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On January 29, 2009--just about a year ago--Sprawl-Busters reported that Haywood, North Carolina officials had a big hole to fill that once was a Wal-Mart discount store on Route 74 in the Clyde area.

The vacant Wal-Mart has been there since a Wal-Mart supercenter, with 188,494 s.f., opened in Waynesville on October 1, 2008---just eight miles down the road from the original location in Clyde. The Wal-Mart discount store in Clyde that was closed was built in 1990, and is 116,061 s.f. The Smoky Mountain News reported that what was once a bustling retail market and taxpaying property was now slated to go off the tax rolls entirely and become the new home of the Haywood County Department of Health and Social Services. 

One year later, the deal has still not jelled. According to the News, Commissioners are still considering the old Wal-Mart site. The county wants to buy the 20 year old Wal-Mart because its the cheapest option they have, making it a ‘bargain’ for the taxpayers, Commissioner Mark Swanger told the News. The current DSS building was constructed in the 1920s. “It would require millions in renovations, heating, air, roof windows and you still have an inadequate space for doing business,” Swanger explained. The DSS building needs a new roof, windows, and electrical wiring. “We could go on and on about what it would cost us, we would still have an old building,” another Commissioner noted. A new building is also out of the question, the Commissioners say, costing as much as $30 million. So taking over the dead Wal-Mart makes financial sense.

The Wal-Mart property itself will need a lot of work. It was described by the News as a “gaping retail shell.” But at least it has a roof and a parking lot. The County says if they put a DSS office into the building, it will act as an anchor for the shopping center and stimulate adjacent businesses. Over the past ten years, the county has been building a new Justice Center, a new jail, and a remodeled courthouse. So officials don’t have much capital left to spend on the new DSS space. “I suppose it has been just a matter of priorities,” Swanger explained.

Negotiations with Wal-Mart Realty have been going on for at least a year. “If we don’t do something now, it’s going to cost us much more in the future to buy property and start building,” one Commissioner pointed out. If the county does move into the building, the dead Wal-Mart would be subdivided between the DSS offices and the Tractor Supply Company, which is also in negotiations for part of the Wal-Mart building. When Wal-Mart left a gaping hole in the strip mall where it was located to move to the other side of town in 2008, Commissioners began thinking about using the vacant store. They decided not to pursue it at the time given the county’s economic situation with the recession.

At that time Commissioners were seeking a federal loan of up to $11 million to purchase and renovate the Wal-Mart. The area had lost a Goody’s clothing store, which was one of many casualties of the big box retailers. Goody’s left behind a storefront in a strip mall in Waynesville. Home Depot canceled plans at the last minute to open a new store in Waynesville, leaving a hole next to the new big box retail complex where Super Wal-Mart moved to. Last year at this time, the Commissioners’ economic development staff said, “Right now, there’s not a whole lot of retailers that are looking to expand. Everybody’s pretty cautious right now. The county’s interest (in the Wal-Mart property) is very encouraging.” Commissioners said in January of 2009 that money from the federal stimulus package could help finance the purchase of the Wal-Mart building, but it was unclear how long it would take for the money to trickle down to local governments.

What you can do: There are currently 9 Wal-Mart “dark stores” in North Carolina. Wal-Mart has several private real estate brokers trying to sell these properties. The official Wal-Mart line is that its Realty division has no problem disposing of these properties, but in many situations, these large “ghost boxes” are hard to remarket because there are very few businesses looking for such large buildings. Wal-Mart has left hundreds of ‘dark stores’ in its wake as it moves through small town America, causing local officials to worry about being stuck with huge, empty stores that cannot easily be recycled.

One has to wonder what officials in Clyde would have said in 1990 if Wal-Mart had told them that in less than 20 years their proposed discount store would be closed and left for the county to buy. For the town of Clyde, this represents a major loss of revenue. The County will not pay property taxes on the building, and there will be little sales tax from the Tractor Supply Company compared to a Wal-Mart store. The big winner is Wal-Mart, which will sell off its dead store, and make more money at its superstore 8 miles away. This leapfrog development is a perfect example of the sprawl that happens when there is no regional planning. In this case, Waynesville took away Clyde’s store, when the Clyde store could have been reformatted to become a superstore. Wal-Mart today is building superstores that are 99,000 s.f. The Clyde Wal-Mart was 116,061 s.f. No relocation was necessary in the first place, and Clyde’s store was clearly meant for Waynesville and surrounding towns, because Clyde’s tiny population could never support a discount store on its own.

Readers are urged to email Haywood County Commission Chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick at with the following message: “Dear Chairman Kirkpatrick, Please don’t use federal or county tax dollars to buy an empty Wal-Mart that bad planning created. Clyde and Waynesville should never have allowed Wal-Mart to abandon its ‘old’ store in the first place, just to move to bigger quarters 8 miles away. They could have reformatted their existing store in Clyde into a superstore, and today you’d have no dead store to worry about. But the idea of using federal stimulus money to write a check to Wal-Mart—which doesn’t need any more federal subsidies---is irresponsible. Instead, call over to the new Wal-Mart superstore manager, Jerry Presley at (828) 452-5090 and ask him to write to the corporate central office in Bentonville, Arkansas, asking Wal-Mart to donate the land and building to the county. It’s the least they can do to repay the county and the town of Clyde for leaving you with an empty building that could have been avoided in the first place. Don’t subsidize Wal-Mart with tax dollars---ask them for a charitable donation that they can take as a tax write-off.”

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MAJOR MEETING IN VIRGINIA TONIGHT TO DEBATE FATE OF THE WILDERNESS WAL-MART

• Public gets say on Wal-Mart near Va battlefield [Daily Press (Va.)]
  Hundreds of historians have had their say on Wal-Mart's plans to build a Supercenter near a Civil War battlefield in Virginia.

• Tonight! Orange County will hear your thoughts on Wal-Mart [Free Lance-Star (Va.)]
  Tonight, the Orange County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed Wilderness Wal-Mart.
  

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We’ve written often on Wal-Mart’s plan to build a 141,000 sq. ft. Superstore next to the Wilderness and Chancellorsville Battlefields in Virginia. The site is undoubtedly one dripping with historical significance:

The Battle of the Wilderness was among the most significant engagements of the Civil War. It marked the first time legendary generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant faced off against one another on the field of battle. During two days of desperate conflict in a harsh, unforgiving landscape tangled with underbrush, 4,000 Americans lost their lives and nearly 20,000 were wounded.

That very fact has caused opponents from across the country to converge on Virginia - the Civil War Preservation Trust is leading the fight, Mr. Holland and his Opus have tagged along too, blogs have been dedicated to the issue, letters to the editor have been written (some even making excellent points):

To those who argue that the Wilderness Wal-Mart issue should not be influenced by outsiders, would you like to see a big-box retailer next to the Washington Monument or the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, should zoning be permitted, even though you do not live there?

Heck, even the Vermont Legislature has threatened to get itself involved, and they don’t even live in Virginia (I think).

Anyway, I’m getting off point, since two former Civil War Generals can very well sum up the conflict nicely themselves. The point is that in an act of good faith, one group, the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, has offered to provide funds for a study that would evaluate the effects of development in the Wilderness and surrounding areas. The only negative (for Wal-Mart, at least) is that the study would push back the planning and permitting process by six months, something that one would think should hardly be a deal breaker in terms of timing. Still, the County Supervisors voted to reject the offer, and go ahead with a public hearing scheduled for May 21. At least one supervisor, however, was not pleased with the vote.

District 4 Supervisor Teri Pace said the coalition’s request was important and worth county officials’ consideration. “I think it’s really short-sighted for this board not to accept an asset at no cost to the county,“ Pace said. “All they’re asking is to hold back six months.“

We will, of course, continue to follow the Wilderness Battlefield battle.

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Despite Target’s worse-than-expected third-quarter earnings, due in part to losing customers to Wal-Mart in a depressed economy, they have found several ways to stick it to the world’s largest retailer.  Other than pledging a ‘price-war’ against them, they are also hitting Wal-Mart where it counts: Bentonville.  Construction is nearing completion and signage is erected at Target’s newest location: Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s home when not in vacationing in China. 

Slated to open in March, the store will be located on the east side of I-540.  Jenn Glass, a Target representative was quoted in the Benton Daily Record (Arkansas):

“Target opens new stores in October, July and March of each year,” said Jenn Glass, Target representative. “We’re projecting a March 8, 2009, opening in Rogers. “According to Glass, the Rogers location will be a traditional Target retail store, not a Super Target. The Minneapolis-based retailer has 70 new stores scheduled to open in the United States in 2009.

Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart plans to open a Neighborhood Market DIRECTLY across from the new Target, in an awkward, immodest attempt to keep the citizens of Bentonville shopping at the “right store.” Wal-Mart doesn’t typically open Neighborhood Markets as frequently as they used to, and seem to be making every attempt to upgrade all of their regular stores to Supercenters.  Way to keep the gloves on, guys.

Target set to open in March [Benton County Daily Record (Ark.)]

ROGERS - Target Corp. ‘s red bull’s-eye is hardly a household trademark in Benton County. For years, the nearest Target store has been in Fayetteville, in neighboring Washington County. But the bull’seye has been shining brightly along Interstate 540, in the shadows of the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, for the past couple of weeks.

Crossland Construction crews continue to erect Benton County’s first Target store, situated across the street from the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, along the east side of I-540. The exterior of the 127, 000-squarefoot Target store is nearing completion, the signage has been erected, and the parking lot has been paved. But for those who are planning to get some holiday shopping done at the Minneapolis-based retailer, it’s still going to require a drive to Fayetteville this winter.

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We’ve been following a story in recent weeks about how Wal-Mart wants to build a 141,000-square-foot supercenter on the edge of Wilderness Battlefield National Park in central Virginia. The plan came under heavy opposition in July by several historical/environmental/civil war preservation groups, collectively known as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, when they drafted a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott.  The letter expresses the deep concern many feel over the proposed store: 

This Super Wal-Mart would be built within one-quarter mile of the National Park and would pave the way for desecration of the Wilderness with unnecessary commercial growth. Such a large-scale development is inappropriate next to a National Park.

The Civil War Preservation Trust has launched an entire website to spread the word and garner support against the plan. They were quoted this week in an article from NBC-29:

According to Brent Lawrenz of the Civil War Preservation Trust, “It’s going to put a tremendous pressure on Route 20 which is 2 lanes and they’re proposing to re-route part of it through key battleground area.”

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The past couple weeks have seen plenty of stories describing ways in which Wal-Mart has mobilized to aid the Gulf Coast in preparation and relief efforts during hurricane season.

It seems, however, that even though the corporation was making efforts to lessen the blow of the storm, they still haven’t lost sight of the bottom-line.  In a story posted yesterday in The Examiner, Wal-Mart was accused of price-gouging gasoline at one of their stations along an evacuation route in Southeast Texas. The Wal-Mart/Murphy USA located on U.S. 69 in Lumberton raised their price of gasoline a total of 12 cents in the day leading up to the evacuation for Hurricane Gustav, then another 10 cents when the evacuation was announced. 

These prices were NOT consistent with other gas-stations in the area and following the storm, prices dropped again to reflect market prices. And despite a gas station manager claiming that prices went up because of a “gas price rise”, the cost of oil per barrel dropped over each of the three days. 

Evacuation Gas Game [The Examiner (Texas)]:

In the days and hours leading to the potential call for a mandatory evacuation for Southeast Texas residents the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) blasted across its electronic billboard alert system that a hurricane was coming and residents needed to fill up their tanks with gasoline.

According to a local wholesale fuel provider, most everyone heeded TxDOT’s advice, but The Examiner also kept close watch on one gasoline retailer located along the main evacuation route from Southeast Texas.

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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.

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.

Another Wal-Mart employee recently filed a racial discrimination and retaliation complaint against Wal-Mart in the Northern District of Georgia…

Raquel Sagastume lives in Riverdale, Georgia. Originally, Ms. Sagastume hails from Honduras. She was hired at Wal-Mart as a Sales Associate in March of 2001.  After her successful job performance, Ms. Sagastume was promoted to Assistant Store Manager and made approximately $46,000.00 a year.

In 2006, Ms. Sagastume was transferred to a store located in Lovejoy, Georgia. Upon arriving at the new location and without her approval, Ms. Sagastume’s salary was immediately reduced to $38,000.00 a year. No indication was ever given to Ms. Sagastume that her performance on the job was anything less than stellar. 

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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.

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.

Recently, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a story about a Pennsylvanian woman, Tanveer Walli, who filed a civil rights complaint in Federal Court on July 10, 2008 naming Wal-Mart as a defendant. Ms. Walli alleges discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of her religion, as well as intimidation and coercion under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Ms. Walli says she was refused service at the Wal-Mart store McDonald’s location because of her headscarf (or hijab).

According to the suit, the plaintiff entered an Allentown McDonald’s in August of last year and was verbally accosted and refused service by the restaurant manager. The plaintiff says her pleas for equal treatment were treated with laughter as other patrons were served. She then allegedly sought the assistance of a Wal-Mart manager, who instead of helping, asked her to leave the store.

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Wal-Mart may turn a blind eye to labor violations in their supplier factories, but what about violations in their supercenters?  The following article details workers at a Wal-Mart in Jinling, China who labor 365 days a year without a single day off.  The workers risk severe reprimand for taking days off or complaining about their arduous schedules.  Wal-Mart claims the workers aren’t Wal-Mart’s responsibility, but if even if that’s true, how could Wal-Mart just sit by and allow the exploitation of workers on their property? Perhaps such a situation is not too surprising, though, given Wal-Mart’s history of labor abuses and outright disrespect for labor laws.  What’s next, Wal-Mart?  Maybe locking employees in?

Wal-Mart Sales Promotion Employees Work Everyday, 365 Days! [Jinling Evening Paper via Nanjing News, 5/22/08]

The other day, a Wal-Mart food department factory representative from Wal-Mart’s Xin Street Supermarket complained to a Jinling Evening Paper reporter:  From the time she entered Wal-Mart until now, she has scarcely had any rest.  One year, 365 days, she has worked everyday.  Not only are there sales promotion employees like her in other departments working like she does, some who cannot stand these conditions have taken personal days off only to be severely reprimanded the next day.

“Our work time is from 7:30 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon; or from 3pm until 10:30 in the evening.  After work, we still have to attend a meeting until 11pm.  Many of us sales promotion employees live comparatively far away.  We arrive home very late at night,” this sales promotion employee informed reporters.

“Sales promotion employees are in fact factory staff and have work relations with the factory which simply dispatches the workers to Wal-Mart for work.  Factory personnel told us workers that sales promotion employees have one day off a week.  However, in the supermarket, supermarket manager, Zhang Mou, won’t permit workers to rest.  He said once you enter Wal-Mart, you must listen to Wal-Mart, if not, go home.  If the factory intercedes, Wal-Mart will remove their goods.  Before, many of us sales promotion employees worked at Carrefour, Jin Runfa (RT Mart), etc.  All these supermarkets give the regular time off unlike Wal-Mart where we are the lowest employees.  Where we eat, the hot food is all separate.  Wal-Mart’s staff has two days off every week.  We sale promotion employees don’t have a single day off.  We stand every day for eight hours.  Our legs are swollen.  We’ve made known our circumstances to the store’s sales promotion department.  The staff has recorded our state of affairs, but nothing has changed.” Sales promotion employees seem to have no options.

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POWAY: Wal-Mart opponents gain ally [North County Times (Calif.)]

Residents who have teamed up to oppose Wal-Mart’s plan to expand its Poway store into one of the company’s signature Supercenters caught the attention of a controversial activist last week.

Al Norman, described in a “60 Minutes” feature nearly 10 years ago as the “guru of the anti-Wal-Mart movement,” has joined the South Poway Residents Association in trying to stop Wal-Mart from converting its Community Road store into a 199,000-square-foot hybrid that would sell a full line of groceries in addition to other merchandise.

“It’s the little guy versus the big guy,” Norman, 61, said last week in a telephone interview from his home in Massachusetts. “These kind of battles attract me.”

Local and corporate Wal-Mart officials declined last week to talk about Norman and his role in galvanizing opposition against Wal-Mart stores nationwide.

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Every year, hundreds of Wal-Mart store development plans are thwarted by local community groups and activists.  Battle–Mart brings news and updates of these fights, some of communities trying to stop a new Wal-Mart from being built, others of local groups uniting to prevent an existing Wal-Mart from expanding.

Each week, Battle-Mart will highlight local fights that need immediate action. Check back each week to take action. Now it is your turn to take action to bust sprawl!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…

Colonie, NY. Wal-Mart Superstore Requires Nearby Wal-Mart To Close

A year and a half after walking from Colonie, NY due to a lack of support, Wal-Mart is back before local town officials. This time around, WMW is floating the idea of building a 195,000 sq. ft supercenter. Building a new store in Colonie would mean closing an existing WMT store a few miles from the proposed supercenter site and the lay off of 275 employees, many of whom will have to seek employment at the supercenter if it is approved.

Readers are urged to email Colonie’s new supervisor, Paula Mahan at . Send Supervisor Mahan the following message:

“Colonie was right to reject the project proposed by Wal-Mart in 2006 and should take the same action now. The proposed project makes no sense. The proposed store is too big and is wrong Colonie. If you allow WMT to build bigger store, and you will force the closing of another one a few miles away. This project will not create “new” jobs. It will merely shift existing jobs from Latham Farms, and from area grocery stores, to the new Wal-Mart. I urge you to vote against this project.”

Click below to read more…

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Mayor Pete Sanchez (right) of Suisun City, California, could soon be on the hot seat. In what appears to be an unusual move, recall notices were served to Sanchez, Vice Mayor Jane Day and Councilman Mike Hudson during the city council meeting earlier this week.

The group Save Our Suisun claims the council ignored safety experts and approved the controversial 227,000-square-foot proposed project on 21 acres at state Highway 12 and Walters Road last month, “risking the health and safety” of Suisun residents.

Sanchez has served as mayor for 14 years now, and from the story, did not seem overly concerned about the recall attempt. The group has up to 120 days to collect 2,050 valid signatures of registered voters in order to force a recall election.

Wal-Mart issue stirs recall in Suisun City [Vacaville Reporter]

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Excellent editorial from the Mayor Mark Nuaimi of Fontana, California, one of many southern California locals Wal-Mart has tried to bully its way into. Fontana, which sits about 50 miles East of Los Angeles, is fighting to keep its plan for a community friendly, mixed-use, walkable development intact.

Editorial
[Inland Valley Daily Bulletin]

So I read in a recent newspaper article that I refused to meet with representatives of Wal-Mart to discuss the Promenade project in Fontana.

I’m a pretty unreasonable person. Pigheaded, some might even say. But what John Mendez, the latest spokesperson for Wal-Mart, failed to share was that I informed him I don’t meet with companies threatening litigation against the city. And, if I’m not mistaken, Mendez has been quoted in local newspapers as saying the company will enforce its property rights.

Your company’s representative at all City Council meetings was not an architect or a professional planner, it was your attorney. So forgive me if my litigation detector isn’t pegged with Wal-Mart not getting its way in the Promenade.

What you also failed to mention in the newspaper article (or to any of the paid employees who attended our City Council meeting) was that I have met with Wal-Mart or its representatives no fewer than five times over the past several years, imploring your company to work with our community and council to develop where it makes sense to our community and to Wal-Mart. You purchased the Promenade property after we had already initiated the Specific Plan process and after we had already begun talking about a walkable, mixed-use development. Come to think of it, you also purchased your site in south Fontana against the advice and opinions of city officials, after a Specific Plan for the area had already been completed.

Am I seeing a trend here? Does the $200 billion gorilla simply march into every jungle and get its way?

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Every year, hundreds of Wal-Mart store development plans are thwarted by local community groups and activists.  Battle–Mart brings news and updates of these fights, some of communities trying to stop a new Wal-Mart from being built, others of local groups uniting to prevent an existing Wal-Mart from expanding.

Each week, Battle-Mart will highlight local fights that need immediate action. Check back each week to take action. Now it is your turn to take action to bust sprawl!

JAMES ISLAND, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Historic Charleston, South Carolina, with its reputation as a gem of the south, has kept its character while sweeping undesirable projects onto nearby James Island.  According to the Charleston Post and Courier, James Island is getting another undesirable project, a new Wal-mart Super Center.
The plans for the new Wal-Mart Super Center call for it to be located next door to the existing Wal-Mart and on 3 acres of wetlands that the Charleston City Council is willing to sell to Wal-Mart. To get their hands on the wetlands, Wal-Mart has made a deal with local environmental groups. Wal-Mart says it will buy 10 acres of wetlands on James Island and preserve it---but only if they are allowed to buy the 3 acres of wetlands they want to destroy for their store. The Coastal Conservation League, which should be protecting these 3 acres, is expected to support the superstore, as long as it gets the 10 acres preserved.

Residents on James Island do not want to be on the receiving end of a Wal-Mart Super Center, and are organizing to stop it. They have formed a group called I.R.E., which stands for Islanders for Reasonable Expansion. They don’t consider a 175,000 s.f. superstore or the selected location, right next door to the existing Wal-Mart, to be reasonable.

Readers are urged to go to send an email to the Clerk of the City Council at: . Email the Clerk and the City Councilors the following message:

“One Wal-Mart on James Island is one more than enough. Respect the wishes of James Island, and leave the wetlands intact and the residents with one Wal-Mart---which is sprawl enough.”

Click below for more Battle-Mart stories:

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According to the Sanqin Daily, on March 2, a Chinese customer purchased a package of steamed buns from his local Wal-Mart in Luoma, China.  The next day when he opened the package to eat his lunch, he was unpleasantly surprised to find that all the buns were all moldy and had expired.  When he took the buns and his receipt back to Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart claimed there was no possible way to determine if the buns were bought at Wal-Mart and refused to do anything.

Feeling angered and upset by Wal-Mart’s inaction, the customer staged a protest for local media in front of the Wal-Mart.

On the steamed bun package, reporters noted that the production date for the steamed buns was February 19.  According to the label, even if the steamed buns had been refrigerated, the buns would have expired on February 29.  The receipt showed that the customer purchased the bag of steamed buns on March 2 at 9:25pm for RMB 3.5.  The barcode on the receipt and the barcode of the packaging of the steamed buns was exactly the same.

Wal-Mart’s response? 

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GAWKER/EDELMAN SMACKDOWN

First of all, we’d like to thank the fairy godmother who inspired Gawker’s bloggers to give birth to this headline.

Edelman Is A Soulless, Wal-Mart Shilling Firm That Shouldn’t Lecture About Ethics [Gawker]

You and your agency aren’t really the paragons of honesty and decency in communications that you present yourselves to be. You guys have run a political-style, multimillion-dollar campaign for years on behalf of Wal-Mart, one of the most objectionable companies in the world.

Paid liars. [The Writing on the Wal]

Reporters may understand that they’re going to be lied to on a regular basis, but do the people that shop there? If they do, why does Wal-Mart waste millions of dollars each year on Edelman? After all, they could always lie to the public just as easily and just as often for free.

Blog Wars: Gawker vs. Edelman [Adages]

It all started after Mr. Edelman personally responded to a post Mr. Nolan wrote that featured a marketing executive’s detailed account about a media training session he or she had with an Edelman employee wherein the Edelman employee flat out told the exec that: “Sometimes, you just have to stand up there and lie.”

Mr. Edelman demanded that the post be taken down immediately. Ummm ... fat chance of that happening.

The fact that Edelmen just launched a “transparency in communications” initiative: sadly ironic or poetic justice?

After the jump, Wal-Mart fights to stay afloat in Japan, and the company gets a very special valentine from citizens in California.

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This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.

Forget everyday low prices. Wal-Mart has been paying high-priced lobbyists to keep the company from having to pay its fair share of income tax to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Wal-Mart paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars last year to a small army of 8 lobbyists to push its agenda with Beacon Hill lawmakers in 2007. The retailer’s ‘high-priced’ lobbying tab for 2007 came to $208,678---five times what the company spent the previous year.

According to research conducted by Sprawl-Busters, a Greenfield, MA-based anti-Wal-Mart clearinghouse, Wal-Mart hired three separate lobbying firms, plus its own Public Affairs Manager, as lobbyists:

• Bay State Strategies Group, LLC of Natick was paid $53,200 by Wal-Mart, which went to 3 of its lobbyists: David Shapiro, Frank Shea, and Robert Bernstein.
• Holland & Knight, LLP of Boston, also had Wal-Mart as a client in 2007. The firm was paid $26,600 by Wal-Mart for the services of the same 3 lobbyists.
• Johnson Haley, LLP of Boston, was the big winner of Wal-Mart payments, receiving a total of $128,503 for the services of 4 lobbyists: Stephanie D. Neal-Johnson, Pierce J. Haley, Andrea Serlin, and Martin Fisher.

In addition, Wal-Mart registered its own New England public affairs manager, Christopher Buchanan, of Plymouth, as a lobbyist.

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The bad news: A slowing economy and dwindling tax receipts are placing state budgets on a ledge, staring down at the prospect of significant budget shortfalls. The worse news: According to The Wall Street Journal, it appears to be a fairly widespread problem nationwide.

Much of the shortfall stemmed from the slowing economy, as well as tax cuts enacted by some states for 2007. While revenue from personal-income taxes have remained healthy, growth in sales-tax revenues has slowed as consumers have reined in their spending, and income taxes collected from corporations have fallen, along with corporate profits.

States from coast to coast are understandably brainstorming to the nth degree, seeking ways to cut spending and increase revenue - in Kentucky, the Governor has asked state agencies to cut spending by up to 3%, while in New Jersey the Governor’s Office has proposed raising tolls and freezing spending to offset that state’s shortfall. And in California, The Governator has thrown out plans ranging from closing state parks, to trimming $4 billion from education, to cutting dental care for the poor. I suppose, at the very least, the California poor would no longer have to worry about the bright California sun glaring off their pearly whites...not helping, I know.

So, pulling Wal-Mart into this discussion doesn’t mean we’re blaming them for the slowing economy, although in another post you might see me try and persuade you that its “Save more; Live better” slogan is having the unintended effect of having consumers “save more” but not buying anything at all. And that, I submit, is as tightly sealed an argument for economic slowdown as you can get. At least in my brain.

What is does bring to mind related to Wal-mart, is the recent tax case in North Carolina in which Wal-mart was assessed over $30 million in back taxes, and failed in its attempt to have the money refunded. If corporate income tax revenue is declining, one way to reverse that trend is legislation that ensures corporations are paying their fair share. Which is exactly why tax experts such as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities advocate for measures such as combined reporting.
Read more below, after the jump.

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Wal-Mart Digs Deeper in Japan [Wall Street Journal]

In yet another effort to shore up its slumping operations in Japan, U.S. discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offered to pay 100 billion yen ($873 million) to acquire the 49.1% of its Japanese subsidiary it doesn’t already own.

Wal-Mart said it would pay 140 yen for each Seiyu Ltd. share. That’s a 61% premium to Friday’s closing price of 87 yen. Trading in Seiyu shares were halted before the start of trading yesterday.

Wal-Mart said owning all of Seiyu would give it more flexibility to invest in a range of activities, including merchandising, distribution and logistics.

The deal comes five years after Wal-Mart began building its stake in Seiyu, a struggling Japanese retailer that seemed to fit in with the Bentonville, Arkansas, company’s strategy. Since then, Wal-Mart has spent millions of dollars to amass a 50.9% stake as well as refurbish Seiyu’s older stores.

So far, that effort hasn’t been rewarded. Seiyu said yesterday it posted a loss of 11.4 billion yen for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30. While that marked an improvement over the 59.6-billion-yen loss posted a year earlier, Seiyu also said its same-store sales fell 1%.

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Looks like Wal-Mart is still feeling the effects of its German retail blunder.

Wal-Mart Lowers 2Q Profit by $153M [Associated Press]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reduced its reported second-quarter profit by $153 million due to expenses from selling its German retail operations, the world’s largest retailer reported Monday.

In a regulatory filing, Wal-Mart said the added cost reduced its earnings per share for the quarter that ended July 31 to 72 cents from the 76 cents it originally reported Aug. 14. That compares with 50 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Wal-Mart said the late charge came after “recent nonbinding discussions with Metro at the end of August 2007.” Germany’s Metro AG agreed last year to buy Wal-Mart’s German operations.

Wal-Mart called the new charge a “post-closing adjustment.”

Metro bought Wal-Mart’s 85 sites in Germany last year for an undisclosed sum as Wal-Mart quit Germany and South Korea after losses in both markets.