That looks so fucking ugly
Wal-Mart Radio Grill -
- Thread starter Analog Devolved
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Sister services, email, and search will continue to be negatively effected by the attacks. I made a thread to talk about it, if you're into networking.
Never had one of these in any Walmart I visited. Mostly McDonald’s or Subway when I went to the US.
Man I also miss Zellers in general. I don’t think the restaurant in my local Zellers had operated for a few years before it ultimately closed but I did go at least one time that I can remember. The closest I can get to retail food consumption is the cafeteria at the Hudson’s Bay store.
I disagree. I’d eat there just because of the neon signs. Admittedly I am a total sucker for the whole aesthetic regardless of the food quality.
This is reminding me of the good old days of my local Wal-Mart, which was fine throughout the 90s and the 2000s, but starting in the 2010s started to become disheveled, dingy and dimly lit.
Now a big part of that is probably due to stiff competition from the local Target that opened in 2007, which is the polar opposite, but I can't help but look at my local Wal-Mart as some Fisher King style reflection of the evolution of America as a whole over the last 25 years, lol.
It really didn't get any more American than Wal-Mart back in the day, the fact that they once had a 50s throwback style diner says a lot about the zeitgeist of the era.
Now a big part of that is probably due to stiff competition from the local Target that opened in 2007, which is the polar opposite, but I can't help but look at my local Wal-Mart as some Fisher King style reflection of the evolution of America as a whole over the last 25 years, lol.
It really didn't get any more American than Wal-Mart back in the day, the fact that they once had a 50s throwback style diner says a lot about the zeitgeist of the era.
Analog Devolved
kiwifarms.net
I'm glad someone besides me remembers this. I can only recount having eaten here a handful of times, usually on shopping trips with my grandma.
It was definitely a restaurant geared towards people 50+ in the mid 90's. Old people loved the food at radio grill.
I think it was easier for walmart to lease the space to mcdonalds and subway than it was to have employees and a whole supply chain dedicated to an eatery in the back of most stores.
I remember the place being pretty busy but costs and logistics probably didn't make it profitable in the end.
In more recent news about 100 McDonald's locations inside walmarts are closing in 2020 because of poor performance. My thought would be they would be booming with the covid crowd, go in to stock up on toilet paper and shampoo and leave with a big mac and fries but I guess not.
The 50's theme was dated from the start and with people who lived through the 50's being over 70, closer to 80+ today its no surprise that aesthetic is a dying breed.
I'm pretty sure my grandparents only ate at the radio grill because they didnt want to stop anywhere else after clothes shopping at Walmart. This was before most walmarts became grocery stores.
everyone knows cotscos pizza the best
saralovesjuicyfruit
kiwifarms.net
Yes, I remember the Radio Grill (we just always called it the snack bar, but they did have the Radio Grill signage and theming) and I used to eat there sometimes when I was a kid. I would get the kids meal which had a hot dog (I always ate mine plain - still do), a little bag of chips (I usually got cheetos or doritos), and a drink (Minute Maid fruit punch was my beverage of choice). I loved their hot dogs because they cooked them on the hot dog roller. I remember always begging my mom to buy a hot dog roller for our kitchen at home. I never liked microwaved or boiled/steamed hot dogs, I would pretty much only eat them grilled over a fire or cooked on those rollers.
The Walmart it was in wasn't a supercenter, but it was the only Walmart for about 50 miles in any direction so that's probably why they had it. In fact, all of the supercenters I ever went to during that same time didn't have the Radio Grill, but they usually had hair/nail salons, portrait studios, optometrists, and sometimes a McDonald's or some other types of specialty shops that sold stuff like sports team merch or nurse scrubs.
When they got rid of the snack bar at that particular Walmart, it became a seasonal/clearance area. They would display patio furniture and stuff like that in the spring/summer, and then holiday stuff at other times, with a couple of the sections always reserved for clearance. The store in that town was replaced with a brand new supercenter about 10 years ago, in a new building at another location. From what I can tell on Google streetview, it doesn't have a McDonald's or anything like that inside.
In a similar-sized town about 20 minutes west, they had the only K-Mart in the area, which also had a snack bar. I remember not liking it as much.
The Walmart it was in wasn't a supercenter, but it was the only Walmart for about 50 miles in any direction so that's probably why they had it. In fact, all of the supercenters I ever went to during that same time didn't have the Radio Grill, but they usually had hair/nail salons, portrait studios, optometrists, and sometimes a McDonald's or some other types of specialty shops that sold stuff like sports team merch or nurse scrubs.
When they got rid of the snack bar at that particular Walmart, it became a seasonal/clearance area. They would display patio furniture and stuff like that in the spring/summer, and then holiday stuff at other times, with a couple of the sections always reserved for clearance. The store in that town was replaced with a brand new supercenter about 10 years ago, in a new building at another location. From what I can tell on Google streetview, it doesn't have a McDonald's or anything like that inside.
In a similar-sized town about 20 minutes west, they had the only K-Mart in the area, which also had a snack bar. I remember not liking it as much.
I remember Walmart's Radio Grill vaguely from my childhood. My local Walmart eventually shut it down and used the extra space to expand the dairy department. I remember liking the Radio Grill's corndogs but not near as much as I had liked Sneaky Pete's corndogs.
This may have been before my time, but I may just never have had a radio grill in wal-marts near me. I only ever remember them having mcdonalds, or maybe subways. The Targets tend to have their own snack bars here too, and sometimes Starbucks.
Growing up Costco's snack bar thing was always my favorite.
Growing up Costco's snack bar thing was always my favorite.
It's a shame because I always liked that aesthetic.
But 50's nostalgia was still pretty big in the 90s and 2000s, it's only over the last ten years has it really started to vanish.
I can never figure out if Walmart just seems better in my memory because I was a kid and didn't know better, or it actually got worse over time. Probably it's a combination?
I remember Radio Grill, though my Walmart was not a Supercenter but still had it. I think there was a cotton candy machine at it. I'm also pretty sure I remember it turning into the really lame Snack Bar. Then my town got a Supercenter and it went away.
For me it isn't just memories of Wal-Mart as a kid, but I distinctly remember the way it was in the 2000s and it was without a doubt better run than it is now.
Analog Devolved
kiwifarms.net
Radio grill did have cotton candy! I forgot all about that. As for Walmart being better in the 90's I don't know. On one hand it was nice before they became a grocery store because they had more toys, better home merchandise and a lot more of their products were made in America.
The benefit now is you can buy almost anything you really need at Walmart without having to drive all over town.
Its not so much a problem with the brand new and remodeled stores but the older, dilapidated stores that really went to shit. The stores that were built in the early 90's and before that became disheveled and no longer had the nice shopping experience because they were forced to carry more products than their shelf space would allow. One of the last "old type" walmarts I visited several years ago was a complete dump. I'm sure when it was new it was a nice place to go.
Most K-Marts before they all closed had that "run down" aesthetic. The best part about k-mart was the little Caesars most of them had.
Are american supermarkets so big that there is a full on selection of restaurants inside of them?
i imagine its like that one simpsons episode where there is 7 food stands all being served by the one cook who shoves the food through a funnel
also i thought this thread was going to be on a grill with a radio built in that you could buy at walmart
i imagine its like that one simpsons episode where there is 7 food stands all being served by the one cook who shoves the food through a funnel
also i thought this thread was going to be on a grill with a radio built in that you could buy at walmart
90’s America. When shit looked very tacky, but fun.
I can't imagine
kiwifarms.net
Most Wal-Mart Supercenters are around 200,000 square feet/18,500 square meters in size. In the modern ones, they have a row of rented spaces at the front near the cash registers, usually with some combination of nail places, salons, restaurants, banks, and the like. Basically a miniature strip mall inside of the store. It makes some degree of sense, since a lot of supermarkets that aren't Wal-Mart Supercenters are actually in strip malls, so you have the same basic functionality in a single, free-standing building.
There's generally only one fast-food style restaurant, though I've seen some that also have a Starbucks inside. The restaurant operates pretty much exactly like a normal, stand-alone franchise, just with a smaller prep space. Kinda think of the McDonald's you see in an airport and it's pretty similar.
Slightly off topic, but is anyone an old like me and remember eating at places like the K-Mart Eatery (when they actually served hot meals on plates) or the Woolworth counter?
There was a Woolworth somewhat close to where I live and it stayed till 1996 when they all went tits up. Even then, they still had a lunch counter.
I used to do contract work with Huffy. You'd get sent to various big box stores like Sears, K-Mart, Walmart, Target, etc. The job was basically working in the back doing whatever needed done for that store: Battery display set-up, bike assembly, outdoor grill assembly, treadmill assembly, display set-ups. This sometimes had me at a K-Mart or a Walmart with a Radio Grill (yes, I do remember our local Walmart had one).
Check these out though:
There was a Woolworth somewhat close to where I live and it stayed till 1996 when they all went tits up. Even then, they still had a lunch counter.
I used to do contract work with Huffy. You'd get sent to various big box stores like Sears, K-Mart, Walmart, Target, etc. The job was basically working in the back doing whatever needed done for that store: Battery display set-up, bike assembly, outdoor grill assembly, treadmill assembly, display set-ups. This sometimes had me at a K-Mart or a Walmart with a Radio Grill (yes, I do remember our local Walmart had one).
Check these out though:
I can't imagine
kiwifarms.net
Back in the 80's, my grandparents would take me and my brother to the K-Mart restaurant for breakfast once a month. As I recall, it was pretty typical breakfast diner fare, though certainly better than Denny's or something. I know we ate there for dinner sometimes too, though I don't remember the food as well since it was less common. I think I usually got fish and chips or spaghetti.
Yes, this Wal-Mart in question is old, been there for as long as I can remember.
It was still fine as late as 2010, but starting in 2011 it was getting disheveled and by 2013 was pretty terrible and even worse after that.
I can't remember when exactly the last time I set foot in it was, but it was only a few years ago and it was just plain baaaaaad, it just had a bad atmosphere on top of all the obvious issues.
My local Target is nicer than the Wal-Mart ever was but there's lots of memories of visiting that Wal-Mart as a kid, so it still bums me out to see it in that state.
I miss that so much.
What Planet Hollywood was in the 1990s was the KING of that "tacky as hell but fun as hell" 90's aesthetic.
I recall chatter to the effect that these sorts of places (also at department stores) were usually just the company cafeteria, and they just pointed it towards the customers. So the quality was better than you'd expect for a kmart or whatever for anything else because it was including bosses's lunches in the procedure, so they kept shit decent.
Also regarding Walmart then from my memories they were less grody than kmart, but still nothing to write home about for the most part.
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