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.
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.
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.
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).
We have a few of these warehouse type shops in the UK, Costco, Matalan, that sort of thing, it’s not styled like a high street shop would be.
My local Asda is like this, but they’re Walmart now. I’ve got a feeling that the Tesco is too, but I haven’t been for a while.
How is this mildly infuriating
If this is “run down” I wanna see what you would consider normal.
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.
I love Aldi and it’s where I get 75% or so of my groceries. I enjoy cooking, so it’s easy to get basic quality ingredients there, and I’ll grab the occasional prepared food as a treat, especially during German week!
They’ve expanded their offerings and still manage a good price. We’ve gotten there ground bison and lamb and dinner frozen duck breasts that have all been great. I like their flake style imitation crab. They have some good seasonal offerings.
Their not having any name brands seems to help them beat the price collusion the other stores have. Giant has bought out most of the stores near me, which doesn’t help, but I buy little enough there I don’t complain much about it.
Seriously though, what’s wrong with them? Have I been living in a dump and not realizing it?
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.
