uniform design problem

Lets just all agree that they didnt close the stores for plumbing issues. Only morons think that and ill prove it. Walmarts all have two separate washrooms. 2 for guys and 2 for girls. They can shut down either set while the others get worked on. Second if need be they can haul in those trailer washrooms that can tend to the needs of more that what they currently offer. Period.

So that means either the stores are poor performers and closed till later. Or they have asbestos and lead pipes. Still they could enclose the infected areas. So then its union busting or camp fema. Hell ive been in stores getting remodeled and they close down a quarter of the store at a time for flooring and repairs.

So this closure for plumbing is complete bullshit. Period.

I can almost promise it isn't poor performance. Midland, Tx is a boom town. It has damn near doubled in size over the last few years, and even with the lower oil prices, that store is(was) still over performing.

The Tulsa store that closed was possibly the busiest Walmart in the city.

Live in Tampa, can confirm Brandon growing and no way its a poor performer.

Is Midland considered a high crime city?

It's worse than it was 5 years ago, but Odessa (20 miles away) has been the worst city in the state crime wise for over a year.

And Odessa still has 2 WalMarts

It's night and day.

http://postimg.org/image/wcw1x88ih/

You're definitely right. The midland location did ridiculously well.

Asbestos and lead pipes? WTF. The store in Livingston, Texas was built in 1994 - they weren't using fucking asbestos or lead pipes then.

Well then i guess its fema camps or union busting.

I always looked at Walmart as a socialistic society. Eventually, you'd work there in exchange for food and shelter. Maybe I'm not too off base here. Lol

http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/32kbql/wal_marts_across_the_south_closing_for_6_months/

Someone else had the same thought.

Bad link. Private page of silly GLP site forum

Ah, I didn't even try the link. Just noticed someone else was saying what OP was.

Well since they are closing temporary, and not permanent it maybe really just plumbing issues. We just had a large restaurant close by the health department due to sewage backing up in the septic tank. Turns out the shopping center where it leases it space. They had not disclosed that this was a problem in the lease, and the construction company that built the center cut corners, and did not make the septic tank system big enough to handle sewage,.

I'm sure knowing Walmart, and they way they try to get away with shit. They cut a few corners in building their store and now local health officials are catching up to them.

First time I've heard liquidity called that.

Or Walmart being a big corporation sub contracted there plumbing out to some nation wide plumbing company who did the shittiest job possible, no pun intended. And now its all breaking at the same time? I mean I hate Walmart but if they wanted to do death camps they'd just close em down period so they could get the gas chamber right

That's odd. How many bathrooms and sinks do they have at Walmart exactly?

The Pico Rivera, CA location closing is the most suspicious. This is the location where much of the recent demands for better pay began. All of the other nonsense is most likely a distraction.

They have given up on the "plumbing problem" excuse and gone straight to "complete mystery": http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-suddenly-closes-stores-2015-4 If its not excess losses from thievery, have the stores been contaminated with something? There has been a lot Nuclear material missing lately.

All I have to say is, knowing walmart, closing a store down is absolute last resort. I've seen them make temporary bathrooms to keep a store open while the permanent bathrooms are being fixed. It's pretty well known that the government has underground tunnel systems to move supplies and other things in a state of emergency. "Plumbing issues" would be a great reason to bring in heavy machinery without raising eyebrows...walmart also received over a billion in subsidies last year...

I've heard through some sources that there's been military activity in the south and that there are preparations being made for an electro-magnetic storm. My guess is that something got fucked up with the electrical grid and we're going to be seeing a power outage soon in the south.

https://youtu.be/qYCEZ0zAWW4

either the pro-establishment is getting better at disguise, or the level of critical thinking around here is on the decline. plumbing? wood floors? give me a freakin break. temporal congruence. look into it.

I think you meant spatial congruence Einstein. You are on the wrong side of the space-time discussion anyway. Now if you wanted to delve in to the spatial analog side of things you might be on to something. We are just living in Flat World and don't even realize it.

Asbestos? Or something similar, trying to keep it quiet and get it remedied and re-open with no one being the wiser. Would you want to shop a Walmart that had asbestos, even if they claimed it was cleaned up? Plus think of the employees and public that have been shopping there since built and their exposure? Imagine the cost of the lawsuits!

I'm going with either Jade Helm, or the Jaurez Cartel helping ISIS 8 miles south of the border. Or Both.

Those are my guesses.

Or the same 6-month long plumbing issues erupted in only southern locations of WalMart all at the same time.

they are putting new wood floors in at the Walmart near my house. The smell of the chemicals and the dust they had kicked up made me leave. The workers tearing up the old floor weren't wearing masks either. maybe they are getting their new fake wood floor from the lumber liquidators!

Id they were going to slaughter bunch of people, why would they house them? Wouldn't they just save the resources and kill them immediately? Come on.

Are you serious? Then why didn't Hitler just kill all the jews in captivity?

Use your head, the end game is not to extinguish life it's to own it.

These Walmarts are being outfitted as internment camps. Why are we waiting for the axe to fall.. When are we going to organize and defend our nation from the over reaching arm of our corrupt establishment?

Something is afoot! Be weary.

Don't be weary, be wary!

Walmart's throughout the South are all closing...

OP cites 3.

Lmao.

Yeah I hear ya. I just wanted to add that caveat because the specific article I linked isn't well sourced, and seems speculative. But yeah, this in conjunction with Jade Helm (and even that other vid on the front page of that veteran getting pulled over by an APC by a sheriffs officer in military fatigues in Florida) is kind of concerning. It's blatantly happening in front of our faces, and everyone seems nervously complacent about it...such an elephant in the room, but not many people want to have serious discussions about it.