MORE ON VICTORY IN AUSTIN, TX
Wal-Mart plans to cut the size of its controversial store at Northcross Mall almost in half.
The retail giant already had city approval to build a 192,000-square-foot store on the site at Burnet Road and Anderson Lane. But now Wal-Mart says it will reduce the store’s footprint to 99,000 square feet as part of a nationwide reevaluation of its new stores.
The planned store will now be just one story instead of two and will have surface parking in lieu of a garage. Groceries will remain part of the merchandise mix but a garden center and auto shop will be eliminated in the new plan, a spokesperson says. The design aesthetic of the building will remain largely intact. Construction has not yet begun on the store since developer Lincoln Property Co. has been concentrating its attention on another portion of the site.
Since the plan was unveiled in late 2006, Lincoln Property Co., the group redeveloping the aging mall, and Wal-Mart have drawn fire from area residents who said the store would create tremendous traffic problems in the area among other issues. Several lawsuits were filed but none was successful in stopping the development.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Wednesday, June 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
ANOTHER HEARING IN CORPUS CHRISTI, TX
Parkdale Wal-Mart hearing is set [Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Texas)]
A hearing on a lawsuit that has delayed Wal-Mart’s plan for a Supercenter at Parkdale Plaza is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the 148th District Court.
Clarifications on the lease agreement between Parkdale Plaza’s owners and Sutherlands are sought in the lawsuit. The Supercenter was supposed to have a grand opening early this year.
Sutherlands officials have said their lease prevents the landlord from allowing another prospective tenant to be “permitted to sell building materials and/or home improvement supplies and services.”
Sutherlands attorney Jim Robichaux of Corpus Christi could not be reached for comment Monday. Previously he said the lease needs to be clearly defined and Wal-Mart needs to show its proposed business model and how that would not affect Sutherlands’ business and lease.
Van Huseman, an attorney representing the Parkdale Plaza owners, said the hearing was procedural and would determine who would get depositions first and other information related to the lawsuit. The trial date has not been set, he said.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, June 24 | 0 comments | Permalink
Austin, TX. Wal-Mart Cuts In Superstore In Half
Two words out of Austin, Texas this week: “We won!” Citizen pressure and legal delays have prodded Wal-Mart to cut a proposed supercenter in half.
On December 24, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that residents in Austin, Texas were in combat with a proposed Wal-Mart superstore planned for the existing Northcross Mall. The retailer’s plan attracted not one, but two lawsuits. Public pressure against the superstore forced the developer to come back in with a “smaller” plan---but not quite small enough to please opponents. Wal-Mart offered to cut the store in the Northcross Mall by 15%---from 219,000 s.f. to 186,500 s.f. But the city approved Wal-Mart’s plan, settling on a 198,000 s.f. footprint.
The citizens group that had been fighting this project, vowed to take their case to court. Responsible Growth For Northcross (R4GN) filed their lawsuit in district court to stop the North Austin Wal-Mart proposal. A second lawsuit was also filed by a group called the Allendale Neighborhood Association (ANA). The District court threw out the ANA lawsuit, which said the city of Austin should have held public hearings before approving the developer’s site plan. The judge ruled that the City was not obligated to hold a public hearing in the approval process for the developer’s site plan at Northcross. But the RG4N lawsuit still stood in the way of Wal-Mart and its supercenter. “We remain confident that we have a winning case,” RG4N said when the ANA lawsuit was thrown out. The two citizen’s groups have already forced Wal-Mart to accept several compromises they would not have otherwise met. The company shrunk its store size to 198,000 s.f. They also were forced to abandon a 24-hour store format, and they agreed not to allow delivery trucks to run along residential streets. The city of Austin also adopted a Big Box ordinance limiting development---a law that will impact all future superstore developments. But RG4N wants to keep this Wal-Mart out.
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, June 24 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Unexpectedly Closes 15 More In-Store Clinics
Fifteen in-store Wal-Mart clinics unexpectedly shut down in Colorado on Friday, raising yet more questions about the hotly-debated facilities. The clinics were run by SmartCare, an independent clinic operator, and located in Wal-Mart stores across the state of Colorado. Neither Wal-Mart nor SmartCare gave reason for the unexpected closures.
This isn’t the first time Wal-Mart clinics have closed suddenly. In January, Wal-Mart clinic operator CheckUps shuttered all 23 of its Wal-Mart locations almost overnight. The company disappeared so quickly many of its staff were left unpaid. Amidst these troubles, Wal-Mart has also tried to open clinics under its own name, but with little success. The clinics - to be run by staff from Arkansas’ St. Vincent’s hospital - were slated to open in April 2008, but have yet to do so.
The sudden closings do little to allay consumers’ worries about the clinics. The Illinois State Medical Society expressed concerns in May, 2007, that the clinics are unregulated and unlicensed. Others raise issues with the clinic operators’ lack of experience in the medical field. The recent closings only serve to enhance the clinics’ “fly-by-night” reputation.
Making health care more accessible is important, but the quality of that health care is critical. As Wal-Mart expands its health care offerings and does more to keep employee health care expenses in-house, will doing things on-the-cheap really cut it?
SmartCare closes 15 Wal-Mart med clinics [Rocky Mountain News]
SmartCare Family Medical Centers on Friday unexpectedly shut its 15 in-store health clinics located in Wal-Mart stores throughout Colorado.
Wal-Mart had no prior notice, company spokesman William Wertz said.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, June 23 | 36 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
WAL-MART LOOKS TO SELL LAND IN KINGMAN, AZ
Rezone allows Wal-Mart to sell small parcel [Kingman Daily Parcel (Ariz.)]
Wal-Mart has been granted a rezone that will allow the mega retailer to sell the 0.72-acre parcel between its superstore and the Smith’s on Stockton Hill Road, but the issue did not satisfy all officials who voted on it Monday.
Councilman Ray Lyons opposed the request because, he said, he did not agree with a Wal-Mart representative who said a new business there would be beneficial to the community.
“Personally, I’d like it if they left it the way it is,” Lyons said. “It’s a little oasis in a sea of blacktop.” Asphalt is hot, and his rationale for casting the only vote against the rezone was on the basis that it made the area cooler. He suggested planting a few trees on the lot instead.
Sean Lake of Pew & Lake PLC, the realty firm representing Wal-Mart, argued that the rezone and sale would be beneficial to Kingman because it would generate sales tax revenue for the city. He noted that the request conformed to the General Plan, the city’s land use map, and is consistent with surrounding property uses.
That was just his opinion, however, and he said he respected other views.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya on Friday, June 20 | 0 comments | Permalink
Legal Blog: Anita Loya Needed A Lawyer
Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of it workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.
Just as important as those large class actions, however, are the countless suits filed by individual plaintiffs – the tiny David trying to win justice over Wal-Mart’s Goliath. We at Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.
Anita Loya (And yes, that is her real name…)
Ms. Loya was an employee at the Wal-Mart store in Deming, a small city in the southwest corner of New Mexico about sixty miles west of Las Cruces. In January of 2006, Loya filed a complaint against her store manager, Les Williams, claiming she had been discriminated against and sexually harassed. Amazingly enough she was not fired, and in fact Wal-Mart did indeed investigate her allegations. Meanwhile, Loya transferred in May to a Wal-Mart store up in Silver City while the investigation was ongoing. The parties entered into mediation in June 2006, but that tactic failed, and soon after Les Williams was officially the ex Store Manager at the Deming Wal-Mart.
That, you would think, would be the end of our tale. The victim was at a new store. The guilty party, following investigation, had been terminated. Done? Finito? End of story?? Unfortunately, not so much.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Friday, June 20 | 75 comments | Permalink
NMHC’s Walkable Communities Toolkit
Urban planning is a major part of building sustainable communities, and a new toolkit from National Multi Housing Coalition (NMHC) will help planners and residents work together to create walkable communities. As NMHC president Doug Bibby explains, “In many communities, sprawling suburban style development has been the rule for so long that their leaders don’t know the best way to create walkable, human-scale neighborhoods.” The toolkit offers case studies, policy tips and guidelines for those interested in planning walkable communities.
Wal-Mart is a huge part of this. As we’ve said before on this blog, the retailer depends on urban sprawl in a number of ways, and walkable communities are a huge threat to its business model. They’re also one of the most sustainable ways to build, something which Wal-Mart rarely acknowledges in its green messaging. NMHC has a ton more info - and links to other reports - on their website.
Demand for walkable, compact development is at an all-time high thanks to rising fuel costs, changing lifestyles and pressure to manage growth. To help communities across the country meet this demand, the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) and the Urban Land Institute have partnered to produce a new toolkit publication, Getting Density Right: Tools for Creating Vibrant Compact Development.
“Just five years ago, ‘density’ was a four-letter word,” said NMHC President Doug Bibby. “Now, though, consumers are embracing more urban lifestyles—from walkable villages to full-fledged city living. And local officials, under pressure to manage growth, are eager to deliver the compact development people are clamoring for.”
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Posted by Enviro. Team on Monday, June 16 | 0 comments | Permalink
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