Carlsbad, CA. Upscale Wal-Mart Should Be Voted Down, Say Residents
On July 19th, the story broke that Wal-Mart had purchased a 17-acre site at College Boulevard in Carlsbad, California, with plans to build “its most upscale store in the nation,” according to the North County Times. The land transfer took place two months earlier, but finally leaked out.
Carlsbad is known as the “village by the sea.” The community has roughly 92,000 residents, plus thousands of tourists year round. Money magazine named Carlsbad one of the most desirable places to live in America. It’s only 35 minutes to downtown San Diego, with Los Angeles and Tijuana, Mexico only one hour away. Carlsbad boasts of its natural landscapes and 7 miles of beautiful coastline. The city has green parks, graceful lagoons, and pristine sandy white beaches---but no Wal-Marts. But there are plenty of existing Wal-Marts surrounding Carlsbad. A total of 6 Wal-Marts lie within 22 miles of Carlsbad, with three Wal-Mart discount stores in Oceanside, California alone, within 7 miles of Carlsbad. Carlsbad has attracted corporate headquarters for corporations like Jazzercise, Jenny Craig, the Gemological Institute of America, K2 Inc., Isis Pharmaceuticals, Invitrogen, and Sunrise Medical. Carlsbad is also home to more than 20 golf companies. “Apart from its picturesque scenery, coastal distinction, and high standard of living,” the city’s website says, “Carlsbad has truly become an economic jewel of San Diego County. Carlsbad has enjoyed a strong local economy for many years, much of which has come from industrial development.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, July 30 | 0 comments | Permalink
Seabrook, NH. Sam’s Club Loses Gas Battle---Again
For the second time in four years, a Sam’s Club gas station proposal has run out of fuel. Wal-Mart this week scrapped plans to put a gas station in the parking lot of its Sam’s Club in Seabrook, New Hamsphire. The gas station would have been open only to Sam’s Club members. A similar proposal was denied in 2003. Wal-Mart needed a variance for the gas station, because the land their Club now sits on is industrially zoned, and does not allow gas stations. The site is also in an aquifer, and within 100 feet of a wetland. Gas and water don’t mix, and the company’s hearing before the Zoning Board did not go well. The ZBA asked Sam’s to return with more information about traffic, and about the impact of gasoline on the environment. Wal-Mart’s lawyer attempted to argue that now that the additive MTBE was no longer in gas, the proposal was not as environmentally hazardous. Their ZBA hearing went so badly, the company announced this week that instead of appearing a second time before the board, they chose to withdraw the plan instead. Case law in New Hampshire states that once you have been denied a variance, you can’t return unless your plans are significantly different. In this case, all Wal-Mart did was to move the gas station further south on their parking lot. In a July 20 letter sent to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, an attorney for the company gave no reason for the withdrawal. Seabrook has an ordinance that does not allow gas stations to be sited within 1,000 feet of one another, and there is a gas station already located within that distance. So Wal-Mart tried to move their station further away on their large site, but the ordinance measures distance property line to property line, so placement on the site needed a variance for the distance requirement as well. Local residents formed a Committee for the Environmental Protection of Seabrook to oppose the plan, and invited Sprawl-Busters to testify against the gas station in 2003 and 2007. “I hope the protest had something to do with it,” one resident told Seacoast Online after the withdrawal announcement. “I’m ecstatic. I’m glad they’re not going to put the little businesses out of business."The purpose of this letter is to formally advise you that Sam’s Real Estate Business Trust hereby withdraws both variance applications effective immediately,” said Wal-Mart’s letter to the Seabrook ZBA. Town Manager Scott Dunn announced Sam’s decision at the selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday morning. The ZBA made a brief statement Wednesday night. Officials do not expect Sam’s Club to come back a third time.
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, July 30 | 0 comments | Permalink
Tarpon Springs, FL. Citizens Hold Off Wal-Mart For Two And A Half Years
On March 31, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that a Wal-Mart backhoe had begun removing an endangered species of tortoises from the proposed site of a superstore in Tarpon Springs, Florida, on the banks of the Anclote River---before they even had their building permits. The site has been a source of controversy for several years. The Concerned Citizens of Tarpon Springs took the city to court for approving the supercenter project on a 3-2 vote. In March of 2006 a three judge panel in the 6th. Circuit Court for Pinellas County ruled against the Concerned Citizens of Tarpon Springs, and the group, running out of funds, had to end their legal challenge. But the battle did not end there. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Wal-Mart opponents continue to push their charge that Wal-Mart has incorrectly delineated where the wetlands are on the property. The citizens group, Friends of the Anclote, has asked Wal-Mart to agree to allow a third-party wetlands survey. The Southwest Florida Water Management District has given Wal-Mart their permits twice, but the Friends of Anclote say they will challenge the stormwater management permit. “That’s our main concern,” a spokeswoman for the group told The Times. “It’s a river of special significance and state agencies have not taken that to heart.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, July 27 | 0 comments | Permalink
La Puente, CA. Wal-Mart Gone---For Now
Residents in La Puente, California can relax-—for now. The stories about a Wal-Mart supercenter coming to this community of 41,000 people are off the table. La Puente is located 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley. La Puente is predominantly residential. The city has freeway access from the 10 Interstate and 60 Freeway. The City’s name “La Puente” means the bridge in old Spanish and refers to an early bridge built across the San Jose Creek by members of the Portola-Serra expedition in 1769. European settlers arrived by wagon train from New Mexico and obtained title to the large 48,000 acre Rancho La Puente. In the 1930’s, the area was famous for its fruit and walnut groves. Today, the city is characterized as a suburban community, with roughly a 3.5 square mile land area. It was also an area targeted for a new Wal-Mart supercenter. But the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports this week that the giant retailer will not be submitting an application anytime soon. The retailer now says it has shifted its focus away from La Puente to possibly relocating its existing store in Industry, California, or another neighboring community.
A Wal-Mart public relations spokesman said yesterday that the retailer had been looking seriously at La Puente, but was now looking at surrounding cities. Wal-Mart said no firm plans were decided upon yet, but that La Puente had been spared. Wal-Mart had considered becoming the anchor store on an 11.5 acre downtown parcel planned for Hacienda Boulevard in La Puente, according to the City Manager. In typical fashion, however, Wal-Mart left the back door open just a crack. The company told the Valley Tribune that they might still consider another La Puente site in the future.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, July 27 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Shoots Itself in the Gas
Last we checked, Wal-Mart executives were blaming everything but the kitchen sink on high gas prices. Three Oklahoma consumers are claiming that the retailer may have brought those woes upon itself…
Class Action Sought on Fuel Claim [CNBC]
Three Oklahoma County consumers are seeking class-action status on a lawsuit that claims they’ve been overcharged for gasoline because it was stored at hotter than usual temperatures.
The lawsuit claims 13 retailers and oil companies kept gasoline at temperatures higher than the petroleum industry standard of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the fuel to expand and provide less energy per gallon.
“The sellers of hot motor fuel are able to pocket these billions of additional dollars in temperature-inflated profits merely because the fuel they are selling is warmer than 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and customers are ignorant of the truth,” the lawsuit claims.
Defendants in the lawsuit include 7-Eleven Inc., Albertson’s LLC, ConocoPhillips Co., Shell Oil Co., Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, July 26 | 3 comments | Permalink
Hinsdale, NH. Old Wal-Mart Must Be Torn Down
What happens to “old” Wal-Marts when the retailer casts them off? Hundreds of communities have found the answer: not much. According to Wal-Mart Realty, the company aggressively markets these “dark stores,” but Sprawl-Buster’s studies have shown that as many as one third of these vacated stores will remain empty for at least 3 years, and one-third of them are over 100,000 s.f.---making them very hard to retenant. Wal-Mart Realty, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is a real estate company offering development opportunities nationwide. “Lease space is available in vacated buildings ranging in size from less than 10,000 square feet to more than 100,000 square feet,” the company says. “ These vacated buildings, located in proven retail locations, are also available for purchase, and are often fully tenanted. We have outlots and excess property located adjacent to our Supercenters, Wal-Mart stores, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Clubs - prime retail business locations.
These available parcels are perfect for restaurant, retail, office or development uses, and are located in prime commercial locations throughout the country. This week, officials in the small town of Hinsdale, New Hampshire learned that their “old” 105,000 s.f. Wal-Mart discount store most likely will be torn down. Wal-Mart is proposing to build a 198,000 s.f. superstore roughly one mile away. The owner of the mall where the “old” discount stores now sits, told Hinsdale officials yesterday that she is close to signing a lease termination agreement with the company. She also said the building may have to be torn down and replaced with smaller buildings because no other owner could make full use of it. “The most important thing is lease termination, so I can start marketing the property and get other tenants in there,” the owner, Deborah George, told the Brattleboro Reformer. “I think, ultimately, that building is going to have to come down. I don’t think there’s anybody who could fully use the box without leaving half of it vacant.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, July 24 | 0 comments | Permalink
Garden Grove, CA. Residents Oppose Two-Story Wal-Mart
It’s not been an easy stroll through the garden for Wal-Mart in Garden Grove, California. Last night, a crowd estimated at 100 people turned out to whack Wal-Mart’s weeds. A hearing before the city’s Planning Commission was called in response to the retailer’s proposal to build a two-story supercenter on Chapman Avenue. The proposal calls for Wal-Mart to tear down an empty Von’s department store. According to the Orange County Register, only three out of 16 people who testified had anything good to say about the plan. The project’s environmental impact report was issued about a month ago, and concluded that the 173,000 s.f. store would have little impact on the environment or existing merchants. That report was written by consultants hired by Wal-Mart. But the neighbors were not impressed. “We’re going to have trucks going up and down the street all times of day and night,” one neighbor told the Commission. Another resident said she worries about Wal-Mart selling guns and alcohol 24 hours a day, and the effect this would have on crime. As for Wal-Mart’s environmental report, she described it as “a foot-high pile of paper that says ‘everything’s fine. This was a report prepared by a consultant paid by Wal-Mart. What else are they going to say?” Several weeks ago city officials were given a commissioned report by a consultant on the future economic development of the city. One of the recommendations in that report was that the city try to attract ‘sales tax magnets’ like Wal-Mart.
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Posted by Al Norman on Monday, July 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
Is Wal-Mart Really a ‘Green’ Company?
Over the years, Wal-Mart has contributed significantly to the degradation of the environment. Wal-Mart’s massive, cumulative damage to the environment cannot be remedied in a day, a year or even a decade without
an extensive overhaul to its business model. While Wal-Mart has taken some commendable steps forward during the past year by setting goals to reduce food product packaging, sell more energy efficient light bulbs, and improve fuel efficiency in its trucking fleet, the company has a long way to go to reverse the damage it has inflicted and show it is serious about its environmental efforts. As this fact sheet shows, the impact of Wal-Mart’s current environmental initiatives on its overall environmental impact has about the same effect that cleaning one store has on its global maintenance operations.
“The August 2004 (McKinsey) memo obtained by Wal-Mart Watch suggested steps similar to some that Wal-Mart launched in October to counter criticism that the world’s largest retailer has a poor record regarding how it treats workers, the environment and diversity in the workplace.” [Associated Press, 10/31/05]
Understandably, Wal-Mart is defensive about its environmental efforts and quick to claim it cannot and should not be criticized. The fact that these environmental initiatives were recommended by the McKinsey Group in 2004 as a public relations campaign to help Wal-Mart with its image problems should not be ignored, however. Therefore, the company should be held to higher standards and closer scrutiny to ensure it is not simply “green washing” to distract from its larger environmental problems, as well as its health care, discrimination, and other critical worker issues that further blemish its reputation daily. With millions in fines resulting from environmental violations and a tattered environmental history of air pollution, storm water violations, improper
storage of hazardous materials and a host of other environmental problems, Wal-Mart has a long way to go until it can truly be considered a “Green Company.”
Click here to download the fact sheet (PDF)
Click here to read other recent reports.
Posted by Media Team on Monday, July 23 | 41 comments | Permalink
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