New Wal-Mart in the Works in Miami, FL?
PAC May Have A New Neighbor: Wal-Mart [CBS-4 (Fla.)]
The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is the touted crown jewel of downtown Miami’s redevelopment plan but now there is concern that crown jewel may be tarnished a bit by the possibility that a Wal-Mart store would be built near it and right next to the Miami Herald building.Indiana developer Mark Siffin wants a Wal-Mart discount store to anchor his proposed 5-story retail complex called City Square. It would include more than 25 tenants, including restaurants.
The news has generated mixed feelings in the business and political community.
“The question is: Do you want to put a Wal-Mart next to a one billion dollar project, and your answer, probably not?” Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff told CBS4’S Michael Williams.
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Posted by Tony Calero on Thursday, July 03 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Has Its Lawyers Working Overtime
Well, at least someone is getting paid.
Another day, another wage/hour class action is awarded judgment against Wal-Mart. This time it comes to us from Minnesota, where Dakota County District Court Judge Robert King Jr. ruled Monday that Wal-Mart broke Minnesota labor law more than two thousand million times over a six-year period by forcing employees to work without breaks and without full pay.
That is, in fact, not a typo. Two million times.
Judge King ruled that, in addition to penalties, Wal-Mart owes workers at least $6 million in back wages. In addition to penalties, you say? Ahhhhh, penalties...this is where it could get expensive for Wal-Mart, a company which, as the Northwest Arkansas Morning News reported last week, is already facing a whole plethora of legal woes. The violations at issue here carry a penalty of up to $1,000 each, which could be pretty pricey when you have two million of the darn things. According to Bloomberg’s math, which I am hardly in a position to disagree with, that puts the ceiling up around $2 billion. It probably won’t get that high, but it will be high, nonetheless...all I’m saying is, don’t be surprised if the next time you’re in Wal-Mart, a brand new copy of Guitar Hero costs...ummmmm...a million dollars?
A jury is expected to decide the amount of punitive damages and penalties in October, according to the judge’s order. And that could drive the amount Wal- Mart pays to hundreds of millions of dollars, said lawyer Frank Azar, whose Colorado firm was involved in the case and began fighting Wal-Mart in the 1990s.
Wal-Mart Faces $2 Billion Labor Law Trial, Judge Says [Bloomberg]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. broke Minnesota labor laws, a state judge ruled, handing the world’s largest retailer its third-straight defeat in a wage-class action trial and the possibility a jury may order it to pay $2 billion.
The company required hourly employees to work off-the-clock during training and denied full rest or meal breaks in violation of state wage and hour laws, Hastings, Minnesota, District Judge Robert King Jr. held today following a non-jury trial. King ruled Wal-Mart broke labor laws more than 2 million times and ordered the company to give employees $6.5 million in back-pay.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, July 01 | 48 comments | Permalink
LOOKING AT WHAT’S BEST FOR ABINGDON, VA
Two SW Virginia Towns Have Different Views Of Wal-Mart [Bristol Herald Courier (Va.)]
Sixty miles away in Abingdon, Wal-Mart is the devil to many. Here, Wal-Mart is considered the savior.
“We’re anxiously waiting for Wal-Mart to get started here,” Grundy Mayor Roger Powers said. “I think the entire community is very excited about them coming.”
After flooding of the Levisa River – most notably in 1977 – washed away most of Grundy’s commerce, the town has undergone a state and federally funded flood-control project that means a clean slate.
A 13-acre piece of flat land that was once a mountainside will be the site of a new downtown.
After seven years of blasting and building, the town is on the verge of being officially flood-proof, and most of the commercial buildings that haven’t already been demolished will be soon.
For the creation of 21st-century Grundy, town officials are banking on the world’s largest retailer.“[With Wal-Mart] Grundy will once again be a vibrant retail center like it was prior to the ’77 flood,” Powers said. “Look at Claypool Hill and Bluefield, Va. – Bluefield, Va., was really dead, and now even their old downtown is really vibrant. Something attracted the people, and Wal-Mart brings a lot of people.”
A poster kept at Town Hall – now an office in an industrial shopping strip on U.S. Highway 460 – shows a centrally located Wal-Mart shopping center planned for the top of a two-story parking deck in the new town center, with other retail, residential and office space.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, June 30 | 0 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART WANTS TO FILL IN MORE WETLANDS IN TARPON SPRINGS, FL
Wal-Mart seeks new permit [St. Petersburg Times (Fla.)]
So, what’s Wal-Mart’s next move?
By all indications, it’s full speed ahead.
Company officials confirmed Thursday they’re moving forward with plans to build a Supercenter on the Anclote River.
“This is a site we continue to work on. There’s no change in its status,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Quenta Vettel.
Earlier this year, it appeared Wal-Mart had hit another roadblock in its four-year battle to build the store, when the city’s Board of Adjustment ruled that changes to the company’s site plan constituted major modifications. That meant Wal-Mart would have to go through more public hearings to gain approval.
Now, it looks like that’s exactly what the company is prepared to do.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27 | 0 comments | Permalink
WAL-MART SCALES BACK IN CORDOVA, TN
Wal-Mart plans prototype store at Cordova site [Memphis Business Journal (Tenn.)]
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is proposing to bring its newly branded store design to Cordova, potentially the first location for the mega-retailer’s new Supercenter prototype in Tennessee and one of a handful in the country. A new corporate logo will be featured on the facade of the proposed store at Macon and Houston Levee.
The new site plan for the Wal-Mart Supercenter will be presented to the Shelby County Land Use Control Board July 10. It was withdrawn from consideration earlier this year. The store has drawn opposition from neighbors and concerns from the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development.
Now, Wal-Mart planners have reduced the footprint of the store from 267,000 square feet to 151,908 square feet, according to a June 12 application submitted to the Office of Planning and Development. The 26.53-acre site includes five outparcels in addition to the superstore and 765 parking spaces, down from more than 1,000 proposed in late 2007.
The design of the store is a new prototype for the world’s largest retailer. So far, the prototype has been submitted to a handful of municipalities around the country, and the proposed Cordova store could become one of the first in the nation to don the new “look and feel,” says Dennis Alpert, senior manager of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart in Tennessee.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 27 | 0 comments | Permalink
BIG-BOX REGULATION PASSED IN BEAUFORT, SC
Beaufort preliminarily passes big-box regulation [Beaufort Gazette (S.C.)]
Stores that comprise 70,000 square feet or more would not be allowed in Beaufort except on two major highways under an ordinance preliminarily approved by the City Council on Tuesday.
The ordinance, approved 5-0, would confine large retailers to S.C. 170 and S.C. 280. It would also prevent large retailers from occupying marshfront or waterfront property and require a 50-foot setback from all streets.
The ordinance must be approved once more by the council to take effect. The council meets again July 15.
The regulation passed with little discussion. Proponents argue that S.C. 170 and S.C. 280 are the best places for so-called “big-box” stores because they have the infrastructure—particularly roads. S.C. 170 and S.C. 280 can handle large amounts of traffic while providing safe entrances and exits for parking lots, Mayor Bill Rauch said.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Wednesday, June 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart’s Legal Troubles Grab The Spotlight
The Northwest Arkansas Morning News released over the weekend a Kim Morrison piece on some of the largest legal cases currently pending against Wal-Mart, and most of the findings really shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point. There is, of course, the Dukes gender discrimination suit, and the multitude of wage and hour cases pending - the full extent of which you can also see here, on Wal-Mart’s SEC filing. The two largest wage/hour cases to date - Savaglio and Braun/Hummel - have resulted in combined judgments of over $350 million against Wal-Mart, although the cases are currently in the appeals stages, so Wal-Mart has yet to pay a cent.
What you might find really interesting in the story is the way a company the size of Wal-Mart plans ahead for the day it will have to make a possible million billion-dollar payout:
“It’s not like they wouldn’t be able to pay the light bill if they had a billion dollar settlement,” said Patricia Edwards, fund manager with San Francisco-based Wentworth, Hauser and Violic. “It wouldn’t be good, don’t get me wrong. But the low point in cash last year at quarter end was just short of $5 billion.”
Edwards said Wal-Mart reserves cash for potential future lawsuit payouts so there would be a reduced impact on shareholders in the event of such a case. With Wal-Mart’s ability to absorb some of the impact, a billion dollar payout may show up in earnings as a loss of 5 cents per share, Edwards said.
Well that is certainly good to know, that Wal-Mart - instead of making sure its female employees are treated equally, and ALL of its employees are provided adequate breaks and paid for the overtime they work - has socked plenty of money away underneath its $150 bargain mattresses to pay for its legal shortcomings.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Monday, June 23 | 2 comments | Permalink
VICTORY IN PORT ORANGE, FL
Wal-Mart changes its mind [Daytona News-Journal (Fla.)]
It won’t be super or smaller. Wal-Mart has decided not to build a store at Nova Road and Madeline Avenue, a company official said.
“The land will be put on the market,” said Quenta Vettel, a company spokeswoman who handles government relations in Central Florida.
It would have been the second Wal-Mart store in Port Orange.
The decision is part of a nationwide effort to reduce capital spending for fiscal 2009 amid a slowing U.S. economy, Vettel said.
Several stores planned in the Orlando, Tampa and other central Florida markets also have been cancelled.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, June 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
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