Bellevue, WI. Can’t Vote No Just Because Wal-Mart Sucks
This is the story of a village in Wisconsin where people may think Wal-Mart sucks, but they’re likely to get a 176,305 s.f. supercenter anyway. In January 2008, this village of roughly 14,600 people just south of Green Bay had a Wal-Mart supercenter thrown into its lap. The village, whose motto is “A Great Place To Grow,” had to decide if growth meant putting a Wal-Mart supercenter in its new business park.
Many village residents pointed out that there are 3 Wal-Mart’s within 10 miles of Bellevue. There is a discount store and a superstore in Green Bay, and a second supercenter in De Pere. Apparently, no independent traffic studies, no impact on property valuations, and no economic impact studies were done on this project. At the January hearing, residents jammed into the Village board room to express their concern and dismay over the proposed store. Every single resident who testified on the plan, opposed it. No one testified in support. Neighbors expressed concerns over lost property values, low wage jobs, and impact on the rest of the business community. Some residents told Wal-Mart that instead of building a new superstore, they should go back and renovate their existing discount store on Main Street in Green Bay, which is roughly 3.5 miles from Bellevue. The Green Bay discount store is a sure bet for closure if the superstore is opened.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, February 15 | 0 comments | Permalink
Bellevue, WI. Wal-Mart Gets Go-Ahead Despite Residents’ Complaints
Bellevue Village Board gives go-ahead to Wal-Mart [Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisc.)]
Residents’ complaints and concerns continued to pour in on the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter looking to move into the village, but it wasn’t enough.
At a packed, standing-room-only Village Board meeting Wednesday, trustees voted unanimously to accept Wal-Mart’s planned development district request to construct a SuperCenter for the business park at Wisconsin 172 and Brown County GV.
President Craig Beyl, who works for a grocery store he cited as a competitor to Wal-Mart, abstained from the vote.
Residents asked the board to block the store from locating in the village, and others — including a few Wal-Mart employees — asked them to approve what they said was a great opportunity.
“If we don’t want something, we the people hope that you can figure out a way to not let that happen,” said resident John Tomcheck.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, February 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Sault Ste Marie, MI. Wal-Mart Moving Forward
Perceived progress in Super Wal-Mart project [The Evening News (Mich.)]
While the much-anticipated Super Wal-Mart project has inched along at something slightly slower than a snail’s pace for many months, it appears as though the jungle of bureaucratic red-tape has finally been navigated.
“It had been quiet for quite a while,” said Building Inspector Darien Neveu, noting there has been a noticeable uptick in activity in recent weeks. “We are starting to get calls from consultants.”
Neveu said multiple plans, with minor variations, had already been approved by the city, but work had not yet commenced on the project.
“I kind of sense they’ve rekindled moving forward on the Wal-Mart store,” said Neveu, speculating something may take place on the site - sandwiched between the I-75 Business Spur and Three Mile Road - during the upcoming building season.
At least one of the proposals called for a structure approaching 200,000 square feet, said Neveu, who expressed the belief that the overall size may be scaled back in the final version.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, February 14 | 0 comments | Permalink
Collinsville, IL. Another Dead Wal-Mart Gets “Upcycled”
On January 12, 2008, Sprawl-Busters reported that a 94,860 s.f.”dark” Wal-Mart discount store on West Market Street in Tiffin, Ohio had been purchased by a commercial developer called U.S. Properties Group (USPG). The real estate company expected to take possession of the empty Wal-Mart by March. The reported closing price to USPG for the building was $1.7 million. There were 14 dead Wal-Mart stores up for lease or sale in Ohio at the time of the sale. Wal-Mart currently has 1,098,672 s.f. of “dark stores” in Ohio. That’s the equivalent of nearly 22.5 football fields of abandoned space. This week, USPG was at in again, buying up another dead Wal-Mart, this time a 99,364 s.f.store in Collinsville, Illinois. Wal-Mart has 15 dead stores for sale in Illinois today—not counting Collinsville. The Wal-Mart discount store in Collinsville was shut down last year when the company put up a supercenter. The new 204,000 s.f. Wal-Mart Supercenter opened at the 53-acre Collinsville Crossing retail development. USPG says it is not recycling these empty stores, but “upcyling” them instead. USPG owns, manages and develops shopping centers in ten states, and has brought numerous big-box retailers to dead stores.
This is the company’s first venture in Illinois. “They have a good reputation of bringing in tenants,” the Collinsville Community Development Director told the News Democrat. “The typical life span for a Wal-Mart to be on the market is a year-and-a-half, so we’re way ahead of schedule.” A spokesman for USPG referred to the Wal-Mart store as a “ghost box.”
To USPG, “upcycling” means the company leverages its relationships with retailers to revitalize communities by renovating dead stores. “We get real estate off the books,” the company’s vice president of leasing told the newspaper. “We get it back to productivity as fast as we can because we don’t make any money until we do it. It’s a pretty simple business model.” One option USPG has is to break the building down into smaller units. People in this part of Illinois are familiar with ‘ghost boxes.’
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, February 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Chicago-Area Wal-Mart Faces Massive Delays
New Wal-Mart delayed almost a year [Chicago Sun-Times]
An extension of a special use permit for a drive-through pharmacy was approved by the Matteson Village Board Monday, a sign that the new Super Wal-Mart store will not be opening as soon as previously thought.
The prior special use permit, approved March 5, 2007, was to expire in one year.
When the announcement was made in early 2007, officials said the national retailer would relocate and be open for business in 2008
Now, the store may not open until the summer of 2009.
Wal-Mart will be located on the southeast corner of Old Plank Trail and Cicero Avenue, across the street from the existing Wal-Mart.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, February 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Fergus Falls, MN. Wal-Mart Still Plans to Build
Wal-Mart plans still on track [Daily Journal (Minn.)]
Low sales reported out of corporate Wal-Mart and competition from a neighboring supercenter won’t affect expansion plans for the Fergus Falls location. Those plans, however, are still static at the moment.
Earlier in the week, CNNMoney.com reported U.S. retailers experienced their slowest monthly sales growth in five years. Topping the list was Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That’s news to Tim Bosworth, Fergus Falls Wal-Mart manager. However, the local store did take a bit of a hit when a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened up 25 miles down the road in Wahpeton last August.
“It was a good year in light of the fact that the last five months of 2007, the Wahpeton store took 10 percent of our sales,” Bosworth said.
Sales were up 7 percent in July in the Fergus Falls locale — then the Wahpeton store opened. Things are getting back to normal, however.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, February 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Looking for a Way to Boost the Economy? Shop Locally, Not at Wal-Mart.
This article from the Oshkosh Northwestern in Wisconsin is one of a series of recent articles explaining that the best way to address a sagging economy is not by shopping at Wal-Mart, as the company might want you to believe, but by supporting locally-owned businesses that reinvest in the community.
In the sometimes embarrassing world of sales, one of the first things I was taught was “Friends buy from friends.” It made sense after all, the first thing that someone should try to develop in a sales relationship was just that, a relationship. And the closer that relationship, the more likely it was that a sale was eminent. If you could be trusted for your advice and product or service, you were worth someone’s hard-earned money.
While this principle seems to make sense, it is surprising to me how we, as a society, have gotten away from that idea of being loyal to the business owners we call our friends. More and more, price plays such a much bigger role in buying decisions that some of the largest companies in the world bank on you being less loyal to the local business and more loyal to which one can satisfy your needs for less.
Case in point is Wal-Mart with their philosophy that sold so many over the holiday season. “Save money, live better.” Did they say, “Shop locally, save jobs?” No. Did they say, “Better service means better satisfaction?” No. Did they say, “Buy from those you know?” No. They said, “Save money, live better.” Because after all, if we can save money on what we want, we will have a better life and it doesn’t matter what it means for anone else. Is this what we as a society have gotten to? It’s all about me?
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, February 04 | 4 comments | Permalink
Madison, OH. Township Asks Wal-Mart to Contribute for Infrastructure
Trustees ask Wal-Mart to chip in for waterlines [News-Herald (Calif.)]
Madison Township trustees want Wal-Mart to help pay for a waterline project that would cost affected Meadow Wood Drive residents about $15,000 each.
Trustees Jeff Quirk, Pete Wayman and Bill Brotzman agreed unanimously to ask the retail chain to help the Meadow Wood Homeowners Association.
The association said Wal-Mart started a sewer line that wound up with homeowners switching from well water to county water.
“This change, we believe, led to one of the wells on Meadow Wood Drive testing positive for E. coli,” association President Doug Stauffer said in a written statement to trustees.
“It was after the well tested positive for E. coli that we felt forced to seek a way to protect the health of our families, as well as the value of our homes. We believe that Wal-Mart didn’t really recognize the impact to watershed that development of the Madison site caused and hasn’t adequately protected its neighbors.”
The association said it would like to see trustees “requiring Wal-Mart to in some way offset the damages.”
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, January 31 | 0 comments | Permalink
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