Walmart plans to open its Neighborhood Market off Alcosta Boulevard in San Ramon this fall, according to Walmart media director Delia Garcia.
Last month, Walmart awarded the construction contract to Reeve-Knight Construction to transform the empty 55,000-square-foot vacant space in the Country Club Village Shopping Center into a neighborhood market.
Walmart did not need city approval to move into the storefront, since the site was already zoned off for a grocery store. Previously, Ralph's and an independent Asian grocery store have occupied the location, which has been without a tenant since 2006.
There has been outspoken resistance to Walmart having one of its grocery stores in San Ramon.
Small protests have taken place in the Country Club Village Shopping Center. Former Mayor H. Abram Wilson and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union , which hires non-unionized workers.
But Walmart believes the new store will be good for the local economy and its customers.
"This will bring 75 new to the community," said Garcia, the Walmart media director. "Plus, it will revitalize an existent vacant building and help attract other economic development."
Garcia said that though the jobs aren't unionized, they are quality. She said the company offers competitive pay and benefits and said there are opportunities to advance.
"We are really excited to start serving customers affordable groceries in San Ramon with all the benefits of job growth, economic development and business attraction," Garcia added.
The Neighborhood Market in San Ramon is one of 14 grocery stores the Arkansas-based company is planning to open in California this year, as it expands its grocery store chain to the West Coast. Currently, there are 168 locations nationwide, with new Northern California stores planned in Pleasanton, Hayward and the Sacramento area.
Neighborhood Markets are full-service grocery stores, selling everything shoppers would find in a regular grocery store, according to the Walmart website.
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So Walmart gets in with a "Neighborhood Market." Then they decide to make a run at CVS and take that over. They now have bookended the complex. Next step, a home goods store in the middle. Next to that, a tire center. Next thing you know, there are doorways between them all. Well folks, what do we have now? Say it with me, a Walmart Super Center! I hope I'm out of San Ramon before that happens.
I too am disappointed that Trader Joe's didn't put a store in San Ramon. I think Sprouts is keeping that Safeway in Dublin on their toes ...
I would rather that we all voted with our dollars and put our money into keeping ourselves healthy by using less refined foods. By "local grocers" I do mean Farmer's Markets and things like that. You do still have to "check the labels" at those places not all of them are local...
Poor Safeway, Wal-mart has been such a thorn in their side. I can't wait to see Wal-mart grocery take root and start to grow. It is pure marketing genius that easily and cleverly bypassed all of the whiners and fear-mongers that tried so hard, yet failed, at preventing Walmart from coming in. It's going to force the Safeway's, NobHills and Lucky's to be competitive and will also force the unions to lose some of their strangle-hold on everyone. Yay for our free-market economy and competition.
You are absolutely right, Mrs. Bee: it is about having a CHOICE as a consumer. The problem is that Wal-Mart is very powerful, and it gets its way through sheer economic force. It can under-price local businesses because it coerces suppliers to cut their costs in order to get the contract with them. As a result, jobs go to places like China, where girls and young women in sweatshops slave under horrific conditions for next to nothing, so Americans can buy cheap products 10,000 miles away. Meanwhile, the local hardware store, independent bookstore, sporting goods store, bakery, electronics store, music shop, toy store, food market, OUR OWN BUSINESSES — all close down through lack of local support because Americans blindly chase those guaranteed lower prices. Money is the life-blood of a local economy - wherever possible, I shop at locally-owned businesses to keep my dollars in our community. When the big-box stores push them all out, this money leaves San Ramon for good. Where is our choice then?
San Ramon is free to do what they wish but many will avaoid it like the plague.
What's the problem here? Like it? Shop there, give them your money. Don't like it? Then don't go. Personally, I drive from Danville to the Pleasanton store, found lots of good and interesting deals - some items are the same as local grocery stores, but 30% less.
http://sanramon.patch.com/articles/rumors-spread-about-a-san-ramon-walmart