Wal-Mart Goes Big on California’s Central Coast

Wal-Mart says ‘Super-size me’ [Pacific Coast Business Times]

From Paso Robles to Ventura, Wal-Mart wants to stock Supercenters on the Central Coast’s shelf of consumer offerings.

None of Wal-Mart’s six locations in the Tri-Counties, including Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Oxnard and Simi Valley currently operates as a “Supercenter,” the company’s largest retail offering.

But Wal-Mart has been making a big push to change that, with hopes to build new stores in Ventura and Atascadero and expand its current site in Paso Robles.

“The interesting piece is that the average superstore in the United States averages 185,000 square feet,” said Aaron Rios, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart. “All three of the projects we are proposing on the Central Coast are significantly underneath that number.”

In addition, Rios said at 28 Supercenters, California has a minute share of the total 1,900 in the country.

“The Supercenter concept is heavily underrepresented in the State of California and yet the savings to our customers are tremendous,” Rios said, adding that the success of the current Central Coast stores combined with customers’ desires to have a more expansive selection of goods, including groceries, has encouraged the company to expand in the region.

“At the end of the day, we’re advocating for our customers and listening to what they’re telling us,” Rios said. He explained that although the Supercenters would be below-average in size, they would still follow the same concept and carry enhanced product offerings.

According to Nelson Hernandez, community development director for the City of Ventura, Wal-Mart has been in informal discussions with the city since January 2006 about the possibility of bringing a store to the area in place of the existing Kmart on Victoria Avenue.

“Last time they met with us back in May, they told us they had in fact secured the ground lease,” Hernandez said. “So they came in with the concept plan of what the store might look like, which was much better than their first two concept plans.”

Initially, the company was considering the option of putting the store into the existing building on the site. Later ideas have replaced the old structure with a new design.

“We have had thoughtful discussions with them for the last two years, in which we’ve made clear from the outset that they’ve always had the option of moving into the existing Kmart building,” said Ventura city manager, Rick Cole. “Their preference and our preference would be that they build a new building – our preference is that they build a new building in conformance with the 2005 general plan.”

Hernandez said there were still some design issues with the latest idea, which includes two stories of parking and a 150,000-square-foot top floor to house the retail area. The size of the new plan is beyond the 90,000-square-foot limit the city allows for a single floor.

“Do they want to move into the existing proposed conventional store or design a store in conformance with the new plan or do they want to submit an application for a Supercenter?” Cole queried. “Those are decisions we are happy to talk to Wal-Mart about, but at the moment they have indicated they are thinking it over.”

Wal-Mart has yet to submit a formal application to Ventura. According to the Wal-Mart Web site, the average size of the company’s Supercenters are 185,000 square feet and discount stores are about 100,000 square feet, leaving Wal-Mart’s most recent Ventura concept plans somewhere in between. Wal-Mart’s neighborhood markets are 41,000 square feet on average and its Sam’s Club brand is about 130,000 square feet.

Paso Robles Community Development Director Ron Whisenand said when the original Wal-Mart store was built in Paso Robles in the late 1990s, both the city and the company had a vision for future expansions.

In the last six to eight months, Wal-Mart has begun discussing with the city the possibility of increasing its Paso Robles store to the maximum size originally approved, which would total about 130,000 square feet. Whisenand said he has encountered little to no opposition to the expansion. He said Wal-Mart has been working with the community to take local concerns and issues into account in its design process, such as with the locations of delivery doors and landscaping in the back of the store.

Wal-Mart submitted an application for a Supercenter to the City of Atascadero in January and withdrew it soon after in response to feedback received from the city council and staff. On Aug. 14,15 and 16, Wal-Mart will participate in an economic forum hosted by the City of Atascadero, which will involve discussion between residents and retail developers about important projects proposed for that city.

Based on the feedback from the forums that the city presents at the end of the month, Rios said Wal-Mart will further evaluate its plans for the city.

“If you go back in history when we first put a store in Paso Robles in the mid-90s, there was significant opposition to that store as well, but the reality is over the last decade, [Wal-Mart] has been a vital partner within the community,” Rios said.

Rios indicated that Wal-Mart continues to try to dispel ideas among regional residents about negative impacts of its stores.