Wal-Mart Watch Daily Clips - June 18th

• Best Buy ad: Our people are better than Wal-Mart's [Cnet News]
  Now that Circuit City has enjoyed something of a last lap in physical retail, Best Buy seems to have decided to take on another large rifle in electronics retailing: Wal-Mart Stores. Wal-Mart has been upgrading its electronics offering and Best Buy clearly sees the Arkansas retailer as a potential source of pain and anguish.

• Rumble In The Strip Mall: Best Buy Calls Out Walmart [The Consumerist]
  Sure, Best Buy emerged victorious over Circuit City in the Battle of the Big-Box Electronics Stores, but they still have to compete with general discounters like Walmart. Which is why in a new ad campaign, Best Buy calls out Walmart specifically, attacking their employees' presumed lack of product knowledge compared to Best Buy employees.

• Wal-Mart Medical Clinics Stumble [BusinessWeek]
  Two years ago, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) announced plans to have retail medical clinics in 400 of its stores by 2010 and said it saw the potential for as many as 2,000. By February 2008, the retailer had 78 clinics. But now,--after failed venture-capital collaborations, a few faulty partnerships, and a reassessment of the business model--it has only 31.

• Wal-Mart Recalls 16,000 Chinese-Made Air Compressors [All Headline News]
  The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a recall for 16,000 dangerous, Chinese-made air compressors that were imported by Campbell Hausfeld and sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.

• WAL-MART: Couldn't store close for even a day? [The News Tribune (Wash.)]
  In a 1993 essay, Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted the shock that passed through the nation when four gangsters killed seven other gangsters in a Chicago garage on Feb. 14, 1929 - an event that contributed to ending Prohibition and became part of our folklore. He contrasted the public reaction to that event with modern times in which many American cities experience the equivalent of that St. Valentine's Day Massacre every weekend, with comparatively no notice taken by the public.

• Why Chinese Consumers Won't Replace Walmart Moms [Newsweek]
  The hottest debate over the world economy these days is not on the fate of America, it's on the fate of China. Will it be the worst victim, or the most successful survivor, of the global crisis of 2009?

• Wal-Mart with Fly Shop opens in Logan [The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)]
  A new Wal-Mart store in Logan has opened its doors, featuring The Fly Shop, one of three in the chain nationwide. The Fly Shop is stocked with equipment and supplies for fishers and outdoor enthusiasts.

• New Walmart brings new jobs and layout [News Tribune (Mo.)]
  Jefferson City's new East Side Walmart off City View Drive is now officially open. Wednesday morning, members of the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce and numerous customers attended a celebratory grand opening and ribbon cutting.

• Wal-Mart queried [Orange County Review (Va.)]
  After firing questions at Walmart representatives for nearly four hours Thursday, Orange County Planning Commission members decided they still needed more information before they could make a recommendation on Walmart's application for a special use permit.

• Orange+Wal-Mart+Preservationist = compromise? [Washington Examiner]
  For the first time, the Virginia Department of Historical Resources (DHR) weighed in against the proposal. In a letter dated June 8, 2009, Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, the Director and State Historic Preservation officer left no doubt the 50-acre parcel in question is a "significant historic resource eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places".

• Referendum already in the works on Wal-Mart [Sonoran News]
  Mayor Vincent Francia's signature was barely dry on Resolution R2009-09, signed shortly before midnight on Monday, when Town Clerk Carrie Dyrek received a voice message from Anna Marsolo regarding a referendum. Dean Phillips, who lives on Olesen Road directly across from the Walmart site, arrived at town hall on Tuesday morning, accompanied by Marsolo, to pull the paperwork for filing a referendum.

• Wal-Mart appeal decision likely [The Mail Tribune (Ore.)]
  The Medford City Council likely will make a decision at noon Thursday on whether it wants to appeal an Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals decision that has stalled a WalMart Supercenter in south Medford.

• City Council will mull west-side street plans [The Dalles Chronicle (Ore.)]
  Thursday night, The Dalles City Council and The Dalles Planning Commission will hold a joint work session on a plan for future transportation developments on the west side of The Dalles. Work sessions do not normally allow public comment, however, the presenters from Kittelson & Associates have agreed to allow interested parties to comment at the end of the work session, with comments limited to about three minutes per person.

• Post-Election: Morning in Greenfield [The Valley Advocate (Mass.)]
  Greenfield has just wrapped up one of the strangest mayoral elections in Pioneer Valley history. Town councilor Bill Martin, initiating an aggressive write-in campaign only 16 days before an April 21 four-way primary, garnered enough votes to take second place, knocking incumbent Christine Forgey, Greenfield's first mayor, from the final ballot.

Posted by Research Team on Thursday, June 18, 2009

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