The Wal-Mart on Route 34 in Derby opened its doors for the last time Friday, so my editor gave me six bucks and told me to go check it out.
I came back about an hour later with regret at not having raided its nearly empty shelves earlier, hope that the people who worked there find decent jobs elsewhere, a Spongebob Squarepants piñata, and 68 cents in change.
The company — which is worth about $230 billion — announced in March that the store would be closing.
A Walmart corporate spokesman told the Valley Indy about 130 of the roughly 140 workers are transferring to other Walmarts. About a dozen retired. No future plans for the storefront have been announced. Walmart didn’t own the space, it was a tenant.
I figured the place would be mobbed with deal hunters intent on squeezing one last trip there to stock up on cheap foreign-made products which made the company the bane of the American labor movement.
There was no mob, though. In fact, the only two people I ran into on the way into the store were a reporter and photographer from the Connecticut Post whose editors had apparently been struck with the same inspiration as my own.
A slow if steady stream of last-day shoppers milled about the superstore’s roughly 2 acres of floor space, much of it cordoned off by caution tape which separated the few remaining products left from row upon row upon row of empty shelves and display cases.
An odd mix of products remained, haphazardly mixed next to each other.
If, for example, you ever needed to find a pair of infant’s shoes, a can of sloppy joe mix, and a can of pecans in the same aisle of goods, you were in luck. Or a canister of colored toothpicks and some Newman’s Own Balsamic Lite Vinaigrette.
Likewise the aforementioned Spongebob piñata, which I found near a bin full of cut-rate DVDs. As soon as I saw it I discarded the DVD of the Michael Bay tour de force “Pain & Gain,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, that I had been thinking about buying.
I picked it up and inspected it for imperfections. How could anyone not have snapped this up by now, I thought?
There was no price tag, so I took it over to one of those barcode scanners where you can check prices of stuff.
I arrived at the same time as a woman carrying a box of aluminum foil. Please, after you, I said. But she insisted on deferring to me — which is what I guess I would do if I saw a 30-something guy carrying a Spongebob piñata around.
At one of two cash registers with people ringing up customers, the woman in line in front of me checked out two fifths of 75-cent sparkling cider, two packs of discounted diapers, some laundry detergent, and cookware.
It seemed just as many people walked in looking for deals but then walked out empty-handed minutes later.
Like Marianne Lynk, a 30-year Derby resident whose son worked at the store (he’s getting transferred to the company’s location on Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton).
I asked if anything had caught her eye inside.
“Nothing,” Lynk said while looking down at her empty cart. “I guess they’re going to take it all over to Shelton.”
August and Holly Correia recently moved to West Haven, and had been regular shoppers here.
“We lived in Derby before so we used to come here all the time,” Holly said after walking out of the store Friday afternoon. “When we moved to West Haven we still came here because of the different kinds of clothes they have here, and better prices.”
But pickings were pretty slim by Friday.
“Everything’s pretty much out,” August said.
Company Spokesman Talks
The Derby Walmart employed 143 people, according to the state Department of Labor.
Phillip Keene, a Walmart spokesman, said about a dozen Derby employees opted to use the company’s retirement plan, which could involve a severance package, depending on how long the employee worked there.
Keene said 130 Derby employees accepted positions at other area Walmart stores.
“It’s tough to make a decision to close a store, but I think the fact that everyone who wanted to stay with the company has been able to do so is a positive,” Keene said. “We worked very hard to make sure that anyone who wanted to continue to work with the company, we would find a spot for them. We were able to do that.”
The decision to close the Derby Walmart was not because of a rent increase, Keene said.
“The decision not to renew the lease of our Derby store was reached on the basis of our standard review process which accounts for a number of factors, including financial performance as well as strategic alignment with long-term plans,” he said.
Since Walmart announced the Derby store’s closure in March, employees have been winding the store down. That process included not restocking items that were slow sellers, along with careful planning of what to restock. Keene credited the employees and managers for their diligence.
“That management team and the associates in the store have done a fantastic job throughout this process,” he said.
The store was scheduled to close to the public at the end of the business day Friday.
Managers and a skeleton staff could remain on site for the next two to three weeks clearing out inventory.
The Derby Walmart has been in business for roughly 15 years. It is a roughly 94,000-square-foot store, anchoring a shopping plaza that includes an Adams Hometown Market and a CVS.
The Adams Hometown Market is scheduled to close Sept. 21.
The two empty storefronts will leave the plaza without its two anchor tenants. The plaza’s owners did not return calls for comment.
Derby residents have said on social media condos or possibly a Stew Leonard’s are being considered for the site — but those are rumors at this point.
City officials have said no redevelopment plans have been submitted. A Stew Leonard’s spokesperson said the company isn’t looking at Derby.
Walmart is building a 150,000-square-foot super center in Monroe, though that project was not listed as a reason for the Derby closure.
There is a Walmart in Shelton on Bridgeport Avenue, 4.7 miles away from the Derby store.
“We look forward to continue to serve our customers in our stores in Shelton, Milford and West Haven,” Keene said.
With reporting by Eugene Driscoll.
