Walmart Parking Lot Redesign for Safety, Environment, and an Overall Facelift

If I park at the front, why would I walk halfway up the aisle just to put the cart away or the same distance to the front of the store? Handicapped individuals wouldn't be able to do that either, so they oughta use some of that unnecessarily blocked off space at the front of each place as a cart return. And yes, it's for emergencies--but how many times has it actually been used for emergencies? I can understand keeping an area around fire hydrants clear, but cart returns need to be closer to the front rows, because they aren't close to the store or any other cart return. But for those who choose to walk it back to the front, it would also keep more people from having to cross that busy road. There is space for trees and shade if you use like half a parking spot of space, which would be nice to park under, though isn't necessary since there's already yellow-lined blocked off space at the front of each, at least at most of my local Walmarts.

The other thing is, why not put sidewalks down the middle of every row so that nobody has to worry about getting backed into? It's hard to see people and other cars, particularly children. One WM here on Gillespie St. has done this on one or two aisles, and I love it. There are pretty trees that provide shade and make it a nice walking path. Even if the lot at other walmarts has to be redrawn, it'd probably only remove the furthest rows on either side by one or two, and only the car enthusiasts use the garden center side parking anyways, since those doors are almost never open.

The first issue that I did notice about this is that when it rains, people leave their carts all over the sidewalk so much so that it can't be used. This is in part due to there not being enough space between cars to get a cart safely through. Widening the spots would fix this, and having more cart returns about every 6 spots (that leaves a return on either side, both of which are relatively close). It would also be nice if the curb had a flat part to wheel the cart down every two spots, so that it's not such a jarring impact when putting any cart, but particularly a heavy one or one carrying a child, down a curb. I do love the trees, and people do seem to choose to park by the sidwalks first.

The second issue is that the sidewalk isn't wide enough for a two people to walk by with carts. It would need to be about the size of an aisle so that people coming in don't have to step into the mulch, and people going to their cars have space for their cart.

And while I'm at it, people love to drop people off at the door--why not make new spots instead of having people pull up where others are walking? It's pretty unsafe since customers come around the corner just before it. And there's tons of space right in front of WMs where police park. Like it could be a loading section with a covered area for when it rains and the shopping group sends the one soul who doesn't mind the rain out to pull up the car. It's so crowded then...And it would still be open for a fire lane and emergency lane behind it (maybe have signs that show which spots are open attached the roof above each spot, with a green check for open and a red X for taken), with a covered sidewalk in the front protected by concrete structures so nobody accidentally goes through the building. There could even be a screen at the holding area/entrance and exit with a camera so you can watch to see when your car pulls up, kind of like how they do at grocery pickup. That'd be pretty high tech and modern; and something no other retailer has.

You could go high tech with it and have a loading screen in the lobby areas (in front of the doors) and have people check in on the app or call/text a number with the parking spot and the name of their passenger that loads onto a screen so that people can easily find their car without waiting longer, having to call the person, and being in some amount of confusion. The spark and walmart app already use a system for grocery pickup that could probably be used in this manner as well. A nice screen that I saw for orders being ready at wingstop was vertical and looked impressive. Very big, easy to read, and amply informational.

This would be useful in the rain especially, but also for elderly, handicapped, and people with multiple kids to not have to walk through the parking lot, and could instead wait at the door for their car to pull up.

One potential issue is having people walk behind the cars to get to their car. There would need to be sidewalks in the front of the cars, where cars could not run into people even accidentally, and plenty of space on either side to bring a cart to the back of the car, and room to open doors on the side for both cars next to each other at the same time. The Pickup spaces are about wide enough, but a little extra room wouldn't hurt.

There also needs to be a better unloading area for small vans that bring food to load on the shelves. Currently, they park in the no parking area, which is less than ideal in a few ways. Not only does it take up space that should be used for walking, but also decreases visibility for both drivers and pedestrians.

Unpopular opinion, but why not just block off the main pathways with those concrete things that prevent cars from running into buildings? That way, people don't have to worry when crossing the street and guess whether this driver is actually stopping or not, and drivers don't have to be wary of pedestrians, wait for long periods, or deal with much if any pedestrians at all? They can go down the previous row to access the row in front of the walkways, which could actually have a sidewalk down the center lined up with the door so that really, there isn't parking there anyways, and it's on either side from the offset of the sidewalk and tree area.

Yes, if all these changes are implemented, there will be less parking spots overall, leading to people having to park farther back. Offering a golf cart to ride on and pick patrons up and bring them to the front might be a really nice, high-end touch. Probably something a little safer, but the idea but the main idea is nice. Not necessary, but when the change occurs, I think people might think that it's not as good for that reason, despite having not just a grocery pickup area, but also a curbside passenger pickup area.

Lastly, specific parking spots near the front for Spark Drivers would be really nice. It would cut down on time looking for a parking spot, walking in and out, and putting away a cart (if there is a cart return near the front as I mentioned above). It doesn't seem like much time, but even just an extra five minutes on 6 trips equals an hour.

Which brings me to my next point: yes, most stores have a register just for spark shoppers, even sometimes 2, but they don't have very good bagging for large orders. We often are sent over to another register with a carousel to bag large orders, if there is one nearby. But, like the Walmart in Spring Lake, they just have a second stand with some bags, and it is quite difficult to bag a full cart with basically no space. It's still doable, but difficult. There isn't a lot of space even to bring a second cart over, and with how many spark shoppers might be in line on a busy day, it does get backed up regularly, which shouldn't be happening. I suggest that they change some lanes into flex lanes--if they need them for a regular register, then they can use them that way. If they are needed for spark, we can still scan it and bag at a carousel, which can still give two bags to two different people like most scan and go/spark registers, while also putting us near other carousels of likely unused registers. Most stores generally only have two manned registers open at any given time (sans holidays or before disasters), so there is plenty of space to expand or use some in different ways.

It would be nice if we could go to manned registers and have them scan the barcode. Sometimes late at night, when there aren't a lot of people, they only leave the manned registers open and close the others, leaving me to wait for someone to come and open them. So it would be nice if I could get through any register.

There are people who bike, and having a nice place to park them in the shade and close to the front would be great. People who walk and bike also usually have a bag or backpack with them, which I've seen security ask to leave it at the door. There could be a small locker station at the front (out of weather) where they can also secure any bags.

A sidwalk with a bench, light, pigeons and greenery around it.

Bikes parked along a fence.

A pretty city street that is similar to the above ideas with parking on one side and sidewalks on another.