Weekly Update for Elected Officials: Oct. 10, 2008
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue focuses on Wal-Mart and the current economic crisis. You’ll find stories on how Americans are shifting to thrift stores in order to save money, and whether September’s retail sales figures reflect a downturn in consumer spending. You’ll also find an article from CNN Money discussing whether the state of the economy will affect Wal-Mart’s hiring, especially with the holiday season coming up.
In addition to the economy, you’ll find stories on Wal-Mart’s move to small stores. Are Wal-Mart’s Marketside Stores the wave of the future? And in health care news, Wal-Mart is rolling out electronic personal health records to all of its employees, and has announced changes to its health plan for 2009.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [October 10, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, October 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Weekly Update for Elected Officials: Sept. 24, 2008
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins with reports of price gouging on the part of Wal-Mart. What’s truly abhorrent about these reports, however, is that they are being made by the very people affected most by the recent cavalcade of hurricanes to batter the Gulf coast. The Arkansas News Bureau and The Consumerist have more on these stories.
You’ll also find major news on the legal front. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed its second lawsuit against Wal-Mart in less than three weeks. The first involves the Americans with Disabilities Act in Illinois; the second involves age discrimination against a 67-year-old optician in Missouri. In addition to the EEOC lawsuits, Wal-Mart will now have to face another class action wage/hour lawsuit. Salvas v. Wal-Mart was originally certified as a class action back in 2004. Since then the case has gone back and forth through the Massachusetts court system, eventually being decertified and winding up in front of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on appeal. Well, the SJC released its opinion this week, ruling that the decertification was improper and that the lawsuit should be reinstated as a class action. A trial is possible, which could cost Wal-Mart hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid wages and damages. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald have the story.
Also check out the Product and Food Safety Report, where you’ll find stories on BPA (and a class action lawsuit regarding the chemical that includes Wal-Mart), dangerous soccer goals and baby cribs sold at Wal-Mart, and a pet food recall involving Purina products sold at the retailer.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [September 24, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, September 24 | 2 comments | Permalink
COLORADO SIGHT FIGHT: SAYING “NO” TOGETHER TO BIG BOX STORES
Saying No To Big Box Retailers [KRDO (Colo.)]
COLORADO SPRINGS - The Soaring Eagles Community on the southeast side of Colorado Springs is preparing for a David versus Goliath fight. A big box retailer is planning on building a new store at the corner of Powers and Hancock, but who that retailer is, no one is saying.
“I built my whole home with windows so I can see the mountains,” says Evelyn Campbell. She is just one of the 100 homeowners whose views and lifestyle are in jeopardy if the retailer center is built. “I have a 180 degree view of the whole city, now I will have a parking lot or maybe a back of a building and semi-trucks.”
This isn’t the first time the community has challenged big box retailers. Back in 2005, they took on the biggest one, Wal-Mart, and won. Just like last time, they are claiming the development would bring crime, added traffic and devalue their homes. “I just think of the noise and congestion and this will affect our kids in a big way, “ says Campbell.
She points out the elementary school and neighborhood park less than three-tenths of a mile away.
Many of the homeowners aren’t opposed to developing the 25-acre piece of land; they just don’t want a big box retailer. “I would love to see restaurants here, they’re quite away on Powers before you hit a restaurant, there’s a lot of things that would benefit our community not take it away,” says Penny Dokken.
She and others have been working with the developer, even giving them a list of businesses they would like to see build in their neighborhood. “We would like to see community friendly businesses, maybe a Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble… I would love a Starbucks or Target, something that does draw as much traffic as a big box,” says Dokken.
There is a community meeting planned for Tuesday at Soaring Eagles Elementary starting at 6 p.m.
NEWSCHANNEL 13 did contact the City Planning Office and the Real Estate Broker for the vacant lot, but neither got back to us in time for this article.
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, September 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
UTAH SITE FIGHT: EMOTIONS HIGH IN SALT LAKE CITY
Letter: Artificially progressive [Salt Lake Tribune]
Rebecca Walsh’s column about the proposed east bench Wal-Mart was smug and dishonest, but reflective of artificial political “progressiveness” arguments (“Wal-Mart is simply inevitable,” Tribune, Sept. 16).
Patronizing Wal-Mart does not identify a person with an economic or social class. If Walsh’s visits there made her feel inadequate or compromised, perhaps she needs a good therapist to discuss personal insecurity or ego issues. It is a misperception to believe that shopping at Wal-Mart is politically incorrect or beneath one’s self. This idea sets a foundation for other wrong ideas, such as class division and bigotry.
Globalization and “homogenization of the American marketplace” strengthen our country as exports and imports are traded around the clock. Those who disagree should remember this was an integral part of their argument for a “one world economy” as far back as the early 1980s. Consumers like Walsh who cry about the demise of “Mom and Pop” stores in phony nostalgia never honestly supported them in the first place.
Wal-Mart on the east bench should be applauded. I’ll bet Walsh will be in line on opening day - behind dark glasses, of course, and paying cash.
Mark Edwards
Salt Lake City
Posted by Luke West on Tuesday, September 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Accused of Gouging More Prices for Hurricane Victims
News broke last week that Wal-Mart raised gasoline prices at its stores in Texas just before Hurricane Ike hit the area. Consumers in the area didn’t fail to notice, despite the coming storm. Texas state law protects against price gouging, especially during a disaster or emergency.
Now, news from Arkansas tells that the Attorney General there will subpoena “30 gasoline retailers” as part of an investigation into gas price hikes around the time of Hurricane Ike. Though the article doesn’t list the gas retailers in question, we assume it includes Wal-Mart, which has several dozen gas stations in the state. From the news brief on the Arkansas News Bureau’s website:
Arkansas law prohibits businesses from raising prices for motor fuel, food and certain other products by more than 10 percent within 30 days of a declaration of emergency. Violators can be fined up to $10,000 for each transaction in which a customer is overcharged. Fuel prices in Arkansas rose dramatically over a three-day period during the storm’s mainland trek.
Consumerist also brings news of price gouging, but in a different place and on different items. A company insider in Kentucky explains the price of pre-charged cell phone batteries shot up to $19 a piece - almost doubling in cost, in some cases - in the days preceding the hurricane. When power was knocked out to parts of the state, the store sold out of batteries despite the higher price. From Consumerist:
Now today all of our car chargers go up nearly 50%. In fact, every charger, car or wall, in our store is a flat $19.00, when car chargers were $10.00 and wall chargers were $15.00 yesterday. This is hardly a coincidence, and it’s so blatently obvious to our customers. I can’t believe Walmart would do something so totally against their own mantra of Save Money, Live Better. This is more like “Raise Prices, Screw Suffering Customers!”
Price gouging disaster victims is exploitative and potentially illegal - but also destroys the good publicity Wal-Mart frequently seeks after natural disasters. The company holds high profile donation events and invites professional photographers, but clearly isn’t committed to helping disaster victims when there’s no PR benefit for the company.
For those of you who have visited a Wal-Mart store before or after a disaster or emergency, have you noticed higher prices on essentials?
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 22 | 10 comments | Permalink
UTAH SITE FIGHT: DISCUSSION CONTINUES IN SALT LAKE CITY
Wrong on Wal-Mart [Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)]
Wal-Mart has muscled its way into community after community, leaving the remains of locally owned businesses in its wake. So it comes as a shock to me that I actually support Wal-Mart’s proposal to build a new store on Parley’s Way. I’m at a loss as to why the Salt Lake City Planning Commission would rather see a remodel of the old structure rather than a new energy-efficient building ("Rezoning request on track for denial,” Tribune, Sept. 12). After all, the mega-retailer is coming. Traffic is coming. Why not improve the project? It’s not like the current building is an example of rare architecture deserving historical protected status, or that the present site is a beacon of modern city planning.
In a last-minute effort to use a Kmart gift card, I made a rare trip to the site, and thought: “This Kmart is the only place that can make Wal-Mart look classy.”
Bert Ankrom
Salt Lake City
Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 18 | 0 comments | Permalink
ARIZONA SITE FIGHT: MEETING POSTPONED
Wal-Mart meeting postponed until Nov. 5 [Arizona Republic]
A shopping center zoning case that mobilized south Chandler neighbors against Wal-Mart will be postponed until Nov. 5, but the developer has already posted new signs on the property promoting the land as potential industrial site.
Diversified Partners’ request to zone 30 acres at Arizona Avenue and Riggs Road for a shopping center was supposed to have gone to the Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday, but on Monday the developer’s attorney requested a delay so he can continue working with residents, said planner Jodie Novak.
Kirk Sibley, leader of Riggs Residents for Retail Diversity, said the group met with Diversified’s attorney, David Cisiewski, last weekend and described the session as “productive.” Although Diversified has not named an anchor tenant for the project, residents have said they oppose it because it appears to be designed for Wal-Mart.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Luke West on Wednesday, September 17 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update For Elected Officials 9/16/2008
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins with reports from two states that Wal-Mart is undercutting high school activity and athletic fundraising by selling merchandise bearing the logos of local high schools. In both cases, the schools in question were never contacted by Wal-Mart about whether sales of the items would hurt the school’s efforts to raise funds.
In addition, you’ll find Time and The New York Times delving into the topic of Wal-Mart moms, and the role they’ll play in the November election. Plus, check out our section on Wal-Mart and the environment to find out more about the unethical behavior of Wal-Mart’s sustainable mining supplier, and from California read about how the retail giant fought (unsuccessfully) a port-truck plan that would require tougher environmental and security standards.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials
Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, September 16 | 5 comments | Permalink
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