Yucca Valley, CA. We Don’t Need Another Wal-Mart
Reader’s letter: We don’t need another Wal-Mart [Hi-Desert Star (Calif.)]
In response to Karen Perry’s article on Aug. 22, she is right, we don’t need a Wal-Mart in this area. I don’t know why the city powers to be did not put it up to a vote of the people in the area like other cities did. Except for more money coming into the town. I know several people that do not want a Super Wal-Mart. We don’t need another grocery store, 16-bay service station and another bank. The Wal-Mart that we have is just fine. We don’t need this type of store taking over the whole town and putting other businesses out of business.
What we do need is more good restaurants, a Trader Joe’s, Target and maybe a Costco.
I was in the new Super Wal-Mart down in Rancho Mirage the other day to just see what it was like, and it was awful, way too big and things all over the floors. I could not find a thing I wanted or a sales clerk. The whole store was a mess. I swore that I would never go back into another Super Wal-Mart. I don’t like Wal-Mart the way they used the employees at such low wages. As it is I would keep going down the hill to do my shopping, I make fun day out of it.
Penny Wright
Yucca Valley
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Re-Uses Flawed Reporting Methods
In a report released today (PDF), Wal-Mart claimed that it saves families $2,500 a year. Citing generic drugs and in-store banking centers, the new report sings the “low prices” gospel, but it fails to take into account the hidden costs of having a Wal-Mart in town: higher taxes, lower average wages, and fewer local businesses.
In June of 2006, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report attacking the flawed methodology Global Insight used to calculate customers’ supposed savings. It is the very same methodology Global Insight used again in this year’s study. The “research” glosses over a whole host of problems the company creates, not to mention the fact that Global Insight - far from independent - was comissioned by Wal-Mart to conduct this study. Legitimate, independent reports not commissioned by Wal-Mart show that when the company comes to town, poverty levels go up, wages go down and small businesses go away.
From the report:
- A widely quoted figure from a study by the consulting firm Global Insight (GI) indicates that Wal-Mart’s expansion has resulted in $263 billion in savings to U.S. consumers. We find this to be implausible. The statistical analysis generating this highly influential result fails the most rudimentary sensitivity checks.
- A robust set of research findings shows that Wal-Mart’s entry into local labor markets reduces the pay of workers in competing stores. This effect is greatest in the South, where Wal-Mart expansion has been greatest.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 31 comments | Permalink
Ontario, CA. Wal-Mart Puts Lipstick On A Pig
On January 20, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that residents in Ontario, California were organizing to fight a Home Depot project. Now they’ve got a second big box store wanting to get in. Ontario calls itself the “gateway to Southern California.” The city is located 35 miles east of Los Angeles, and has a population of roughly 173,000 people. Ontario says it has been one of southern California’s fastest-growing areas over the past 25 years. The city boasts that it has “superior convenience” within Southern California which “enables local businesses to capture taxable sales from residents of surrounding communities.” Ontario even has an official song, “Beautiful Ontario.” The resident customer base within a 10 mile radius is more than 800,000 people. The per capita taxable sales of $30,336 is the largest of the region’s cities of over 100,000 residents. So the city has been heavily retailed already.
According to the Daily Bulletin newspaper, residents of northwest Ontario have organized to do battle with a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter at Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street. The project was approved by the Ontario Planning Commission on August 30th. But several days ago, a group called the Ontario Mountain Village Association, together with resident John Logue, filed an appeal to overturn the Planning Board vote at the city council. The group is represented by Attorney Cory Briggs of San Diego. The appeal charges that Wal-Mart’s environmental impact report did not adequately describe the project and all of its environmental impacts, and was based on outdated or incorrect information and lacked sufficient evidence. The residents claim that the city did not come up with sufficient “findings” to show that the positives outweigh the negatives of the project. The proposal is also inconsistent with the city’s General Plan for land use. The group is challenging the development plan and the granting of a conditional use permit. The appeal also charges that the city has a financial interest in the project and the applicant, therefore any favorable decision would be a conflict of interest. Attorney Briggs has asked for a copy of all city records dealing with the Wal-Mart application. The citizen’s appeal is expected to be heard soon by the city council. “We think the severity of the traffic and air-quality impacts have been understated,” Briggs told the newspaper. “As bad as they were reported in the Environmental Impact Report, we think they’re even worse. They’re still trying to put lipstick on a pig.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Muldoon, AK. Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club Moves Ahead
Plans for Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club in Muldoon approved by city [Anchorage Daily News]
Love it or hate it, Wal-Mart now has permission to build a new supercenter and a Sam’s Club in Muldoon.
The city planning commission on Monday Oapproved plans for the company to put the stores along DeBarr Road, just west of Fred Meyer. Construction is expected to begin next year.
The decision wasn’t easy, considering neighbors’ worries about the size of project, said commissioner Nancy Pease.
Pease added a requirement that Wal-Mart include more landscaping in the store parking lots. Still, she said, the design is a step in the right direction for big retail development in the city.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Albany, OR. Speculations of Wal-Mart at Shopping Center
Will Albany shopping center have a Wal-Mart? [Albany Democrat-Herald]
Albany planning officials are getting ready to handle a site plan application for a major shopping center east of Interstate 5.
There is speculation that the center will be anchored by a Wal-Mart store because SmartCentres, the Canadian firm proposing the development, has worked mostly with that company.
Wal-Mart tops the list of U.S.-based companies SmartCentres names on its website as its tenant partners.
SmartCentres had a pre-application meeting last Wednesday with city planners about its plans for 25 acres on the southwest corner of Santiam Highway and Goldfish Farm Road.
Part of the site was known as the Ropp property when the city council rezoned it from residential to regional commercial use in 2006.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Red Bluff, CA. Wal-Mart Moves Ahead
Red Bluff Wal-Mart Supercenter ‘on track’ [Red Bluff (Calif.) Daily News]
It’s getting close to a year since Wal-Mart won a hard-fought campaign to get approval of a supercenter in Red Bluff. To date, not a shovelful of dirt has been turned.
That could change any month, but just when remains speculation as the retail giant’s representatives are not willing to set a timetable or even offer the public a ballpark guess.“We are still on track in terms of moving the project forward,” were what appeared to be reassuring words this week from Kevin Loscotoff, regional manager for Wal-Mart public affairs in San Francisco.
“We are still working on our construction plans,” he said. “We do not have a set date.”
Loscotoff said Wal-Mart also had some concerns about litigation still pending against it regarding the new supercenter that will be constructed on Luther Road just behind the existing store. Suit was filed last December by some of a small group of activists who had actively opposed approval of the new store.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Ontario, CA. Residents Appeal Supercenter Decision
Appeal filed to stop Wal-Mart [San Bernadino County Sun]
There was little shock Friday afternoon when city officials learned the Planning Commission’s Aug. 30 decision to allow a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the city had been appealed.
“I heard it was delivered,” Mayor Paul Leon said of the appeal. “And the Mountain Village Association is within their rights.”
After about six hours of public comments - and years of vocal opposition by segments of the community - the commission approved a Supercenter at Fifth Street and Mountain Avenue.
The appeal was filed by San Diego-based Briggs Law Corporation, which is led by attorney Cory Briggs.
Briggs - whose aunt and uncle Kathy and Richard Briggs of Ontario launched www.stopwalmartontario.com - is no rookie at going head to head with the corporate giant.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
Oregon State Land Use Board Sends Case Back to Medford
State sends Wal-Mart case back to Medford [Mail Tribune (Ore.)]
A state land use appeals decision issued Friday is a big win for a group opposing a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in south Medford.
Medford’s City Council will hear debate over a Wal-Mart Supercenter traffic study at least once more before a final decision on whether the massive store can be built.
The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) ruled Friday that the city was incorrect in denying a local citizens group the right to participate in proceedings about the store in November 2005. The city attorney denied the group the right to speak during one of the hearings, saying it had lost standing when it failed to file a brief in a 2004 LUBA appeal.
But the board ruled Friday the city must conduct additional proceedings to let the petitioner talk.
A citizens group called Medford Citizens for Responsible Development, led by Talent City Councilwoman Wendy Siporen, has argued the developers of the 207,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter project should have been required to conduct a comprehensive traffic study for the site, which would have made the giant retailer responsible for building any street improvements made necessary by traffic the store would produce. The project is proposed for the former Miles Field site.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, September 10 | 0 comments | Permalink
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