Relief for diabetic customers: Check. Diabetic employees? Not so much.
In a press release distributed this morning, Wal-Mart has announced that it is “once again driving unnecessary health care costs out of the system and passing the savings along to its customers through the pharmacy aisles.”
How is it doing it this time? By offering exclusive-to-Wal-Mart diabetes management products for $9 each at all Wal-Mart pharmacies nationwide. That, might I say, is quite excellent actually. I myself don’t have - and don’t have immediate family members who have - diabetes. But I’ve known and worked with people who do, and one thing an individual with diabetes shouldn’t have to worry about is the cost of testing and treatment supplies, which I could imagine can get quite expensive.
No, the problem with this story isn’t in what Wal-Mart is announcing. It is, instead, the way in which Wal-Mart has treated its own employees who have diabetes. Helping the masses might seem a little nicer if the company treated its own diabetic employees with slightly more compassion and understanding.
The gold standard of what I’m talking about is the story of Stephen Orr. Orr worked as a pharmacist at a Nebraska Wal-Mart. Orr has Type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into the energy needed for daily life. As a result, Orr must administer insulin to himself several times each day. For a while, management allowed him to, you know, do the things he needed to do over the course of a day to stay alive...like actually take a lunch break. Eventually though, business and customer traffic forced Wal-Mart - instead of hiring an additional pharmacist - to inform Orr he could no longer take a break to eat and rest. In fact, he was told to eat behind the pharmacy counter if and when store traffic slowed. If you can’t guess what happened, I’ll tell you - Orr’s blood glucose levels dropped severely on multiple occasions, causing him to experience symptoms of hypoglycemia, which can include dizziness or lightheadedness, confusion, difficulty speaking, and feeling anxious or weak. Wal-Mart still refused to accommodate him, and his manager eventually fired him, explicitly telling him it was because of his diabetes.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, September 16 | 0 comments | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: DEBATING THE WAL-MART ISSUE IN TAMPA
Mulhern: Just say no to Walmart in Tampa [WNMF Radio (Fla.)]
A discussion about economic development in East Tampa resulted in a short exchange between City Council members and staff about the value of Walmart in local communities.
East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency manager Ed Johnson was asked by City Councilman Thomas Scott if the big box retailer was still considering building a store in the area.
Councilwoman Mmary Mulhern asked Johnson how much money from the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) was going toward attracting stores like Walmart. She then said she wanted to bring an economist to a council meeting in the future to explain why such stores hurt – and not help – local communities.
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Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
GEORGIA SITE FIGHT: DULUTH RESIDENT DROPS LAWSUIT
Lilburn Wal-Mart debate, lawsuits dropped [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
The debate over Wal-Mart in Duluth is over, and now so are the lawsuits.
Land owner Jack Bandy has dropped two lawsuits challenging how city officials handled actions surrounding his quest to sell 27 acres on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard for a new Wal-Mart store.
Court records don’t indicate why Bandy’s lawyers asked that the lawsuits be dismissed Sept. 5 in such a way that could allow them to refile later, and Bandy’s lawyers did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Thursday.
One lawsuit claimed a temporary zoning moratorium that affected Wal-Mart was illegal. The other involved questions over zoning technicalities requested by Wal-Mart.
In January, the city approved many of the variances the retailer had requested, but by May Wal-Mart had decided to pull out of the deal and not build a store.
Duluth City Attorney Lee Thompson said he learned of the dismissal last week, and believes it fully ended a dispute that months ago was drawing headlines and leaving City Hall packed with residents seething over the proposal.
“There’s nothing pending now,” Thompson said.
Also see: Duluth, GA. Two Lawsuits Dropped, Wal-Mart Officially Dead [Battle-Mart Blog]
Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Duluth, GA. Two Lawsuits Dropped, Wal-Mart Officially Dead
A landowner in Duluth, Georgia appears to have finally pulled the legal plug on his dreams for a Wal-Mart supercenter. On May 3, 2008, Sprawl-Busters updated a story from Duluth, where a bitter battle over a Wal-Mart superstore was finally drawing to an end. Wal-Mart abruptly pulled out of the race, after more than a year of wrangling with local residents. On July 1, 2007, Duluth residents sent Sprawl-Busters the following email: “Wal-Mart has proposed a super store in Duluth, Georgia.
The proposed site is zoned general commercial (C-2) meaning a retail store is an allowed use within this zoning district. Wal-Mart’s engineering company has applied for several variances and the zoning board of appeals meets on 27 June, 2007 to address these variances. We understand the zoning board of appeals does not have the authority to approve or disapprove Wal-Mart locating here---just on the variances. Development plans have not been submitted, according to the Director of the City Planning and Development Department. We are one of about 10 subdivisions in the immediate area of the possible development.”
At the end of July, 2007, the city passed a six month moratorium on retail stores larger than 75,000 s.f. The moratorium affected at least three projects in Duluth, including the Wal-Mart proposal. On January 24, 2008, Jack Bandy, who owns the parcel Wal-Mart wants, had his friend, the former Governor of Georgia, Roy Barnes, file a lawsuit in Gwinnett Superior Court, trying to invalidate the moratorium. Bandy also took his case to the Duluth Zoning Board of Appeals, trying to get that board to overrule the decision of the city’s Planning Director. Wal-Mart applied for a building permit in August for a 176,000 s.f. store, but was turned down by the city’s Planning Director. She cited Duluth’s six-month moratorium on large-scale buildings. The landowner appealed. But the Duluth ZBA backed its Planning Director, and voted unanimously to deny Wal-Mart’s appeal. “I’m not surprised; I’m disappointed,” a Wal-Mart spokesman told the Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time. After the ZBA vote, the City Attorney announced that the zoning board also was being sued by Bandy, who had two legal actions pending against the city. Bandy’s new suit was filed against the Zoning Board of Appeals and each of its members; the city’s new director of planning; and the city of Duluth. It appealed the rulings the zoning board made in October, 2007, when the ZBA agreed with local residents that the city’s Planning Director had exceeded her legal authority when she approved redesigns to Wal-Mart’s planned Supercenter.
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Posted by Al Norman on Friday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART INCHING TOWARDS NICEVILLE
Walmart plans inching in Niceville [Northwest Florida Daily News]
NICEVILLE - Valparaiso Realty has been pursuing development of a major shopping center here for much of this decade, and it finally appears to be making serious progress.
Valparaiso Realty hopes to bring Walmart and The Home Depot to a 45-acre site north of John Sims Parkway on the east side of town, with the stores separated by about 400 feet of wetlands. Negotiations still are under way, although no confirmation has been achieved, according to Valparaiso Realty’s office.
This week, Niceville’s City Council unanimously approved a special request regarding the possible Walmart site. It would allow Valparaiso Realty to provide 4.5 parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of store space instead of 5 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
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Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Niceville, FL. Plans Going Really Nicely For Wal-Mart Supercenter
Once there was a city called Niceville. Niceville, Florida. In 2007, there were 12,370 nice people living in Niceville. When a developer came along and proposed building a nice Wal-Mart supercenter, everything went nice and easy.
Niceville didn’t really need a Wal-Mart supercenter, because there was a nice one only 9 miles away in Destin, Florida, and another one 11 miles away in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. But a company called Valparaiso Realty thought it would be nice to make lots of money by putting up a supercenter in Niceville, and according to the Northwest Florida Daily News, after several years of delay, it looks like the supercenter is “making serious progress.” The new store would be located on the east side of the city on a 45 acre site, with a nice Home Depot proposed as its neighbor. The two stores would be separated by about 400 feet of wetlands.
This week, Niceville’s City Council voted unanimously to give Wal-Mart a special deal on the property. Wal-Mart will be able to have only 4.5 parking spaces per 1,000 s.f. of store, compared to the normal Niceville ratio of 5 spaces per 1,000 s.f. The city manager said that will allow Wal-Mart to build wider sidewalks, which is nice. The overall plan was also unanimously approved. “Basically we’re very pleased with the unanimous decision,” a spokeswoman for the developer told the newspaper. “We’re still in the process of finalizing the site plan.”
Now all Wal-Mart has to do is pay a visit to the Niceville Buildling Inspector to pick up their building permit. The City Manager did admit that the traffic on John Sims Parkway might not be so nice after these two big box stores, and the outparcels are developed. But Niceville has the traffic problem figured out. There’s going to be a wide service road running parallel to John Sims Parkway, plus a sidewalk and a bike path, part of a 100 foot wide easement between the Parkway and the service road. “That will take a lot of pressure off the traffic situation,” said the City Manager. Which would be really nice.
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Posted by Al Norman on Thursday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
FLORIDA SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART DESPERATE TO GET IN TO LYNN HAVEN
Wal-Mart gets land at a very high price [Panama City News Herald (Fla.)]
Wal-Mart is technically a buyer in the current “buyer’s market,” but the retail giant paid 15 to 20 times the market value of two parcels to build a new Supercenter in Lynn Haven.
Courthouse records show the deed from property owners James Maulden, Gary Seymour and Clayton and Elizabeth Syfrett to Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, was signed on Aug. 26 and recorded on Sept. 3. An 8-acre parcel assessed at $133,042 by the Bay County property appraiser sold for $2 million, or $250,000 per acre. About half the property was wetlands, but since has been filled in.
The larger, abutting 30-acre tract (owned just by Maulden and Seymour) was assessed at $574,490 and sold for $12 million, or $400,000 per acre.
Neither the Realtor for the site nor a Wal-Mart spokesperson could be reached for comment about the deal on Monday. However, Chief Deputy Property Appraiser Russ Mathis said he was not entirely shocked by the price tag.
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Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, September 09 | 0 comments | Permalink
NORTH CAROLINA SITE FIGHT: VOTE TABLED IN CHEROKEE
Cherokee Wal-Mart vote tabled [Asheville Citizen-Times (N.C.)]
CHEROKEE – Tribal Council postponed a vote Thursday to have Principal Chief Michell Hicks sign a lease with Wal-Mart for a Supercenter on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
Council members had questions about the agreement with the company that will have to be discussed in a closed session because of a confidentially clause in the lease agreement.
Plans call for the Wal-Mart to be built near the Cherokee Indian Hospital. It would be the fourth Supercenter in the state west of Asheville.
The agreement would mean the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians would own the Supercenter building and lease it to Wal-Mart for 25 years.
Tribal officials also expect to negotiate agreements on what the building will look like and how the company will operate it.
Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 05 | 0 comments | Permalink
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