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.
Posted by Media Team | Permalink
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.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
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.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
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.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
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.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Joel Nezianya | Permalink
Jul30
Perpetuating Sprawl
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)
Posted by Research Team | Permalink
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