Robert Chappell, general manager of the Walmart DC in Brundidge, was program guest of the Brundidge Rotary Club Wednesday. He provided the Rotarians with information about the operation of the local distribution center, Walmart’s plans for growth and the “culture” of the company’s policy of giving back to the community.
Chappell is one of Walmart’s success stories.
He started working at the company right out of high school, ventured away for a short while but was “fortunate” that Walmart took him back.
Chappell worked his way up through the ranks from supervisor, to area manager, operation’s manager, assistant general manager and, two years ago, to general manager in Brundidge.
The Walmart DC in Brundidge is a dry warehouse facility with about 650 associates and 50 salaried managers. Chappell said about half of the associates live outside the Brundidge area 30 miles or more – Montgomery, Dothan, Evergreen, Eufaula and places in between.
The Walmart DC is one of 40 grocery facilities and it is a mechanized facility, Chappell said.
“The DC is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and serves 104 stores all of which are super centers except six,” he said. “The service radius is about 150 miles from Brundidge.
“We have about 400,000 in- and out-bound cases a day. That’s about 12 million cases in a month. The Brundidge DC houses about 5,600 different dry items, 6,100 deli items and 5,100 meat items.”
Chappell said the temperature in the refrigerated section of the grocery warehouse is about 10 below zero and the ice cream refrigerator is even colder at 20 below.
Walmart’s plan for continued growth includes neighborhood markets and express stores, which are designed for “quick trip” shopping.
“Often when shoppers need a small number of items, they don’t want to have to go to the big stores,” Chappell said. “Instead, they go to the smaller stores. Walmart is moving into the small format stores.”
Walmart could increase its neighborhood markets by 150 to 175 stores by 2015.
As Walmart continues to grow, so does its commitment to community. And that means the Brundidge DC has a commitment to the local community.
In 2013, Chappell said the local DC gave back $63,000 to the community. Of that amount,  $15,000 was given to three charitable agencies, the Salvation Army, The American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society as a result of associate volunteer hours that translated to dollars.
Chappell said Walmart has a grant program which awards funds to schools for a variety of purposes and programs. Anita Grant, principal of Pike County Elementary School, said the combination of a Walmart grant and financial support from the Brundidge Rotary Club and the PTO made it possible to purchase new curtains for the school’s performance stage.
She expressed appreciation to Chappell and Walmart for their support of the community.