One of the more popular places to visit in the great state of Louisiana during December is the local Walmart. No, it doesn't matter whether you're in Breaux Bridge, Eunice, Lake Charles, or even a bigger city when it comes to mid and late-December, Walmart is a happening place.

Tim Boyle, Getty Images
Tim Boyle, Getty Images
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For a lot of us, a visit to "the Walmarts" as we say it here in Louisiana is a necessary evil. The giant retailer certainly has its upsides and its downsides too. Many of us appreciate the lower prices and large selection the stores offer. Yet, we don't care for the throngs of shoppers and the expansive layout that seems to get larger and larger the heavier your shopping cart happens to be.

But despite the gripes that we all seem to have about Walmart and the funnier stories that we have about the People of Walmart the retailer does seem to pay attention to what customers have to say about the shopping experience.

Facebook, Beth McGrath
Facebook, Beth McGrath
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To improve that shopping experience Walmart Stores around the country recently made some sweeping changes to your in-store experience. And while these changes were made on a national scale, I would bet a lot of us never even noticed. Believe it or not, the most noticeable change has come as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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All Walmart stores across the nation now offer sensory-friendly hours. Between the hours of 8 am and 10 am each day, the lighting in the store is reduced. The store's sound system will not play the radio, or whatever that noise is they call "Walmart Radio". And the banks of televisions that you'll see displayed in the electronics department will all be tuned to static.

Walmart stores across the country began experimenting with the sensory-friendly hours over the summer months offering them on weekends at first. However, the feedback from customers was very positive and so the store has now made the change permanent and a daily feature of their shopping experience.

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Now if they could just do something about those screaming children in the toy department. Oh, and the self-checkouts too. If they could just burn those down and start over that would be great.

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Gallery Credit: Scott Perrin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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