Cities Weigh The Big Box Effect

Misleading as usual.  Nowhere in the story about Colorado Springs does it refer to Mom & Pop businesses.  The gist of this story is that big box stores, including COSTCO, Target and Walmart are building stores outside of the Coolorado Springs city limits.  Consequently, the tax revenue is no longer going to Colorado Springs, but rather to some other minicipality. 

Also, it is worth mentioning that Colorado has a provision in the constitution which does not allow tax rates to be increased without voter approval.  None of this is Walmart’s fault.

I worked at a local walmart neighborhood market a few years ago, and from my experience the whole walmart chain where i’m from is very friendly, non-racist, equal opportunity jobs. They are also very family oriented.  I wish that we would get one here for our town.

“......the whole walmart chain where i’m from is very friendly, non-racist, equal opportunity jobs. They are also very family oriented.”

Problem is the whole Walmart chain is not just from where you are.
Walmart has proved to be an uncaring, selfish monster that disrespects a countries laws and pretends to be part of the culture (like the Newfoundland commercials) when it has little that can be compared to Newfoundlands family values.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

This IS the crux of the Wal-Mart Battle!

I knew you thought it was “all about” the Hokey Pokey, John in OKC, but this thread IS what it’s all about when it comes to the battle with Wal-Mart and other big box stores.  It’s about sucking the retail blood out of cities until they relent and have no other choice but to allow Wal-Mart to build more of its ubiquitous Supercenters in the heart of America’s largest cities.  The battle for the country towns is OVER...Wal-Mart wants it all.  They want to come into the heart of Chicago, New York and other major U.S. cities.

Only someone who works for Wal-Mart or is paid by Wal-Mart would try to deny this.  By the way, if you live in OKC, what makes you such an “expert” on the provisions in the Colorado constitution?  I don’t think you’ve established your credibility here “John in OKC.” Are you another wannabe lawyer like Nick?  I’m wondering if you know what a municipality is...you obviously don’t know how to spell it!

Alex,

“Problem is the whole Walmart chain is not just from where you are.  Walmart has proved to be an uncaring, selfish monster”

If the Company is uncaring and a selfish monster, how can part of it be “very friendly, non-racist, equal opportunity jobs. They are also very family oriented”?  If it were the Company, wouldn’t they ALL be bad?  Sounds more like some stores are bad and some are good on a local basis, and the Company does not MICRO manage the stores!!

Tell Mary. She is the one who wrote:
“and from my experience the whole walmart chain where i’m from is....”

What Walmart did in Jonquiere Quebec was a corporate decision from Bentonville. Not from the Canadian director Mario who slipped up on the newspaper interview when he tried to use the first person singular. He is nothing but a puppet of Bentonville with Lee Scott pulling his strings.

Walmart is a low life corporation that will never be respected as a good corporate citizen.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse
We will never forget what you did Walmart.
Never.

...Company does not MICRO manage the stores!!

That’s the same argument Wal-Mart tried in the Dukes case but it doesn’t hold water.  Bentonville’s control of such minor details as in-store temperature and volume on the sales TVs (via satelite) indicates a level of micro-management unseen elsewhere. In fact, until recently it was considered a retailing coup:

Wal-Mart is well known for its innovations in using sophisticated information systems to maintain centralized decision-making and control in its business operations. Writing in the Sloan Management Review, Thomas W. Malone, one of the leading experts on this topic, described Wal-Mart’s centralized system as follows:
With its famous state-of-the-art electronic ordering and inventory control systems, for instance, Wal-Mart introduced a new level of connected, centralized decision making into small-town retailing.

Are there variations from store-to-store? Sure, but most of that is dependent of how far along a given store is in it’s planned obsolescence*.

*Almost 10% of standing Wal-Marts are dark.

Not sure that’s accurate. Dukes seems to argue that the strong, pervasive corporate culture and the single, established set of personnel policies had a direct influence on hiring, firing, and promotion decisions. Micromanagement would imply that an individual or small group of managers was monitoring and directing individual personnel decisions. Common policies and guidelines are not micromanagement.  What do you think is being communicated over these sophisticated information systems? (From CEO to Manager A: “Do not hire the woman! End of Message.")

tjc,

Don’t you know that ALLEGED = GUILTY in the WMW camp?  And, Wal-Mart is somehow able to control what every one of their 1.7 million employees do, every minute of every day?  Also, all hires, promotions, and fires, have to go across Lee Scotts desk, before implememted?

Micromanagement would imply that an individual or small group of managers was monitoring and directing individual personnel decisions.

I don’t make the same inference, but if it makes you feel any better we can call what Bentonville does centralized control.

Wal-Mart maintained that, despite claims to the contrary, it did not operate as a centralized unit, and that discrimination is not systemic. Plaintiffs argued that the corporation’s procedures and policies are indeed highly standardized, and the company more than able to track discriminatory practices.

The judge agreed with the plaintiffs.

“...we can call what Bentonville does centralized control.”

You mean a centralized command and control economy like communism? Leaving behind the trail of wrecked society with a huge poverty labor proletariat and a few apparatchiks like the Waltons to run off with the wealth. Use of force like union busting crews on jets to prevent the lawful human right of organization and protest against the state. Don’t forget your huge propaganda effort spending untold millions to deceive the public with PR firms like the Goebbels/Edelman machine.

Comrade Sam thought of the workers state like this (just for you Nick)-

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once said, “I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We’re going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart#_note-iswalmartgood
“Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” PBS. November 16, 2004. Retrieved on February 24, 2007

And lets recite the Walton pledge of wealth allegiance-

Samuel Robson (Rob) Walton (born 1945, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is the eldest son of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. According to Forbes, his net worth is $16.7 billion as of 2007.

John Thomas Walton (October 8, 1946 - June 27, 2005) was a son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
Just before his death, Walton was estimated to be worth US$18.2 billion by Forbes magazine, and he was tied with his brother Jim as the 4th richest person in the United States and 11th-richest person in the world.

Jim Carr Walton (born 1948) is the youngest son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
With an estimated current net worth of around $16.8 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 23rd-richest person in world.

Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton, and sister of S. Robson Walton, John T. Walton (d.2005), and Jim Walton. She has an estimated net worth of about $16.6 billion.

Helen Robson Kemper Walton (December 3, 1919 - April 19, 2007) was the wife of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. She was the eleventh richest American and at one point the richest woman in the world. Helen died with an estimated net worth of $16.4 billion.

How’s that for centralized control of the profits by that ‘middle class’ bourgeois Arkansas royalty comrade Nick?

...we can call what Bentonville does centralized control.

I wish some of you Wal-Mart managers that read this blog* could feel secure enough to comment on Bentonville’s centralized control.

*Don’t act all innocent, I know some managers read this.