New Walmart To Use Rail Service in Kalkaska

[James Sofonia]

Now I'm getting this second hand from someone who lives in Kalkaska, but the word is in addition to a new Walmart to be built there, they will also add a warehouse and distribution center. The facility is to be built near the GLC tracks on the North end of town to receive materials by rail. This is good news to the community as it brings in jobs to staff both the store as well as the distribution center. Jobs to drive the trucks to other stores in Northern Michigan will also be created. Anyone else in the know about this?

[MSchwiebert]

I have my doubts. I can't think of any Walmart DC that is rail served. Think about it for a minute, what in your "typical" Walmart is shipped by rail now? While I did notice that based on this list http://www.algulfcoastvideo.com/walmart1.htm there is not currently a DC in the upper lower peninsula area of Michigan, (are there enough stores up there to warrant one?) I'd suspect that the Saginaw/Bay City area would have an edge due to access to I-75 instead if one is to be built.

[Doktor No]

No, they will now offer BAIL SERVICE. WalMart Bail Bonds...Discounted right when you need it. And if you are an employee you get a 10% discount taken right off your paycheck....

[CSX_CO]

I have my doubts. I can't think of any Walmart DC that is rail served. Think about it for a minute, what in your "typical" Walmart is shipped by rail now? While I did notice that based on this list http://www.algulfcoastvideo.com/walmart1.htm there is not currently a DC in the upper lower peninsula area of Michigan, (are there enough stores up there to warrant one?) I'd suspect that the Saginaw/Bay City area would have an edge due to access to I-75 instead if one is to be built.

Built a cold storage one in Garrett In, no rail service. No direct rail service at any of the distribution centers around Plainfield or Avon, IN either.

[James Sofonia]

I have my doubts. I can't think of any Walmart DC that is rail served. Think about it for a minute, what in your "typical" Walmart is shipped by rail now?

Thank you for pulling your pants down and squatting on my post. I did indicate a disclaimer to the subject. I posed a question if anyone else knew of this, not your negative opinion. And now the thread is heading toward Walmart politics. Not Michigan RR at all.
Next time you have this feeling use a toilet.

[MSchwiebert]

Seriously? I was pointing out that Walmart is not a Lowes/Home Depot/Menards that do have rail served DC's for inbound wood, sheetrock etc.
Walmart's product mix and distribution model does not lend itself to rail usage, no more than Target/Meijer/Kohls does. That is all.

[CSX_CO]

Wow. Just wow.

[hoborich]

Pretty much everything Walmart carries comes from China. That means containers. That means an intermodal facility. That means trucks. There are plenty of Walmarts here in northern Michigan. Houghton lake, West Branch, Cadillac, Gaylord, Mt Pleasant, just to name a few. I have noticed that it often takes them a while to restock various items. The shelves will be kind of bare for a week or more, then suddenly, the isles are full of dollies full of crap being put up on the shelves.

[redcrumbox]

WM has built many DC's and it still not enough. I wont mention any names, but WM acquired an old trucking terminal to break down inbound loads, and it only 50 miles from a major DC. Its all about logistics.

To build a DC in the left hand corner of northern MI just to re-ship made-in-china products south is... uh....

[~Z~]

I have my doubts. I can't think of any Walmart DC that is rail served. Think about it for a minute, what in your "typical" Walmart is shipped by rail now?

Thank you for pulling your pants down and squatting on my post. I did indicate a disclaimer to the subject. I posed a question if anyone else knew of this, not your negative opinion. And now the thread is heading toward Walmart politics. Not Michigan RR at all.
Next time you have this feeling use a toilet.

Sorry Pixl, i have no issue with what mschwiebert wrote. Showed an opinion on the topic with decent info to back it up. Not cool what you are writing back his way.

[James Sofonia]

Sorry Pixl, i have no issue with what mschwiebert wrote. Showed an opinion on the topic with decent info to back it up. Not cool what you are writing back his way.

I'm sorry how this thread turned out. I'll refrain from posting hopeful news again. It probably will never happen anyhow. Good night.

[J T]

I have my doubts. I can't think of any Walmart DC that is rail served. Think about it for a minute, what in your "typical" Walmart is shipped by rail now?

Thank you for pulling your pants down and squatting on my post. I did indicate a disclaimer to the subject. I posed a question if anyone else knew of this, not your negative opinion. And now the thread is heading toward Walmart politics. Not Michigan RR at all.
Next time you have this feeling use a toilet.

Something tells me that if you and MSchwiebert were having this discussion in person and he had said the exact same thing, you wouldn't have responded that way. Seemed like a pretty innocuous response to me.

[Norm]

Wal Mart has a DC in Coldwater. Why would they build one 150 miles up the road from there that is basically in the middle of nowhere?

[AARR]

Northern Logistics, who operates the Polyterm transload yard in Clare, has or had a warehouse in Kalkaska that has or had a rail spur. The Kalkaska site stored packaged goods while Clare was for bulk. There was speculation they might get rail service at Kalkaska too but if they did I never heard about it.

[J T]

I'm sorry how this thread turned out. I'll refrain from posting hopeful news again. It probably will never happen anyhow. Good night.

Why would you refrain from posting hopeful news just because this thread took a wrong turn? How would future hopeful news have anything to do with this thread?

[James Sofonia]

Why would you refrain from posting hopeful news just because this thread took a wrong turn? How would future hopeful news have anything to do with this thread?

Ok, you're right. Cool down period has occurred.
Now I'll ask again, does anybody have any information on the Kalkaska Mi. Walmart project?
The lady who told of this lives in Kalkaska, owns a horse farm and is not a railfan. She attends church in Traverse city and passed this on to my co-worker who in turn told me. So I'm way down the information chain to get any details.
As far as Walmart operations, you never know when a corporation may try something new.

[Joshua Niederkohr]

Something nice for the Great Lakes Central Railroad. There're a class 2, this mean more money for them.

[NYCMan]

If Walmart builds a distribution center in Kalkaska, which is way, way, way out of the way, and if the distribution center gets rail service, and since the Great Lakes Central operation is subsidized by Taxpayer dollars, then the Michigan Taxpayers will be paying for Walmart to get their rail service at their distribution center in Kalkaska. But, look at Walmart. What Sam Walton started in 1950 with one little store in Bentonville, Arkansas has turned into a Worldwide enterprise with annual revenues of somewhere just shy of $500 Billion. So, maybe there could be some truth to the rumor.