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TIAA-CREF (TC), the nation’s largest pension system, proclaims itself a leader in corporate/social responsibility, as well as in customer satisfaction.

Although its tagline is “financial services for the greater good,” TC invests in some of the worst corporate actors: Coca-Cola, Nike, Wal-Mart, Reynolds American, and Costco (in Mexico). The pension fund’s socially irresponsible investing has caught the eye of some of its own investors. The 1.4 million-strong American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution critical of TC’s investment in the first three of these companies and demanded that it hold these companies accountable on labor issues.

After years of shareholder lobbying, TC finally agreed to talk to some of these companies. Unfortunately, TC’s “quiet diplomacy” over years has led to nothing substantive with the companies. Its Policy Statement on Corporate Governance states,

“While quiet diplomacy remains our core strategy…TIAA-CREF’s engagement program involves many different activities and initiatives, including…engaging in public dialogue and commentary… engaging in collective action with other investors…seeking regulatory or legislative relief…commencing or supporting litigation.”

TC’s press releases state that “engagement is a multi-step process...TIAA-CREF believes that we should explore the ways in which to influence the companies’ behavior and thereby help bring about positive social change” and that they “sometimes threaten tougher actions.” Notably, a January 24, 2009 New York Times article asserted that changes in Wal-Mart’s environmental practices were prompted by the aggressive work of activists.

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Originally posted at the Huffington Post, David Nassar writes that Wal-Mart in America’s big cities was a bad idea 5 years ago - and is still a bad idea today. That’s why Wal-Mart Watch activists in New York, Chicago and LA have sent over 25,000 letters to their city councils, and more than 1,500 state legislators around the country have been told by their constituents that new Wal-Mart plans should be called off until a worker safeguard like the Employee Free Choice Act is passed.

Wal-Mart in Chicago, New York and L.A. without EFCA? A bad idea

While most of America’s businesses are struggling through the recession, Wal-Mart and the Walton Family are raking in billions in profit. There’s nothing wrong with making money - but the rest of us are getting poorer as a result. Whether it is the low wages the Waltons pay, the taxes that the company expertly dodges or the subsidies Wal-Mart demands, the average American is helping the Walton family get richer every day.

That behavior has been a drag on Wal-Mart’s reputation and a primary reason why the company has had such a hard time entering high-income communities and first tier urban markets like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Now, however, it’s clear that Wal-Mart wants to use the cover of the recession and the promise of new jobs to enter the same communities that have rejected it in the past.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart hasn’t changed - only the economy has.

Given Wal-Mart’s low-margin, high-volume business model, it has always been dependent on rapid growth to stay alive. Over the past two decades, Wal-Mart’s growth plan has been simple: build as many supercenters in suburban and rural America as possible. But in the past few years, Wal-Mart has had to hit the brakes on its expansion after saturating most of the country and leaving itself few places to grow.

Still, America’s big cities remain largely untapped by the company. Millions of Americans live relatively Wal-Mart-free existences in the metropolitan areas of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, D.C. and Philadelphia, among others. Now that Wal-Mart sees a moment of weakness, it is poised and ready to strike.

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As you know, the Wal-Mart Watch community in New York, Chicago and LA has been rising up to voice their opposition to Wal-Mart’s attempt to exand into their city urban expansion.

The response in the Big Apple has been particularly impressive. Well over 15,000 letters were sent to all 51 New York City council members from all five boroughs concerning the negative impact that Wal-Mart will have on New York City businesses and community culture.  Several of you have already sent in responses received from your NY councilmembers - who have enthusiastically supported you in your stand against Wal-Mart - and for Employee Free Choice.

Here are a few of your letters:

I understand that Wal-Mart is interested in opening stores in Manhattan at Union Square, in Chelsea, or along Sixth Avenue. I strongly oppose the opening of a Wal-Mart store in our city. We who live in New York City have no need for a retailer that pays low wages and fails to provide quality health care for its employees, driving them to the use of hospital emergency rooms, thereby contributing to the increase in the cost of health care for the rest of us. Wal-Mart’s cost requirements encourage the payment of low wages to the employees of its suppliers, thus allowing it to become an unfair competitor and leading to the closing of many of its local business competitors. These actions of Wal-Mart drain money from our communities. If the Employee Free Choice Act, currently in Congress, were passed, then, and only then, would the arrival of Wal-Mart on the scene in New York City make any sense.  Wal-Mart workers would then have a chance to bargain for fair salaries and decent benefits and working conditions.  And, Wal-Mart would be forced to compete on an even playing field with its competitors who often are products of the neighborhoods they serve. I hope you’ll do whatever you can to support this crucial legislation as it makes its way through Congress. In this way, you will protect our city and its workers.  And, perhaps, make it possible for a newer, kinder, better Wal-Mart to evolve.

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I’ve heard that Wal-mart might be opening a store in Union Square and I am absolutely appalled.  For starters, I’ve lived in the building directly across from the space, (old circuit city/ Virgin Mega store), for nearly 8 years.  Wal-mart is absolutely antithetical to what NYC is to me, not to mention as anti-nyc neighborhood as it gets.  We need more small businesses hiring people at respectable wages to boost the city, and the people living here.  Wal-mart certainly won’t help me, a tax payer paying directly into the district. I know my local bodegas, my local drugstore, my local clothing shops, my local specialty nooks. These places probably can’t compete with a place like Walmart.  I’ve already seen my favorite East Village bagel shop get muscled out by hot and crusty… And my favorite clothing shops muscled out by rising rent.  And these are the places that make NYC what it is, and bring people to live here, and tourists to visit.  That space in Union Square is PRIME location, and Union Square is the true heart of the city.  Fill it with Walmart, and you kill the heart of the city. Please.  I’m pleading with you, I voted for you, to give me my voice in matters such as these.  And right now, I’m asking you to use your power to oppose Wal-Mart. Thank you for protecting our city.

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Not long ago, we reached out to our Wal-Mart Watch communities in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, asking them to contact their city councils and urge them to continue to oppose Wal-Mart’s moving into their cities. Combined, the populations of Chicago, NYC and LA house nearly 15 million people, or roughly 5% of the U.S. population.

For years, Wal-Mart has tried to build stores in those and other urban centers including Detroit, Washington, DC, and Boston. Building stores in these cities represents one of the last few rich avenues for domestic U.S growth open to Wal-Mart, but to this point it’s been one big, giant FAIL.

Since submitting our request, over 25,000 letters have been sent to the city councils in LA, New York and Chicago. And below is an example of the responses those letters have been generating - this one is from David Yassky, a member of the New York City Council currently running for New York City Comptroller:

Dear Neighbor:

Thank you for your concern regarding the recent proposals to open Wal-Mart stores in New York City. I agree that this is not the answer to our City’s economic problems, and I am concerned by the company’s poor track record regarding the treatment of its employees and its devastating effect on local businesses.  Small businesses are the life-blood of our City and as the Chair of the City Council’s Small Business Committee, I will fight against the development of new Wal-Mart stores that bring more harm than good to a community.

Moreover, I strongly support passing the Employee Free Choice Act. This legislation would be an important safeguard against employee abuses.  The Employee Free Choice Act would promote better working conditions and benefits for those who need it most:  New York’s working families.  I will continue to support this legislation and employee rights whenever I have the opportunity to do so. Thank you again for your interest.

Sincerely,
David Yassky
Council Member, 33rd District

We’ll keep updating you as we continue to get more responses. Until then, you can check out more on Wal-Mart’s Urban Problem here. What these cities need now are jobs that pay a living wage, good health benefits that keep people healthy and productive (and off public health care), and thriving small businesses that give back to their communities. Wal-Mart need not apply.

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As you may have seen, last week we rolled out a new initiative to stop Wal-Mart’s plan to use the cover of recession to sneak in to Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Since then, supporters across the country have sent thousands of letters urging their local city council members to refuse to even discuss Wal-Mart development plans until the Employee Free Choice Act is passed to safeguard their communities. The WMW team would like to thank everybody who wrote in to their local elected officials.

Particularly strong in their effort were New Yorkers. One letter that was particularly articulate, passionate, and well reasoned was sent to by Bill Millard, a resident of NYC. Thanks to Bill for giving us permission to publish the letter in its entirety:

Dear Councilmember Mendez:

Greetings from St. Mark’s Place. I’ve recently read that the Wal-Mart corporation is trying to gain a foothold in the Union Square area. As a constituent living in the East Village, and as a local architecture writer who treasures the unique culture, heritage, and built environment of our city, I would like to urge you to use all available means to prevent that corporation from opening anywhere in New York. Not in Union Square, not in Brooklyn, not in Queens: nowhere in our city, please. Not now, not ever, not here… and not even if they swear on a stack of every major culture’s holy books that they’ll pull an ideological 180-degree turn and start supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. No matter what promises they make, Wal-Mart simply doesn’t belong in New York City.

With a disgraceful record of corporate behavior and a business model premised on exurban sprawl, automobile dependence, a work force with no better options, and a bland commercial monoculture, Wal-Mart represents everything ugly and mediocre and unjust about our nation, the exact opposite of the values that progressive Americans take pride in. Part of the case against Wal-Mart is simply economic: Wal-Mart destroys local economies, puts people out of work, damages local environments with auto traffic, degrades local pay-scale standards, treats workers like cattle, and evades its responsibilities as a major employer to provide its workers with decent health care. I’m sure you’ve heard the grim stories about workers locked into stores, mandatory work hours off the clock, petty efforts to claw back legal settlements from workers with health problems, exploitation of Chinese labor under conditions that border on slavery—all the things that make the Wal-Mart name stink worldwide. The “low prices” that Wal-Mart offers on its goods are no bargain at all: they merely shift the costs of its profiteering onto the people and places that have the least power to bear them.  (The necessary statistics and narratives on all this, as you’re probably already aware, are available at walmartwatch.com.)

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Today, Wal-Mart Watch is launching a new web page - “Wal-Mart’s Urban Problem” - which looks at the company’s attempts to get back in to New York, Chicago and L.A. Over the next few weeks we’re going to make sure to keep you as informed as possible on this issue, and give our readers every opportunity to take action to stop it.

If you’ve been reading the blog, it’s no secret to you. For years, Wal-Mart has tried and failed to build stores in America’s biggest cities.

Why they want to build in cities like New York, Chicago and L.A. is no secret either. Wal-Mart has expanded to nearly every corner of the country, and America’s untapped urban cities represent the last real avenue for growth - and perhaps the greatest challenge that the company still faces.

In an April 2006 speech in Chicago, Lee Scott declared that his company wanted to be an “urban pioneer” and that Wal-Mart “has never been afraid to invest in communities that are overlooked by other retailers.”

Unfortunately for Lee Scott, it didn’t come true. Wal-Mart was notably shut out of Chicago after refusing to pay higher wages, but also has continued to be stonewalled in New York City and central Los Angeles - as well as Detroit, Washington, DC, and Boston.

Lee Scott was so frustrated with the failures that he famously went to New York City and said “I don’t care if we are ever here...I don’t think it’s worth the effort.”

But now that the economy has turned down, Wal-Mart smells a weakness and wants another shot. Wal-Mart has negotiations underway for a store in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of central L.A., is eying up to 5 stores in Chicago, and is rumored to be considering several locations in New York City.

Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, the company hasn’t changed – only the economy has.

We’re confident that Americans won’t be fooled into believing that Wal-Mart has changed its low-wage, low-benefit business model. Without any assurance that Wal-Mart will be a responsible company, letting Wal-Mart build in America’s biggest cities would be a major mistake.

A Case For Employee Free Choice

The only thing on the table that would assure Wal-Mart respect New York workers is the Employee Free Choice Act. EFCA is a bill that would finally allow Wal-Mart workers to freedom they deserve to join a union – without harassment or intimidation from their managers. 

If you live in or around New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, send an email to your city council and let them know how you feel (by clicking the aforementioned links.) Your city council members can’t pass EFCA themselves, but they can send a strong message to Wal-Mart and to Congress that they won’t even discuss a potential Wal-Mart plan until the Employee Free Choice Act is passed. 

Our big cities are special places - let’s make sure they stay that way.

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following comments include a retail industry veteran telling it like it is, the experiences of a disabled employee, the departure from Sam Walton era values, and a dream job gone wrong.

A former employee from New York writes to us anonymously to say that Wal-Mart is one of the worst jobs out there:

“I’m 62 years old with 18 years of produce experience and over 30 years experience in retail. I wanted a part-time job to help pay for the extras my wife and I love. I took a job at hell-mart. In all my years of working in retail, I have never witnessed a company as heartless as Wal-Mart.

The pay is a joke; I was told my starting pay is based on my experience (LOL). I make $8.30 an hour. I was told I would be part-time...24 hours a week. They have no one in the produce department who knows what they are doing so they work me two weeks at 40 hours and then one week of 32 hours. This way they don’t have to make me full time and won’t have to pay for benefits.

When I complain about the number of hours I’m working, they tell me how lucky I am to be working at Wal-Mart. The hours are a joke. Every week is different. You never get the same hours from week to week. It’s impossible to plan anything.

God help you if you get sick. You better come in and work no mater how you feel. If you take a sick day five times in any six-month period, they coach you. This is when they take you behind closed doors and read you the riot act. If you are sick one more day after that, you are fired - for any reason they want. I have seen some very sick people come into work - so sick, they could hardly stand up. Wal-Mart doesn’t care. If they ask to go home, they are told it will count against them if they do. I was told even if your doctor puts you off from work you still have a count against you. There is absolutely no excuse for being sick.

There is a God and I just pray one day that the Walton family pays for the way they treat the people who make them rich. I have only been there for 7 months and I could tell you things you wouldn’t believe, it is unreal the way they treat the employees.”

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The Nassau County District Attorney might think that money is better than criminal charges, but Jdimytai Damour’s Father doesn’t agree. Yesterday he and his lawyer slammed Wal-Mart and the local D.A. for allowing the company to buy its way out of the Black Friday tragedy.

“It’s like if they were driving a car and they hit someone, killed him and then just walked away,” said Ogera Charles, the father of Jdimytai Damour, 34, of Jamaica, Queens, who was killed in the melee in Valley Stream.

Apparently the deal not only allows Wal-Mart to abdicate responsibility, but it prevented Damour’s family from seeing any of the criminal findings against Wal-Mart at all. The family is currently suing Wal-Mart for additional damages.

The Nassau DC has allowed Wal-Mart do here what has done with dozens of other settled lawsuits: cough up money without ever having to admit that it was wrong.

We’re happy that the family is receiving some money from Wal-Mart—but they deserve so much more.

Wal-Mart victim’s father critical of DA’s deal [Newsday]:

The father of a Wal-Mart worker who was trampled to death in a stampede of shoppers during a post- Thanksgiving Day sale expressed his frustration Thursday at a deal between the Nassau district attorney and the megastore.

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According to USA Today, state governments struggling to find new ways to raise revenue are running into stiff opposition to one idea — the expansion of wine sales into grocery stores.

One such state is New York, where embattled Governor David Paterson’s proposed 2009-10 fiscal budget includes a provision to allow such expansion, a move that if approved he believes could yield $105 million in licensing and franchise fees from stores during the new fiscal year. New York currently is currently facing a rather daunting $14 billion budget gap.

“This legislation would provide greater choice and convenience for New Yorkers and provide an even greater market for New York wines,” said Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the state Budget Division.

Not everyone in the Empire State is happy with the provision, however. In fact, there is a relatively large coalition of small business owners and independent wine sellers opposing the change, basically calling it a gift to big box chains and grocery stores. The argument is that the proposal will not create any new jobs - in fact, all it will do is divert liquor-buying traffic from independently-owned shops and liquor stores to larger chains and big box stores like Wal-Mart. And while it could result in $105 million in licensing fees from the Wal-Marts of the world, it wouldn’t really increase the alcohol market as a whole - so while New York gets its money and Wal-Mart gets its booze, small business owners will see less costumers and eventually a good portion of them could see unemployment.

“This misguided plan would benefit big-box stores like Wal-Mart without creating even one new job, while imperiling Main Street businesses across the state and the thousands of jobs they provide,” said Jeff Saunders of the Retailers Alliance Foundation, a New York state retailers’ lobbying group that helped form the Last Store coalition. If the legislation passes, Saunders predicts roughly 1,000 liquor stores will close, costing 4,000 to 5,000 jobs.

Job loss means more people on unemployment and more people people on state health roles, and that equals more cost to New York taxpayers. Some might call this “thinning of the heard,” but the prospect of losing 4,000 jobs that will not be replaced seems questionable at best. Already this year a similar idea has been killed in Kentucky, and the proposal in New York and another in Tennessee both face stiff opposition.

Spirited debate over state wine laws [USA Today]

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This is most alarming news, indeed. Apparently Mike Duke is taking a different tack on the Big Apple than Lee Scott.

We’ll keep you updated.

Will Wal-Mart Move to Union Square? [Gothamist]

Future NYU students may be living in a Wal-Mart dorm one day! Okay, that’s not quite true (yet!), but The Villager does have some news that isn’t going to make many folks very happy, particularly Rev. Billy. The paper is reporting that as two prime storefronts in Union Square depart (Circuit City and possibly the Virgin Megastore), there’s talk of some big-box stores moving in. They say a sales associate at a closing store tells them Wal-Mart has been snooping around and might be interested in taking over the space, and the company hasn’t denied it either. Interesting.

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New York’s Governor called for a host of new fees and taxes yesterday, including an “iPod tax” that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other “digitally delivered entertainment services.”

The Governor’s new budget for 2009 includes 88 new fees plus a bunch of other new taxes on anything from soda, beer, wine and cigars to movie tickets, taxi rides, and massages. According to the NY Daily News, It would also extend sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and remove the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110. So no more grabbing a box of stogies and hitting the local cinaplex for me, I guess...well, assuming I lived in New York. Which I don’t.

That the “iPod tax” actually refers to Apple’s popular product by name would cause one to infer that Governor Paterson has it out for frequenters of the iStore. In actuality, however, MacWorld points out that the title is a little misleading.

It’s not a tax on iPods, but rather the levying of state and local sales taxes for “digitally delivered entertainment services.” The iTunes Store would seem to be a prime target there, but Amazon, Wal-mart, and other retailers would take a hit from the proposed tax as well.

We’ll see if Wal-Mart and the rest flex their mighty lobbying muscles on this. While at least 16 states plus DC already have taxes of this nature, California shot down a similar proposal earlier this year.

New York governor proposes digital download tax [MacWorld]

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An LA Times piece gives us new insight into the crowd atmosphere that led to Jdimytai Damour’s death - an atmosphere that began long before the doors at the Valley Stream store opened.

Apparently, shoppers were already rowdy, pushing and reporting injuries by 3:30 AM, long before the store opened. At that time, the crowd “had grown to 2000” - well above the crowds of previous years. While the article might appear to be an indictment of shoppers’ own senseless animal behavior and unrestrained emotions, it makes it clear that Wal-Mart had plenty of time to observe the chaos, and to work with local police and its own security to protect its customers and workers.

A coworker tells the Times that Damour told him after he was placed at the front of the store, before the doors were opened and then broken off the hinges, “I don’t want to be here.”

Wal-Mart crowd unruly long before trampling [Los Angeles Times via Seattle Times]:

NEW YORK — He took his last breath on the floor at Wal-Mart, between the soda machines and a device that gives change for cans and plastic.

Trampled by a mob of bargain-hungry Black Friday shoppers, Jdimytai Damour, 34, died by asphyxiation, leaving people asking: Why, and how?

Audio-enhanced chatter captured on a cellphone video posted on YouTube and interviews with witnesses offer some hints.

The video shows a police officer crouching by a 6-foot-5-inch, 270-pound man lying at the entrance of the Long Island Wal-Mart. A paramedic pumps the man’s chest so forcefully his limp legs and feet joggle. Shoppers peer from behind glass doors or stand a few feet away, hands in pockets.

“They need to shock him,” a voice says.

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The family of Jdimytai Damour has filed suit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.  The death, which The Oregonian (Ore.) called preventable, occurred on Black Friday.  While no amount of money can ever replace a lost loved-one, the hope is that Wal-Mart will respond by taking appropriate safety measures in future situations like this one to protect the Associates they claim to care so much about. Our hearts go out to the family of Jdimytai Damour. 

Victim’s kin file suit in Wal-Mart stampede death [Associated Press]

The family of a New York man who was trampled to death the day after Thanksgiving by a stampede of bargain hunting Wal-Mart shoppers has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family also filed notice that Nassau County, on Long Island, and its police department will be sued.

The lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the Long Island mall where it is located was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of Elsie Damour Phillipe. Phillipe is the sister of victim Jdimytai Damour (DHMEE’-tree Di-MOHR’), and is the court-appointed administrator of his estate.

Damour, a temporary worker hired for the holiday season, was crushed to death when some 2,000 customers stormed into the Valley Stream store.

None of the defendants in the lawsuit immediately responded to requests for comment.

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Six days after Jdimytai Damour’s tragic death, a clearer picture has emerged of not only its immediate causes but the broader question of who is responsible.

On the death itself:

[Nassau County, NY Police Commissioner] Mulvey said yesterday that Damour’s cause of death was “positional asphyxiation” consistent with having pressure applied to his chest… “He was trampled to death,” Mulvey said. [Newsday.com, 12/2/08]

The official autopsy does not lie; it clearly took a massive flood of people to knock over and crush a 270-pound man. Other articles point out how the death was preventable:

“This incident was avoidable,” said Bruce Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, the state of New York’s largest grocery worker’s union…"Where were the safety barriers? Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner?[CNN, 11/30/08]

Clearly, Damour lacked training and was ill-prepared to handle the onslaught he faced, further reiterating Wal-Mart’s tendency to under-train and under-staff:

[The family’s attorney] Hecht said Damour had been working at the Wal-Mart only for about a week and was hired through an employment agency that provides temporary staffing. Damour had not been trained for any security assignments and had no background in crowd control, he said. [AP, 12/1/08]

This Wall Street Journal story summarizes Wal-Mart’s culpability:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. should have had better crowd control to prevent the death of a worker who was trampled the day after Thanksgiving amid the bargain-hunting frenzy whipped up by the sales known as door-busters, according to local police and a lawyer for the worker’s family.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time:

Wal-Mart faced several lawsuits from customers who claimed they were hurt by out-of-control shoppers seeking talking Furby dolls in 1998. [Wall Street Journal, 12/2/08]

It’s also important to keep in mind that Damour’s death, while the most severe event this Black Friday, was not the only one; it mirrored other, less serious incidents across the country that easily could have been far worse. For example, in Mississippi:

Allison Burchyett…said she was punched in the stomach by another female shopper who swiped a camera out of her hands at about 4:45 a.m. Friday. [DeSoto Times-Tribune (Miss.), 12/2/08]
News coverage of Damour’s death over the past few days has reflected mixed assignments of blame. Of course, many sources cite the crowd’s collective responsibility and that of the individuals within it.

One columnist wrote:

EXCUSE THE journalistic license, but I’m trying really hard to imagine what must have been in the minds of those impatient, early morning shoppers who trampled a security guard to death during a Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y. [Philadelphia Daily News, 12/2/08]

However, other sources place the responsibility squarely on Wal-Mart’s shoulders, pointing out that they and other retailers incited a climate of reckless bargain-hunting. A letter in the New York Times indicts corporate America as a whole:

Though blame for this tragic incident rests primarily upon the barbarians who rushed the door, corporate America must shoulder some blame for creating the hype surrounding the ritual known as Black Friday that causes some aggressive and nasty people to do horrible things. [NY Times, 12/1/08]

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For our readers in the Big Apple, beware. According to Reuters, “Starting this week in New York City, the retailer will put up a temporary store in Times Square and have a truck roving around the city to celebrate the launch of AC/DC’s new album.”

NYC has of course, always firmly rejected the idea of Wal-Mart in the city. Last year, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott famously told N.Y. Times “I don’t care if we are ever here.”

But over the past year, Wal-Mart seems to have gotten little bored with the country life and is jonesin’ again for some city kicks. It didn’t go very well in Chicago, but they’re still at it in D.C. - and it looks like they’re getting their wish in New York - if for only a bit.

(That is, unless loyal Gotham City Wal-Mart fighters make it...uncomfortable)

But the NYC stunt isn’t the only interesting angle to the AC/DC story. Remember that AC/DC signed the exlusive Wal-Mart deal as a way of bypassing iTunes. Check out this gem from lead singer Brian Roberts:

“Maybe I’m just being old-fashioned, but this itunes, God bless ‘em, it’s going to kill music if they’re not careful,” going on to add: “It’s a...monster, this thing,” he said. “It just worries me. And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much...cash as possible.”

Which store is he talking about again? If a slew of censored and exclusive Garth Brooks and Eagles albums is the way to save the music industry...maybe we’ll just all need to start listening to more books on tapes instead.

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WAL-MART AND THE ‘POORING OF AMERICA’
I’m not sure where the phrase “Pooring of America” came from, but it’s perfect to explain Wal-Mart’s effect on working families. Seeking Alpha ponders why Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are doing so well right now.

What are McDonald’s and Wal-Mart Telling Us? [Seeking Alpha]

I am very intriqued by our top 2 choices for the “Pooring of America” trend - Walmart (WMT) and McDonalds (MCD) - what exactly are the charts above telling us?  If we are to enter a long drawn-out recession, which I have believed, these seem to be screaming buys here. The only question is credit - how does a lack of credit potentially hurt both. They are not expanding a ton, in the U.S. at least - perhaps with Wal-mart it’s financing of inventory, but I cannot wrap my mind around this behavior.

Wal-Mart gets downgraded while stock up in 2008 amid the turmoil [BloggingStocks]

Will Wal-Mart weather the storm? To a point, it already is. Sure, all retailers are expected to have a dismal holiday season this winter, but Wal-Mart will do better than the competition. It has more stores, more pricing leverage and more wherewithal to hold customers hostage with lower prices and inventory turns at a time when it’s needed most. Perhaps we’ll see WMT return to the $60/share level by Thanksgiving—if not sooner.

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Wal-Mart coming to Wellsville in 2010 [Wellsville Daily Reporter (N.Y.)]

With Wal-Mart planning to open a superstore in 2010 on the site of the old municipal airport, the Wellsville Town Board Wednesday heard both unfavorable and favorable comments on the project Wednesday.

The Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development (WCRD) and Wellsville Wants Wal-Mart groups both attended the meeting. The WCRD asked Karen Sawicz, of Albion, in which Wal-Mart built a 156,000-square-foot supercenter, to address the board.

Sawicz told board members Albion had four independent grocery stores, two corporate grocery stores with pharmacies, three independent pharmacies, four independent video stores and three corporate pharmacies at the time the Wal-Mart was built,
“Within nine months of the Wal-Mart supercenter opening, the Orleans (County) community was down to one independent grocery store, two independent pharmacies, two independent video stores, two corporate grocery stores and two corporate pharmacies,” she read from her prepared remarks. “All of the independent grocery store had been open to 25 to 60 years.”
Sawicz said aside from losing grocery stores, Albion lost a way to support fund-raising efforts for its not-for profit groups.

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Variances approved for Wal-Mart [Tonawanda News (N.Y.)]

The Zoning Board of Appeals Monday approved two variances, which, along with the pending sale of an access road by the city is the last step in Wal-Mart’s plans to open in North Tonawanda.

Planners last week were satisfied with the site plan they’ve tweaked for months and their final nod now awaits only a period for input by equivalent offices at the county level, where the schematics have been forwarded.

Variances granted for the industrial lot near the corner of Erie Avenue and Niagara Falls Boulevard Monday skirt a minimum of 30 percent shade coverage - now the site is approved for roughly 15 percent — and a minimum of 1,825 parking spaces - now reduced to 915, half the original proposal.

“I think I’m in an unusual standpoint because I think that it’s a better project because of (the variances),” Marc A. Romanowski, attorney for Wal-Mart, said.

Anthony Bellomo, with FRA Engineering, explained to the board exactly what he and members of the planning commission had hashed out July 21 — that fewer trees in a staggered pattern are intended to please the eye, but any more than the current number would require a bigger parking lot and the destruction of existing foliage along the outer perimeter.

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NORTH TONAWANDA: Public input on Wal-Mart grows passionate again [Tonawanda News (N.Y.)]

City planners on Monday OK’d amendments to Wal-Mart’s site plan, and boisterous input dominating Tuesday’s regular council meeting won’t likely change that.

About 50 residents and others representing the Lumber City Liaisons and North Tonawanda First (for and against Wal-Mart respectively) had it out with each other and members of the council concerning just one of 17 total items on the meeting’s agenda — “permission to negotiate the purchase of city property regarding Wal-Mart.”

A strip of city-owned land on the project’s planned construction site at the old Melody Fair grounds, Bluebird Drive, must be relinquished — in this case sold — to the retailer before construction can begin. The office of Mayor Larry Soos is having the property appraised in advance of the sale.

“We’re not picking numbers out of the sky. We’re getting a full appraisal on this piece of property,” Administrative Assistant Jeffrey Mis said.

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In addition to an interactive map detailing Wal-Mart’s land use across the United States, researchers will be interested to note the map’s companion report: “Perpetuating Sprawl: Understanding Wal-Mart’s Development in Pennsylvania, New York, California, and Ohio”. From the introduction:

By utilizing the “hub and spoke” distribution strategy to maximize effectiveness, Wal-Mart was and still is able to outpace its competitors and build more stores. With a network of distribution centers around the country, Wal-Mart supplies its stores with ease. In fact, “while Wal-Mart needs only 10% of its stores’ square footage for inventory, competitors need 25%. That’s because each store is within a day’s drive of a distribution center.”

Now, after conquering most of the United States, Wal-Mart is at a crossroads. Currently, Wal-Mart is trying to adapt to local and regional preferences while scaling back overall domestic development. It is
within this context that we examine Wal-Mart strategies in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York as a microcosm of America.

The goal of this paper is to provide insights into Wal-Mart’s growth patterns in four states outside of its original sphere of influence, and to help local and regional planners understand where Wal-Mart might
build its next facility.

Click here to download “Perpetuating Sprawl” (PDF)