BloggingStock’s Brian White doesn’t always share our viewpoint on Wal-Mart, but this week’s “Wal-Mart Weekly” column is particularly interesting. It focuses entirely on the closing of the Tire & Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec.
It’s a good column, and not just because it gets in a few zings at Wal-Mart. It’s one of the first pieces we’ve seen that begins to take a real look at Wal-Mart’s repeated decisions to close stores rather than deal with unions and union contracts, and asks important questions from a business perspective. Is this a good policy for Wal-Mart as a company? Is the repeated antagonism of workers who unionize going to hurt Wal-Mart’s growth potential in countries like Canada and China - where unions are more powerful and prevalent? And more fundamentally - is Wal-Mart’s bare-bones-wage model really a sustainable and profitable business plan in an economy where living costs are skyrocketing?
If you’ve got time, read the whole thing:
The Wal-Mart Weekly: Is closing up a unionized shop the best strategy? [BloggingStocks]
This week, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) closed the first shop in North America that had been completely unionized. Does this signal anything to other Wal-Mart locations that form a collective bargaining organization? Sure: form one and the retailer would rather see the operation shut down entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power.
That may sound harsh, but it has to be the feeling around a Wal-Mart tire and lube shop in Gatineau, Quebec, which was literally closed due to its unionization last week. What better a way to leave consumers in the lurch than to close up shop on something that brings in revenue even if its employees decide to stray from Wal-Mart’s “non-union” stance in its retail locations.
Was the closing really the best answer?With the Gatineau location in Canada the first official Wal-Mart location with an actual union contract in place, Wal-Mart’s response could be seen as severe. Was the global retailer trying to get a message out to any other Wal-Mart location in North America—“unionize and we will shut your doors?” If so, that’s no way to run a business, right? Is Wal-Mart so afraid of unions in its stores that it would rather shut them down (or pieces of them) instead of continuing to operate?
Lisette Wallingford, a frustrated customer of the Gatineau shop, expressed her disappointment: “They told me to come back today because my tires were coming in ... I think I’ll go to Canadian Tire because I can count on them.” There’s all we need to know: a frustrated customer. Wal-Mart was at least kind enough to direct customers late last week to other Gatineau-area Wal-Mart locations, with no mentioning that the closed location was due to unionization. Nice.
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Posted by Media Team | 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
Open a superstore, close a grocery store. That pretty much sums up the valueless addition of a Wal-Mart superstore in the county of Del Norte, California. Wal-Mart is in the middle of a controversial plan to expand its existing discount store into a superstore. The 14.25-acre project site is located in the western portion of unincorporated Del Norte County, just north of the limits of the City of Crescent City.
The proposed project consists of expanding the existing 83,902 s.f. Wal-Mart store to a maximum of 170,126 s.f. and upgrading the store to a “Supercenter.” The store would be expanded on the west, north, and east sides, and new loading facility would be developed in the rear of the store. Additional parking areas would be provided. The Wal-Mart Supercenter would sell groceries and general merchandise and operate 24 hours a day.
In the Environmental Impact Review (EIR) report on this project, the consultants for the county examined a “30% Reduction Alternative” which the consultant said “is the environmentally superior alternative.” It reduces the store to 119,000 s.f. In the EIR, the following issue were identified as controversial: Aesthetics and Visual Character; Construction and Operational Air Emissions; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Construction and Operational Noise; Parking; Public Services; Traffic Congestion; Urban Decay; Wastewater; Water Supply.
The draft EIR was reviewed for 45 days, from February 20, until April 4, 2008. An economic impact report done on the project by Bay Area Economics of Emeryville, California in September of 2007 concluded:
“The Proposed Project may lead to the closure of one of the three existing major supermarkets in Crescent City. However, because of a variety of factors, including different ‘break-even’ and profit thresholds for different operators, as well as different levels of sales currently, it is not possible to state with reasonable certainty which of these stores is most likely to be impacted to the point of closure by the Proposed Project. The Trade Area is characterized by isolation, weak economic conditions, and very slow household population increases, limiting the prospects for future retail growth.
“As a result, a vacated space such as a supermarket may prove difficult to retenant. Cumulatively, the only other sizable proposed retail project in the Trade Area is a Walgreen’s in Crescent City. In combination with the proposed Wal-Mart expansion, this project puts an existing drug store at risk of closure. A vacated space may also be difficult to re-tenant, although as a smaller space it might not face as much difficulty as a vacated supermarket.”
Despite this gloomy economic picture, the Del Norte County Planning Commission approved the Wal-Mart expansion on June 4th . But that decision is being appealed to the Del Norte Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on August 12th. The approval was appealed by the Crescent City Heritage Coalition, which states that the public brought up several issues, such as environmental concerns, traffic, global warming and urban decay, that were not fully addressed in the EIR. “The level of detail in an EIR’s analysis must correspond to an impact’s severity and likelihood of occurrence,” the Coalition wrote. The group has asked the supervisors to decertify the EIR and send it back to the Planning Commission for further review.
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Posted by Al Norman | Permalink
Asda’s magazine purchaser recently e-mailed the company’s magazine suppliers, demanding either two pages of editorial space or advertising space each month in publications sold at Asda. The email also requested that the suppliers pay Asda £2,500 for shelf space in any new store that is opened, and also an “item set up” fee of £2,464 any new titles distributed in Asda stores. [Click here for the original e-mail or the full story.]
The first baffling aspect of this move by Asda is not the motivation, but the audacity. These demands encroach upon the voice that publications give to particular issues and constituents. By elbowing its way onto the editorial pages, Asda (which is owned by Wal-Mart) would have the potential to silence those issues or spin them in whatever way bolsters their profit margins. (Now, some would argue that Asda or Wal-Mart may write on issues in which they are interested that could correspond with the themes of the publication. But if that were the case, then these companies would have conveyed that interest and demonstrated more than a superficial commitment by already submitting pieces or working directly with particular communities.)
The alternative to the editorial pages is the advertising space, where magazines traditionally earn most of their revenue. Not only would this amount to lost revenue for the magazines, but it would also foster serious tensions with Asda’s competitors. The price wars between Asda and Tesco have been bloody, and if magazine publishers agree to Asda’s demands, other distributors would surely revolt.
Moreover, cowering to such a demand by grocers and retailers would severely compromise any notion of a publisher’s content independence. An initiative that provides Asda and Wal-Mart the ability to alter any of the content of a magazine is a slippery slope away from a top-down regulation of speech by disinvested corporations.
In response to the furious reactions from publishers, Asda has released statements, implying that the e-mail contained their “wish list” and that they are expecting to go to the negotiating table. Asda claims that when the publishers bring their own list of demands, a compromise will be reached. But as they prepare to take their seats at the bargaining table, I would implore publishers to stand together against a particularly suspect infringement upon their autonomy and to remember that walking away from the bargaining table is always an option.
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Development corporation subject to open meetings [Associated Press via Chicago Tribune]
The state Supreme Court rules a Beaver Dam economic group is subject to Wisconsin’s open meetings and records laws.
The court said Friday an entity is a quasi-governmental body and subject to those laws if it closely resembles a government corporation, but that a determination should be made on a case-by-case basis.
A citizens group has alleged the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation negotiated secretly with Wal-Mart to bring a $55 million distribution center to the city.
The Supreme Court says the corporation is funded exclusively by tax dollars, its office was located in the municipal building, it was listed on the city’s Web site and the city gave the group clerical support and office supplies.
The court declined to punish the group, however. Attorneys for the group didn’t immediately return messages.
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Editorial: We can supersize our expectations, starting now [Tracy Press (Calif.)]
With four hours of public comment at the City Council meeting last week, it would have been easy to miss the point a consultant made about aesthetics. At issue was the proposal for a Wal-Mart supercenter that would take Tracy’s existing 125,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and expand it to a 208,000-square-foot store, with 30,000 square feet for groceries.
Jim Watt, who represents a local shopping center that opposes the supercenter, asked the council to take a look at the “superior” architecture and design of the American Canyon Wal-Mart Supercenter, rather than settle for the stucco-and-brick façade of the existing Wal-Mart.
Near the end of the hearing, Wal-Mart attorney Miriam Montesinos tried to counter the consultant’s comment about the supercenter near Napa, one she described as a “gorgeous” store that made her proud.
“Tracy’s nothing like American Canyon,” she said, adamantly. “To point to another store in another community and say ‘You should do that’ goes completely contrary to Wal-Mart’s approach to design, which is to go to the community, drive around the community and try and pick up themes from other buildings that they see around the community.”
Mayor Brent Ives heard what both of them said and responded with a shake of the head to the Wal-Mart insult.
“If Wal-Mart hasn’t brought their top product to Tracy, then Wal-Mart needs to bring their top model to Tracy,” he said. “I’ve told every developer that’s come in here in the last five years — you bring us your best or you don’t bring it at all.”
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
No Wal-Mart Along County Line Road [Hernando Today (Fla.)]
There will be no new Wal-Marts in Hernando County for a while.
That is the word from a regional spokeswoman for the retail giant.
“There’s nothing active in that area right now,” said Quenta Vettel.
She admitted Wal-Mart has been looking hard at areas to the southeast of Spring Hill - in Pasco County.
A new store will open soon at Land O’ Lakes, and Wesley Chapel remains a viable location, Vettel said.
“We’ve had a long-term interest in Pasco County, period,” she continued. “There are a lot of homes going up in there.”
Rumors have swirled that Wal-Mart was looking at the area along the south side of County Line Road, across from Spring Hill Regional Hospital in Seven Hills.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Maine Wal-Mart projects on hold [Republican Journal (Maine)]
Wal-Mart put Maine projects in the planning stage on hold while the company restructures and there may not be any action for the rest of the year, says a Lincoln town official.
Ruth Birtz, economic development director in Lincoln, said a company official in New York told her recently that Wal-Mart will fill a vacant job in the firm’s real estate office in Boston after restructuring is complete and the projects on hold will then be reevaluated.
Belfast has been trying to lure a Wal-Mart to the new big box zone on the city’s west side.
Bob Bahre, the man who bought the entire west side big box zone, plans to visit Belfast in a few weeks to see the land he bought sight-unseen, but nobody involved in Belfast development is sure of what to expect.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Wal-Mart plans prototype store at Cordova site [Memphis Business Journal (Tenn.)]
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., is proposing to bring its newly branded store design to Cordova, potentially the first location for the mega-retailer’s new Supercenter prototype in Tennessee and one of a handful in the country. A new corporate logo will be featured on the facade of the proposed store at Macon and Houston Levee.
The new site plan for the Wal-Mart Supercenter will be presented to the Shelby County Land Use Control Board July 10. It was withdrawn from consideration earlier this year. The store has drawn opposition from neighbors and concerns from the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development.
Now, Wal-Mart planners have reduced the footprint of the store from 267,000 square feet to 151,908 square feet, according to a June 12 application submitted to the Office of Planning and Development. The 26.53-acre site includes five outparcels in addition to the superstore and 765 parking spaces, down from more than 1,000 proposed in late 2007.
The design of the store is a new prototype for the world’s largest retailer. So far, the prototype has been submitted to a handful of municipalities around the country, and the proposed Cordova store could become one of the first in the nation to don the new “look and feel,” says Dennis Alpert, senior manager of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart in Tennessee.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Wal-Mart meeting deferred to July 3 [Iowa City (Iowa)]
The Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission will not take up plans to construct a Wal-Mart Supercenter until their meeting July 3.
Originally, the Wal-Mart proposal was slated for discussion at a special meeting Thursday.
According to a statement from the city, Wal-Mart requested the meeting’s deferral.
Wal-Mart plans to build a supercenter at the site of their current store on Highway 1.
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Building officials halt demolition at future Wal-Mart site [Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Calif.)]
Work crews tearing down old signs on the site slated for a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Ontario were ordered to stop Tuesday but continued into Wednesday until building officials told them to stop again.
Dale Briggs, an Ontario resident opposed to the store approved for Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street, spoke of demolition on the site without proper permits at the City Council meeting Tuesday.
“Wal-Mart has a history of not following the rules,” Briggs said in public comments. “Wal-Mart is the 700-pound gorilla.”
Aaron Rios, spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
Kevin Shear, Ontario building official, said his department started getting calls Monday about action on the site where abandoned buildings still stand that once held a Target, Toys “R” Us and Food 4 Less.
Building department records show permits were issued in 2005 to demolish the buildings, but they had expired in 2006 after no demolition occurred.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Councilman questions planning member’s past Wal-mart vote [Rapid City Journal (S.D.)]
Alderman Bill Okrepkie raised concerns Monday about the reappointment of Tom Hennies to the city planning commission because of Hennies’ past vote against a proposed second Wal-Mart.
Okrepkie said 70 percent of constituents in Ward 3 voted two years ago in favor of building a Wal-Mart on the south side of the city. That project eventually fell apart for other reasons, but Okrepkie said Hennies’ vote against the project as a member of the planning commission does not represent public sentiment.
“That’s not in the best interest of my ward or the community,” Okrepkie said.
Other Rapid City Council members said it was inappropriate for Okrepkie to single out Hennies for his position on one issue. The appointment, which was eventually approved, was part of a list of five appointments to the commission.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Official word: Wal-Mart isn’t closing local stores or building replacements [Southeast Missourian]
If you visit the Wal-Mart in Cape Girardeau, you’ll see a banner sign on the building seeking temporary help for a store remodeling job. The appearance of that sign intriqued me, so I called the Bentonville, Ark., headquarters of the world’s largest retailer. What I heard should, for now, put to rest rumors about the future of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson stores.
At least one alert reader has e-mailed recently me saying they heard that both stores would close in favor of a new, larger Wal-Mart at the new Interstate 55 interchange.
Carrie McKnight, a senior manager of public affairs for the retailing giant, assured me that no money would be spent on the store if there were plans to shut it down anytime soon.
The remodeling job isn’t unusual, she said. “Typically, every six or seven years we go in and remodel the stores,” she said.
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Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Council approves tentative budget [News-Sun (Calif.)]
The Benson City Council approved the tentative $18-million budget Monday night, to officially turn the process over to public comment.
Finance Director Jim Cox said with the council’s approvals no matter what the public says in the two required public hearings, the city will not be able to increase expenditures.
The council has had several work sessions to discuss aspects of the 2008-09 fiscal year budget which officially begins on July 1.City Manager Martin Roush has said in light of slow economic times at the state and national levels, the new budget is about $2 million less than last year.
While no major cuts are being made, Roush said employees will likely only receive a cost of living increase this year. In the current fiscal year, staff members automatically received the cost of living increase, and all were eligible to receive up to a five percent merit increase.
The council will host a public hearing regarding the tentative budget at the regular council meeting on Monday, June 23 and then the second one will be held on June 25.
In other business, the council approved paying Wal-Mart $250,000 in accordance with the development agreement approved by the council two years ago.
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Posted by Tony Calero | Permalink
This article appeared originally on The Huffington Post:
Wal-Mart’s Dog and Pony ShowIt’s Wal-Mart Week in Bentonville, Arkansas and the retail giant is throwing its annual celebration for 20,000 of its workers and shareholders, complete with concerts by stars like Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, and Journey. All this serves to distract shareholders from Wal-Mart’s failure to address the chronic problems that negatively affect their image and result in obstacles to growth into new geographic and demographic markets A Handshake with Sam [PDF], an agreement of common principles with Wal-Mart first released in 2006, offers a roadmap out of this crisis.
Polling that we conducted last fall shows that 28 percent of all consumers developed a more negative opinion of the company over the previous twelve months. And there are plenty of real examples to demonstrate this. Just in the past 12 months, Wal-Mart has had to back out of 69 communities, including Chicago, where their poor business and labor practices were front and center.
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Posted by David Nassar, Executive Director | Permalink
As usual, Wal-Mart will opt this year to make its shareholder’s meeting a celebrity pep rally instead of a honest discussion of how to make the company a better and more successful business.
Last week we asked Wal-Mart Watch members to submit topics they wanted to hear discussed at the 2008 Wal-Mart Shareholder’s Meeting. Hundreds more responses have come in the past few days - check out some of the submissions.
We continue to be impressed with how substantive the responses are, especially the ones from current Wal-Mart employees. Thanks to all for participating - and click here if you haven’t yet and would like to.
Better treatment of their employees. They advertise “save money live better” on their ads but their employees are struggling trying to make ends meet with higher prices and their wages being frozen. A person could work there for 10 years and not get another raise no matter how much the prices go up on food and gas. Treat their employees as people and not a number on their profit and loss sheets.
Wal-Mart could be instrumental in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by insisting that products are not over-packaged, or that packaging is fully recyclable.
Wal-Mart employees deserve to make a living wage and have benefits so the public is not subsidizing their health care and cost of food for children via free and reduced price lunch programs.
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Posted by Eric Bull | Permalink
Wal-Mart waiting on Hickory Hill interchange with I-30 [Herald-Banner]
Wal-Mart is not interested in building a store at the Hickory Hill/Interstate 30 property until the planned interchange with I-30 is under construction or complete.
Property developers delivered this message Wednesday to Royse City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) president, he said. Wal-Mart has the land under contract, but has not closed on it. The developers met with Wal-Mart representatives Monday, they told Royse City EDC President Larry Lott.
“It is very clear they are not going to build a store until the overpass is in. That has always been the driver,” Lott said in an interview Friday.
“That’s not to say we are not shopping this deal to others,” he added.
Late 2010 is the expected interchange completion date, according to Lott and Paul Williams, area engineer of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Completion hinges on starting the expected 18- to 24-month construction in 2009. Rights-of-way must be secured, and utilities moved prior to construction.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Failure to close property deals killed Clearbrook Wal-Mart, company says [Roanoke Times (Va.)]
A developer’s failure to reach an agreement on prices for property in Clearbrook led to the cancellation of plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter there, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said Wednesday.
Kelly Hobbs, Wal-Mart’s senior manager for public affairs, said Knoxville-based Holrob Investments “and a few of the sellers couldn’t come to a price,” making the project economically unfeasible.
Holrob referred questions to Wal-Mart.
Hobbs said Wal-Mart continues to believe the current store on U.S. 220 South is “overshopped” and that the company would still like to build a new supercenter in the region.
She acknowledged that the company has slowed its growth plans in recent months, but that “did not have an impact on this project.”
“Wal-Mart is committed to serving the Roanoke community, and we’re continuing to look at options to do so.”
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
The Greater Milwaukee area has had the pleasure lately of being home to several raging site fights. Two in particular, Muskego, WI, and Waukesha, WI, have been in the news lately. Both are small towns to the west of Milwaukee, an area that already has 13 Wal-Marts in a 20 mile area. Wal-Mart, which already has 85 stores in a state with the population of only 5.5 million, is clearly pushing a saturation strategy in Wisconsin.
In Muskego, Wal-Mart wants to build a 16 acre, 152,000 square foot supercenter with grocery “east of S. Moorland Road and south of W. College Ave., Wal-Mart spokeswoman Lisa Nelson said Monday. It would be just across Moorland Road from a 485,000-square-foot distribution center being built for GE Healthcare.” Al Norman runs down the Muskego fight in a Battlemart post here.
In Waukesha, Wal-Mart wants to build a 184,100 square foot behemoth on “S. West Ave. and Highway 59 on 32 acres, now the site of the closed Cretex Concrete plant.” And in Waukesha, in addition to traffic, crime and economic concerns - it seems not that the building of the new supercenter will likely endanger a local (already endangered) species of snake. Needless to say, Wal-Mart is hoping the Department of Natural Resources looks past any wildlife concerns and rubber stamps the project.
But there are many hurdles left before any construction begins on the project and hope should remain high for our Wisconsin site fighters. There’s still time to convince your town officials to consider investing in local Wisconsin businesses, instead of bringing in more Wal-Marts to ship all profits back to Bentonville, Arkansas.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
If you live in the area, write here to local officials and tell them you don’t need any new Wal-Marts.
Posted by Eric Bull | Permalink
Back in 2002, James W Lynn was allegedly fired for drawing a great deal of unwanted attention to certain practices taking place in Wal-Mart’s Honduran and Guatemalan factories. Thanks to his lawsuit, we’ve have had the opportunity to review Wal-Mart’s very own “Factory Monitoring Reports.” Lucky us!
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Posted by Cass Brulott | Permalink
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