East Albany's new Walmart will open Wednesday bringing a new shopping option for customers, an increase in tax revenue, and new life to a part of town that's struggled for years.
The new store has some features you may not notice. Walmart is going green. The new store is more environmentally friendly from floor to ceiling.
It doesn't look green inside, but the new East Albany Walmart is more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than the Ledo Road store, from floor to ceiling.
One hundred skylights help make the store bright but also save energy.
"NOVAR is basically a monitoring system that as our lights, as the sunlight gets brighter, our lights inside the store dim, when the sunlight reaches a certain point our lights cut off strategically, unless it's the perimeter lights," said Andy Carter, East Albany Walmart Manager.
The floor, no white tiles that need scrubbing here, it's nothing more than cement, that includes recycled materials.
"That's one of the ways we sustain our store without having the extra waxing supplies, stripping supplies, and all the labor intensive work that's put into keeping the floors clean," said Carter.
As we dug deeper it got harder to find something not recycled, from the recycled bags, made from returned plastic bags, to low flush toilets and faucets in the bathroom, to the counters made of recycled materials when bathrooms are stripped.
"It's actually recycled porcelain from the store, about every five years we remodel a store, so instead of all that extra materials going into a land fill we actually recycle," said Carter.
Even the pizza boxes are made of cleaned and reused cardboard from store boxes. Produce that is out of date at this new store will be composted out back, instead of being put down the trash compactor and dumped in a land fill and the store will even take your recyclables.
"We take plastic bags to be recycled, we take plastic bottles, we take pill bottles from the pharmacy, we take aluminum cans," said Carter.
From saving a little electricity in the dressing rooms with motion sensor lights to keeping trucks from idling in the loading docks the new store hopes to be an environmentally friendly neighbor.
The store hopes its efforts rub off on customers and they try to be a part of the recycling effort by reusing bags and participating in the stores recycling program.
The store's layout is also a little different than what you might be used to. It's designed to save you time as you shop.
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