Walmart With Added Amenities And "Valuable Changes" Coming To Florida - One Of The 1st In USA

Photo byMike Mozart from Funny YouTube, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Santa Rosa Beach is an interesting choice for a new prototype of Walmart Neighborhood Market. Some Florida beach towns try to keep development at bay. For example, Anna Maria Island keeps its "old Florida" feeling in part by limiting high rises. But Florida will soon get a bigger-than-normal Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Some Closures For The Chain: In May of 2023, Walmart announced that it would be shuttering over 20 stores. One was a Florida store, a Neighborhood Market Concept in Pinellas Park.

I also recently wrote about Walmart's decision to close its 23 Walmart Health locations in Florida. However, despite these closures, Florida is still getting a new Walmart.

The New Store In A Tiny Town That Already Has One: If you assumed that Santa Rosa Beach, which only has a population of under 20,000, would reject Walmart, you'd be mistaken. The town already has a Walmart Supercenter on US-98 and patrons seem to enjoy it - giving it 4 out of 5 stars on Google reviews.

Many noted crowding because this location is used by locals and tourists alike, but some also mentioned the kind employees. A reviewer named Mellyn wrote:

"Busy busy busy! But I had a good experience yesterday. They had most of what I needed, (and) the employees were kind and knowledgeable. Even when they have an overwhelming crowd, they (were) still kind."

The New Amenities: Not only is Santa Rosa Beach getting a new Neighborhood Walmart, but it is going to be supersized with some amenities that aren't always offered.

The new Santa Rosa Beach store is set to be 57,000 square feet when Neighborhood Walmarts typically only measure 40,000 square feet. Additionally, the new store will have more hot options at the service deli, and larger selections in the meat and produce departments.

The store will also reportedly have wider aisles and health services rooms for consultations.

Florida The First Of Two Stores Testing New Design: According to Walmart.com, the new Florida store and a similar new one in Atlanta are the first two stores to test what it perceives as "valuable changes" with the new design.