Walmart in Woodland Park, Colorado: A Review

Woodland Park, Colorado, is a small town nestled in the mountains, about 15 miles northwest of Colorado Springs. Last year, a Super Walmart store finally succeeded in opening up in this small town. One of the many concessions Walmart had to make was was in the external cosmetics of it's design had to conform to the western, almost log structure in appearance. Woodland Park Colorado has a lot of Log cabin styled homes and likes to blend in with the mountain scenery that surrounds it. From almost anywhere in Woodland Park you get a scenic view of Pikes Peak, also known as America's Mountain. Woodland Park is also surrounded with RV parks and is a great attraction to those who want to get away from home and be in the wilderness atmosphere, yet have the convenience of shopping near by.

As for the Walmart itself, examining it's choices for product to sell to the local community sometimes baffles the mind as to how walmart stays in Business. Woodland Park Colorado's Walmart last winter in the seasonal aisle carried the typical winterizing products like heat shrink plastic for windows, room heaters, hose wrapping and so forth, but they did not sell perhaps one of the most important pieces of winterizing people in the mountains need... Heat tape for hoses and water lines. Here is a Walmart at the 8500 foot level where the warm season is only 5 months long and winter takes up most of the other seven months, and they did not sell electrical heat tape for hoses and water pipes. Mind you, many of the camping area's have full time campers that live year round here, and your water source to your 5th wheel or RV is a hose and in the mountains a hard freeze can last for weeks or longer, heat tape is a must. The real irony is, you can drop close to 3000 feet to Colorado Springs and Walmart there sells electrical heat tape. I really have to ask what the requirements are for corporate Walmart employment.

Fortunately Woodland Park does have a couple of hardware stores, and these hardware stores were packed with electrical heat tape, but by the time winter set in, in full force, they had sold out. This is to be expected and stands as an example of just how important this commodity is to mountain folk, yet Walmart just doesn't seem to get it.

I for one have to say, I am really frustrated with Walmart, they created super stores, then reduced the size of each department, but I would expect that a company as large and apparently successful as Walmart is should at least contain the mentality to be able to figure out the geographics of the area and the needs within this area to be able to meet those needs of it's consumers. I am only mentioning one small example of their incompetence in being able to fit the needs of the area, I don't want to be known as one who would rave, but I could make a long list of the apparent lack of forethought in Walmart's corporate staff and organization, and it isn't limited to Woodland Park Colorado's Walmart, I have seen these mind boggling deficiencies in Walmart all across the country. Instead of ending this article on a complaining note, let me end it on a note of constructive criticism... Walmart, Think Man, Think!