Swansea, MA. Wal-Mart Back With The Same Unpopular Superstore Plan
Wal-Mart has seven supercenters in the state of Massachusetts, and 39
discount stores. The plan, over time, is for the company to either expand
existing discount stores into supercenters, or build new supercenters and
close the ‘old’ discount stores (which were built in the 1990s). The Fall
River, MA Herald newspaper reports this week that a proposal to build a
supercenter in Swansea is moving forward, as the company prepares to
present its proposal to the Swansea Planning board within two weeks for
site plan review. Swansea, Massachusetts is a small community of roughly
16,000 people in southeastern Massachusetts, bordered by Barrington and
Warren, Rhode Island, on the west and southwest, about 47 miles south of
Boston, and 12 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island. The community
already has an existing Wal-Mart discount store at the Swansea Mall, which
calls itself “a complete entertainment experience.” Sprawl-Busters last
reported on Swansea on September 8, 2007, when Wal-Mart applied to expand
their existing Wal-Mart on Swansea Mall Drive into a 161,000 s.f. store,
according to a site plan submitted to the town by the mall’s owner, the
Carlyle Development Group, based in White Plains, New York. Carlyle has
been around since 1982, and calls itself an “expert in identifying
undervalued real estate.” Carlyle bought the Swansea Mall seven years ago
from an insurance company, and the New York State Pension Fund. At that
time, half of the four anchor spots at the Mall were vacant. Macy’s and
Sears are two existing anchors in the Swansea Mall. Swansea’s Zoning Board
was scheduled to meet in September of 2007 to take up the expansion
request---but a company spokesman told the Providence Journal, “Wal-Mart
has no publicly announced plans for Swansea at this time.” A formal site
plan proposal submitted to a town is a “publicly announced plan,” yet the
company was clearly not ready at that time to lift the veil from its
proposal. Wal-Mart says it wants to build supercenters in North Attleboro,
Massachusetts, in Woonsocket and Warwick, Rhode Island. These three
supercenter proposals are relocations from existing stores---so three
“dark stores” will be created by this power shift into larger boxes.
Wal-Mart already has two supercenters in Rhode Island, which calls itself
the “Ocean State,” but the ocean increasingly seems to refer to the ocean
of asphalt created by big box developers. A Wal-Mart opened in the city of
Providence, Rhode Island in 2007. Wal-Mart’s original plan called for
demolishing the current 93,000 s.f. Wal-Mart to build the larger one, with
a larger parking lot. That store was an old Caldor’s building that was
bought by Wal-Mart after it drove Caldor’s out of business in New England.
Almost a year and a half has gone by since Wal-Mart first floated its
plans in Swansea, but the new proposal has shaved off the store size to
$158,519 s.f. Residents on one of the abutting streets complained about
the original plan, and appealed a Zoning Board decision granting a parking
variance for the proposal. Added to the 972 parking spaces in the original
proposal, Wal-Mart now wants to add another 380 parking spaces to comply
with the current parking bylaw. “This (additional parking) has come at
considerable expense, to the tune of more than $1 million,” a Swansea
official told The Herald. Wal-Mart claims the new store will add 103 new
jobs to the existing 222 jobs at the existing Wal-Mart. The town’s
Conservation Commission is still apparently concerned about stormwater
runoff created by the project and the expansion of the parking lot into an
undeveloped area, but the town’s planner says Wal-Mart hopes to have the
supercenter open for business by the spring of 2011.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, January 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
Maine Site Fight: Supercenter Possibility Re-opened in Swansea
Wal-Mart Supercenter back on the table [Herald News (Maine)]
The proposal to bring the area’s first Wal-Mart Supercenter to town is back on the table as developers plan to go in front of the Planning Board in two weeks with updated plans seeking a site plan review.
The original proposal, which first came before the town in June 2007, called for the construction of a 161,000-square-foot supercenter in the Swansea Mall parking lot with plans to eventually demolish the current Wal-Mart structure to allow for additional parking.
Town Planner Steve Antinelli said the original proposal has been downsized to 158,519-square-feet and new parking spots have been added after residents of Maple Avenue appealed a Zoning Board decision granting a parking variance for the proposal. In addition to 972 parking spaces that were part of the original proposal, the new plan calls for the creation of an additional 380 parking spaces where a hill and trees are now located to comply with the current parking bylaw.
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Posted by Chris C on Friday, January 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
Connecticut Site Fight: Debate On Capping Proposed Wal-Mart’s Size Continues
Officials delay vote on capping store size [Norwich Bulletin (Conn.)]
The Planning and Zoning Commission has postponed a vote on a proposal to cap the size of retail businesses at 50,000-square-feet until next week.
The commission held a lengthy hearing on the proposal Wednesday night.
The proposed change, if passed, will not affect a proposal by Wal-Mart to build a supercenter on Route 6 in town, according to commission Chairman Thomas Doherty.
Posted by Chris C on Friday, January 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
New lawsuit alleges Wal-Mart involvment in movie conspiracy
BUSTED!!!
Actually, as a recently joined member of Netflix, I have to admit I might not be impartial on this story. After all, they do deliver movies right to my door, allowing me to overcome my lifelong fear of video stores.
But that aside, the lawsuit appears to be some pretty serious stuff. From the Los Angeles Times:
The two companies agreed in 2005 that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, would close its online rental business and refer customers to Netflix, which would promote Wal-Mart’s DVD movie sales, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco.
Sounds like a case of a couple companies engaging in some “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” behavior. The complaint suggests clandestine meetings, beginning with a dinner shared by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and then-Wal-Mart.com CEO John Fleming in January 2005, in which discussions began as to how the two could reduce competition in the DVD sales and online DVD rental markets. You can check out the whole complaint here. Its like reading The Bourne Identity...if it was written by lawyers. Bland, legalese-loving lawyers. But seriously, it is pretty interesting, and at 24 pages its not tooooo long, so check it out.
Wal-Mart, Netflix sued over online video rentals [Reuters]
Wal-Mart, Netflix conspired to create monopoly, suit alleges [Bloomberg via Los Angeles Times]
Resnick v. Wal-Mart, Netflix (Complaint)
Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, January 07 | 4 comments | Permalink
Legal Blog: Wal-Mart could be in hot water over expired formula
A pair of stories - infant formula in Texas and continuing tax issues in Connecticut.
First, from Texas. Texas Wal-Marts are asking customers to check the dates on any infant formula sold within the state, after the office of the Attorney General learned that the retail giant had been selling expired product. There doesn’t appear to be a lawsuit on the horizon...the AG’s office simply asked Wal-Mart to remove the expired formula from shelves, inform customers, and make restitution. That most likely means refunds, but state penalties are not out of the question either.
The second story comes from Connecticut, where the neverending double taxation story has gotten life breathed back into it yet again. Here is our most recent post on the subject. And this, from the Hartford Courant:
Sue Drobinski of New Britain says that despite Wal-Mart entering into an agreement to follow state laws on taxes involving even exchanges, its employees in New Britain are not following the law.
I sent her email to state Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. this morning, who has responded that his legal department will contact Wal-Mart to bring up this and other similar complaints.
Read on for more on both stories…
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, January 07 | 2 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart rings in the new year by settling wage and hour lawsuits
Come holiday season, what do you get the company that seemingly has everything? How about a settlement to its seemingly endless chain of wage and overtime suits.
We ring in the new year with this news, that Wal-Mart has chosen to settle a massive number of wage/hour and overtime class actions. The terms of the settlement could eventually cost Wal-Mart up to $640 million to settle 63 of the nearly 80 such lawsuits out there. So why, after years of fighting these suits tooth and nail (winning some while others have ended in rather large judgments against the company), has Wal-Mart finally decided to settle? At least one law professor quoted in the Wall Street Journal has an idea:
Paul M. Secunda, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School, suggested Wal-Mart wanted to settle the lawsuits not just to avoid potentially more costly defeats in the courtroom, but to resolve issues that might be used to argue for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, expected to be considered by Congress next year, is fiercely opposed by Wal-Mart because the company worries it will make it easier for workers to unionize. Secunda said: “This is part of their overall strategy to get their labor house in order, and compared to what unionization might cost them, I think they probably realized it was a small price to pay.”
A small price to pay indeed. Wal-Mart has prevailed in getting class actions such as these decertified more times than the company has lost, though when it has and Wal-Mart has gone to trial, the judgments in just a handful of cases have totalled over $300 million. Settling 63 for just over $10 million each might not be so bad, especially if it earns the company some good street cred. Could a settlement in Dukes v. Wal-Mart be next??
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, January 05 | 10 comments | Permalink
Discrimination the gift that keeps on giving at Wal-Mart
Life in the minority isn’t easy. When you’re in the minority and a recipient of threats and abuse because of your minority status, life gets even harder. But when you bring these issues and concerns for your own safety to the attention of your employer, and they do nothing, thats called the tipping point.
And so it was for Louay Kezy, a Michigan man who has filed a $12 million lawsuit against Wal-Mart after being on the receiving end of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab abuse at work. Kezy’s attorney, Nabih Ayad, relayed Kezy’s story to the Detroit News:
“They demeaned him, harassed him, called him names. They accused him of being a terrorist,” Ayad said. “Supervisors ordered him to do jobs that were unrelated to his duties. They allowed a joke, a game to continue where co-workers would toss a ball near him and pretend it was a grenade, a bomb. Wal-Mart allowed this hostile environment to continue and they fired him when he complained.”
Dearborn, Michigan, has a very large Arab and Muslim population, and with that in mind Wal-Mart opened an experimental store there in March which offers a special line of products geared toward the Arab American and American Muslim communities in the Metro Detroit area. Unfortunately, the same respect shown to customers may be missing with regards to employees.
“It is absurd that his supervisors think they can take this action against an Arab American without consequences right in the middle of the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East,” Ayad said. “That Wal-Mart can take their money as consumers but allow an Arab employee to be abused is absurd.”
This is a refrain we’ve heard all too often. Issues of discrimination within Wal-Mart seem to follow the company like paparazzi on Britney Spears.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, December 19 | 38 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart might face digital download tax in NY
New York’s Governor called for a host of new fees and taxes yesterday, including an “iPod tax” that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other “digitally delivered entertainment services.”
The Governor’s new budget for 2009 includes 88 new fees plus a bunch of other new taxes on anything from soda, beer, wine and cigars to movie tickets, taxi rides, and massages. According to the NY Daily News, It would also extend sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and remove the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110. So no more grabbing a box of stogies and hitting the local cinaplex for me, I guess...well, assuming I lived in New York. Which I don’t.
That the “iPod tax” actually refers to Apple’s popular product by name would cause one to infer that Governor Paterson has it out for frequenters of the iStore. In actuality, however, MacWorld points out that the title is a little misleading.
It’s not a tax on iPods, but rather the levying of state and local sales taxes for “digitally delivered entertainment services.” The iTunes Store would seem to be a prime target there, but Amazon, Wal-mart, and other retailers would take a hit from the proposed tax as well.
We’ll see if Wal-Mart and the rest flex their mighty lobbying muscles on this. While at least 16 states plus DC already have taxes of this nature, California shot down a similar proposal earlier this year.
New York governor proposes digital download tax [MacWorld]
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, December 17 | 22 comments | Permalink
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