From Jeffrey Goldberg’s blog on The Atlantic: “Reader Steve Jozik writes to bemoan the catastrophe that befell Martinsburg, West Virginia when Wal-Mart came to town:”
“I just stumbled across your article on the Martinsburg, West Virginia Wal-Mart and wanted to give you my perspective. I grew up in Martinsburg from when I was born in 1979 until I graduated high school in 1998. I now live in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and go back home a few times a year to visit friends and family. I never noticed if the Martinsburg Wal-Mart was much better or worse than any other Wal-Mart, but I tend to find them all somewhat depressing (I liken them to a poverty perpetual motion machine).
“I do, however, have a different grudge against that Wal-Mart. The Martinsburg Mall (especially the Wal-Mart) killed downtown Martinsburg. A number of my friends either owned or had family who owned businesses on Queen Street or in the old outlet mall. All of those businesses have been closed since the mall was constructed. Wal-Mart caused all of those personable entrepreneurs to close shop and really changed Martinsburg from a unique town with a lot of character and history into another bland piece of suburbia. My home town lost a lot of its charm not long after Wal-Mart came to town. I still have a special place in my heart for my hometown and think the surrounding area is beautiful, but I am not sure if it is the kind of place where I would want to raise my kids. National corporations have taken over the entire town and left few niches to be filled by local entrepreneurs. I miss the small mom-and-pop specialty shops and being recognized when I stopped in. Martinsburg is too small of a town for me to feel so anonymous when I walk into a business. Wal-Mart has taken so much from Martinsburg, and all we got was some “Chinese-made breakable crap”. Next time you go into that Wal-Mart, please thank them for sucking the soul out of my hometown.”
Posted by Luke West | Permalink
Wal-Mart still on tap for Quincy [Montgomery Herald (W.V.)]
Despite delays, Wal-Mart is still planning to build a new Supercenter store in eastern Kanawha County in Quincy, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said Thursday.
“Earlier this year we did re-evaluate our growth strategy across the country, which caused a delay in virtually all projects not under construction,” said Kelly Hobbs, a senior manager for Wal-Mart Public Affairs and Government Relations.
Hobbs says construction on the Quincy Supercenter is scheduled to start in early 2009. The store would be on U.S. 60, next to Riverside High School.
“We anticipate a grand opening sometime in early 2010,” she said.
Wal-Mart’s plans are to build a $3.5 million store that will employ 250 to 300 people.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Wal-Mart files suit in Route 65 landslide [Pittsburgh Tribune Review (Pa.)]
Wal-Mart has filed a lawsuit against a developer and several companies stemming from a September 2006 landslide that forced the retailer to abandon plans for a Kilbuck store.
Wal-Mart filed a writ Friday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, but has not yet filed a complaint.
“The goal is to seek reimbursement of funds Wal-Mart paid to stabilize the site and will continue to pay,” Daphne Moore, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said on Saturday. “(The defendants) are real estate and engineering professionals who said the site was appropriate for our commercial development.”
A developer was working on the site of the former Dixmont State Hospital when the slide dumped 300,000 cubic yards of debris onto Route 65, snarling traffic for two weeks and disrupting interstate train travel on adjacent tracks for days. Wal-Mart, which planned a superstore at the site, has abandoned plans to develop the property and is working to stabilize the site.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Wal-Mart’s conversion put on hold [The Intelligencer (Pa.)]
If you’ve been holding your breath waiting for the Wal-Mart at the Hilltown Crossings to be converted into a supercenter, you might want to start breathing again.
Construction at the Route 309 shopping center won’t begin for another eight to 12 months, said Keith Morris, regional spokesman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based discount stores.
Last July, Hilltown officials gave preliminary approval to the expansion, pending some traffic and internal corrections.
Around the same time, however, Wal-Mart announced it was re-evaluating its expansion strategy, scaling back by more than 25 percent the number of superstores it would be opening this year, according to Associated Press reports.
About 80 of the more than 200 supercenters that had been scheduled to open in 2008 have been pushed until next year. The move dropped Wal-Mart’s capital expenditures by $1.5 billion.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Wal-Mart to break ground in Penn Hills in October [Pittsburgh Tribune Review (Pa.)]
Groundbreaking for a Wal-Mart Supercenter at the former East Hills Shopping Center in Penn Hills is scheduled for October, according to the nonprofit group that is developing the site.
“We believe this project will be a great economic catalyst for the community, both in terms of revitalizing what has long been a blighted area, and creating jobs and career opportunities for residents,” said Connie Balthrop, executive director of Operation Nehemiah.
Operation Nehemiah is handling the development project for Petra Ministries, which owns the 70-acre site along Robinson Boulevard near the intersection of Frankstown Road in East Hills. Petra has its headquarters at the site in a former Zayre’s department store building.
The Wal-Mart, which will be on 44 acres, eventually will be joined by a Lowe’s home improvement center to serve as anchors for a shopping plaza that will be called The Summit, Balthrop said.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Heads up for Wal-Mart [Virginia Gazette]
Chris Henderson laments that Presidents Park doesn’t get any respect. “It’s kind of the red-headed stepchild of the area’s attractions,” he said Tuesday.
Or perhaps the big-headed stepchild.
In any case, Henderson would like to form a group of local investors to save the park, which features giant busts of all 43 presidents.
It’s been on the block for just over a year. Haley Newman doesn’t want to sell it, but one of his co-owners died and the heirs want out.
Newman said Tuesday there have been a number of inquiries about buying the property. “But we don’t have a contract with anyone yet,” he said.
Wal-Mart is said by others to be eyeing the site. That would put stores at both intersections of I-64 and Route 199, and directly across from the troubled Marquis shopping center.
Henderson, a commercial real estate broker and a member of the James City County Planning Commission, said Presidents Park adds to the area. “I think it would be a shame to lose it for the sake of another big-box store.”
He’d like to see a group of local investors buy the park and possibly create a nonprofit foundation to run it. “Then it would have an educational mission.”
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its 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.
Wal-mart’s recent loss in Brady v. Wal-mart Stores, Inc., represents just one of the many discrimination cases successfully waged against the behemoth retailer. Brady’s case, filed in 2002, was only recently finalized in the Second Circuit court. After multiple appeals, a three-judge appellate panel upheld the 2006 decision settling that Wal-Mart engaged in discriminatory practices in regards to Brady’s employment. Brady, then a qualified 19 year old pharmacy employee with cerebral palsy, was transferred to a less desirable position as a result of Wal-Mart’s discrimination.
In 2006, the jury awarded Brady $5 million dollars in punitive damages. The trial judge, acting in accordance with the law, limited the punitive damages to a mere $300,000. Why? The American Disabilities Act & Civil Rights Act of 1991, statutorily limits the sum of potential compensatory and punitive damages as per several categories ranking an employer’s size by number of employees. These damage caps, included in the statute, breakdown employers by “a respondent who has more than 14 and fewer than 101 employees… $50,000; a respondent who has more than 100 and fewer than 201 employees… $100,000; a respondent who has more than 200 and fewer than 501 employees… $200,000; and a respondent who has more than 500 employees… $300,000.”
Wal-Mart who has 1,400,000 employees in the US (versus the mere 500+ outlined in the statue), was relegated to the last and final category of the statute: “…A respondent who has more than 500 employees… $300,000.” Clearly, benefiting from their sizeable status, Wal-Mart gets a disapproving glance from our legal system, rather than the serious time-out it deserves.
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Posted by Christina Clark | Permalink
Boone Wal-Mart gets approval for expansion [The Watauga Democrat (N.C.)]
The Boone Wal-Mart may offer low prices, but its square footage is about to get higher.
The current store is set to expand its facilities by approximately 28,000 square feet for a grand total of 149,978 square feet.
The Boone Town Council approved an additional water allocation of 1,998 gallons per day for the expansion, and attorney Don O’Toole spoke on behalf of Wal-Mart.
O’Toole said a store with less than 150,000 square feet is not a typical Wal-Mart size.
“It’s a lot smaller store than Wal-Mart typically builds,” he said. “With the expansion of this store, I think Boone will be getting some good improvements to the existing store.”
According to Boone Development Services, construction is expected to occur on the north side of the existing building, in the parking lot area.
O’Toole said the current store would be updated to meet the town’s Unified Development Ordinance requirements, including increased landscaping on site, an increase of pervious surface and enhanced architecture.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
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 | Permalink
Wal-Mart SuperCenter plans tabled [Wyoming County Press Examiner (Pa.)]
The Wyoming County Planning Commission agreed on Wednesday to table plans for a 154,702 square foot Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Eaton Township.
County planner Paul Weilage recommended that the plans be tabled so that the county review could be completed.
“I have gone over a lot of it,” Weilage said. “At this point my review is not complete.”
Wal-Mart is proposing that the SuperCenter be built on Route 29, just south of Tunkhannock.
The store would be located near Skyhaven Airport and across from a current Wal-Mart building.
Wal-Mart is in a purchase agreement to buy the land from Select Sires of Plain City, Ohio.
Weilage said that a 90-day review of the plans began on Wednesday and that the planning office still must complete a review on landscape, handicap parking and other subjects.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
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 | Permalink
Wal-Mart wants water guarantee from Town [WPCVA-TV (Va.)]
Appomattox Town Manager David Garrett informed the Town Council on Monday that there was one obstacle that needed to be taken care of before a Wal-Mart Supercenter can locate to Appomattox.
After speaking to Wal-Mart engineers, he was informed that the state health department wants to make sure that the Town’s water system is adequate for fire protection.
As a requirement for fire flow protection, the town needs a capacity to withstand a run of a four-hour period in the event of a fire.
Garrett said that the problem is that the health department has run into an issue in the past, where the health department has discovered after the fact that other small systems in different localities did not have the adequate capacity for the protection needed.
“As you grow, you need a larger capacity, which is crucial,” said Garrett.
He added that the health department is looking at systems up front instead of waiting and finding out that the system does not have the capacity.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Wal-Mart withdraws wetlands application [Beaufort Gazette (S.C.)]
Wal-Mart has withdrawn its application to fill in a third of an acre of critical-area wetlands on Lady’s Island, possibly marking the end of the retailer’s bid to build a 195,000-square-foot store on a site called Airport Junction.
Wal-Mart’s plans for Airport Junction were rejected by Beaufort’s planning director in February and by the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals in March, but Wal-Mart nonetheless submitted an application to the state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month, seeking permission to fill in wetlands. Robert Riggs of Charleston-based consulting firm Newkirk Environmental, however, said Wednesday that he had contacted those agencies to withdraw Wal-Mart’s wetlands application.
Riggs said he did not know if Wal-Mart was still considering developing Airport Junction.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Stewart said last month that Wal-Mart was considering legal options as well as working with the city to reach an agreement that would allow Wal-Mart to build a Lady’s Island store.
Stewart could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
SuperCenter idea unnerves area business [Wyoming County Press Examiner (Pa.)]
For 38 years Brick’s Market has operated in Tunkhannock on Tioga Street, weathering economic downturns and other challenges.
And as plans for a 153,000 square foot Wal-Mart SuperCenter are reviewed by the Wyoming County Planning Commission and Eaton Township, Brick’s Market operator Lynn Reynolds is growing concerned.
Noting that the SuperCenter will have groceries and will be a challenge equal to any recession, Reynolds said, “I worry about myself and I worry about other small businesses in the county.”
Brick’s is one of three supermarkets located in and around Tunkhannock.
Dave Gay, of Gay’s True Value Hardware, said he believes a SuperCenter would hurt the area’s grocery stores.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
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 | Permalink
Runoff issues delay plans for Wal-Mart [Patriot-News (Pa.)]
When the Newberry Twp. supervisors approved plans for a Wal-Mart on Old Trail Road, they and many in the community believed it would be an economic milestone.
“If that goes in, it will be the biggest commercial development we’ve had,” Supervisor Carl Hughes said. “It would really help our tax base. We didn’t have to raise taxes last year, and Wal-Mart should help us not raise taxes next year.”
But a month has passed since ground breaking was to have taken place for Newberry Pointe, the shopping center that is to host the Wal-Mart, a strip mall and five other businesses.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Proposal to locate a Wal-Mart near Cheswold tabled [The News Journal (Del.)]
A proposal to locate a Wal-Mart Super Center off U.S. 13 between Dover and Cheswold was tabled Thursday night by the Kent County Regional Planning Commission, which had raised numerous questions about the project at a public hearing a week earlier.
Constantine Malmberg, the local lawyer for Cheswold Village Properties LLC, the project developer, requested the delay, promising to meet during the interim with residents of the area and to address a raft of concerns raised by the planning staff.
The site plan calls for a 225,000-square-foot Super Center on 22 acres and an adjacent strip shopping center offering 25,000 square feet of retail floor space on seven acres just off U.S. 13 south of Simms Woods Road. The two developments would be served by a traffic signal at a new access road on U.S. 13, about 1,000 feet south of Simms Woods Road.
At the public hearing, residents said the project would worsen existing flood problems and attract traffic and crime to the area. Several commissioners expressed dismay at the time that representatives of Wal-Mart and the developers had not met with residents to hear their concerns.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Orange rules on big-box retailers [Free Lance Star (Va.)]
Most Orange County supervisors showed little interest this week in discouraging big-box retailers with restrictive standards and requirements.
The board members had different views on the proposed big-box ordinance they had originally sent to the Planning Commission for action. But even gutting the standards attached to it wasn’t enough for Chairman Mark Johnson, who cast the only vote against it at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Supervisor Teri Pace wanted the restrictive ordinance that had been fashioned by the commission, but she realized it was opposed by her fellow supervisors.
What the supervisors finally approved was a shadow of the original ordinance that had been put together hastily by Director of Community Development David Grover at the board’s request.
The approved ordinance will apply to any single-building retailer with more than 60,000 square feet of floor space. But the ordinance contains only two paragraphs, the first covering the building size and location and the second stating that a special-use permit and site plan are required to “generally meet the guidelines adopted by the Board of Supervisors.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Group against original site welcoming new Wal-Mart [North Virginia Daily]
A grass-roots group that opposed Wal-Mart’s efforts to locate on Strasburg Road six years ago is pleased that the retailer will open this week at another site in Warren County.
Wal-Mart will hold a grand opening Wednesday for its 204,000-square-foot Supercenter in the Riverton Commons Shopping Center off U.S. 340-522, north of Interstate 66.
In 2002, Wal-Mart sought to locate on a controversial site on Strasburg Road across from A.S. Rhodes Elementary.
A grass-roots group called “Save Our Gateway” formed that year to oppose Wal-Mart’s efforts. But the group isn’t against Wal-Mart, and is glad the retailer will open a store in Warren County.
“We are very happy that a win-win situation was created for the community,” said Craig Laird, the group’s president. “Wal-Mart is coming to this area, and is settling in a commercial area that is probably the best area for it.”
A number of area residents opposed the Strasburg Road site, saying it would increase traffic, and create safety concerns for the school.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
Kent wants answers on Wal-Mart [Delaware Online]
Developers of a proposed Wal-Mart Super Center off U.S. 13 between Dover and Cheswold were dressed down Thursday night by members of the Kent County Regional Planning Commission, who complained loudly that advocates of the project should have been better prepared.
Constantine Malmberg, the local lawyer for Cheswold Village Properties LLC, and a clutch of engineers tried to persuade commission members the project would not worsen traditional flooding problems for residents who live along Simms Woods Road, located at the northern edge of the proposed site.
Commission members were angered Malmberg could not assure that the store facade of Wal-Mart would not be of the “big blue box” variety.
The commission held a public hearing Thursday night, but was not slated to vote on a site plan until its meeting June 12. Commission Chairman Albert Holmes Jr., said the project, in the works since 2004, would be tabled at that time unless the developers came bearing answers to a raft of questions raised by commission members.
“First of all, there’s no way in the world I would want this next to my home,” Vice Chairman Ken Edwards said, drawing applause from residents.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
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