Urban Wal-Marts considered in New York and DC

[RCDC]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

No, DC is not a small town and so WalMart will not likely make much of a difference to the DC economy.

So why is it parroted by NIMBYs, and why is it brought up here, a thread that clearly states "Urban"? btw, how can having retail money not shipped out to the suburbs make little difference in the DC economy? Seems urbanists would be overjoyed at people not driving far out to shop, and even biking or walking there.

But when you sarcastically say "Walmart BAD, Target GOOD" you are ignoring very real differences between them, not the least of which is their practices relating to small towns. Target deals primarily with cities and suburbs, while WalMart has made small towns its real bread and butter. And you'd have to be wearing really big blinders not to know how bad Walmart has been for small town America.

er, what's your point? In terms of how the store operates, what's different about a Target in the suburbs vs. one in the city?

There are legitimate and important differences between WalMart and Target. You can be derisive all you want, but when you do so it just makes you look like a fool.

Now I'm a fool. Before I was a shill. What's next? Keep em coming!

[Cirrus]

Your questions have nothing to do with my post, and don't address my points except to suggest that discussion of how WalMart affects small towns doesn't belong in the thread.

When you say something worth responding to, I'll respond.

[mhays]

His posts are consistent with "walmart shill targeting DC," not "walmart shill in general" as I originally thought. In that context he seems to be sticking to Hoyle, not being a fool.

Not saying he IS a shill, just that he coincides with the profile.

[M II A II R II K]

Big Retailers Fill More Aisles With Groceries


January 16, 2011

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/bu...y.html?_r=1&hp

For dinner tonight, pick up some sushi and salad — at Walgreens. Or maybe some Target chicken. Reflecting a major shift in the way Americans shop for food, retailers better known for selling clothes or aspirin, including Walgreens, CVS/Pharmacy and Target, are expanding in a big way into the grocery business, with fresh produce, frozen meats and, yes, even sushi.

Target invested $500 million last year alone in a new push on groceries, retrofitting some of its general merchandise stores with full-blown food sections. Sales and traffic at stores with the new grocery areas are about 6 percent higher than at similar stores without them, the company says.

Walgreens began making over some stores in Chicago and New York a year ago, and added up to 500 food items. CVS/Pharmacy last year redesigned about 200 of its stores in urban areas like Boston, Detroit and New York, and expects to make over about 20 percent of its 7,100 stores in all.

As a result, people who typically went to the grocery store once a week to stock up are instead stopping by places whose food items used to be limited to a bag of chips or a can of soup. And retailers are viewing it as an opportunity to increase sales by getting people in their stores more frequently. “It’s going to be a big food fight in the sense that you’re going to have so many people going after this sector,” said Bill Dreher, a retail analyst with Deutsche Bank.

The changes have hit the traditional grocery businesses, stores like Supervalu and Safeway, whose profits had already been declining because of rising food prices, fixed real estate and labor costs, and more competition. Like the grocers, the convenience stores and discount stores are not making a lot of money on their groceries. Instead, the goal is to draw more customers.

.....

[HurricaneHugo]

San Diego currently has an ordinance banning Wal-Mart from building more stores but that might change soon hopefully not though

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...-in-san-diego/

Wal-Mart to build a dozen new stores in San Diego
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011 AT 7:40 P.M.

SAN DIEGO — Wal-Mart says it wants to build a dozen new stores in San Diego over the next five years.

The company's announcement Thursday comes as the City Council prepares to consider repealing an ordinance that requires economic impact reports from developers of big box superstores.

The company's vice president of public affairs Maggie Sans told City News Service that no building sites had been identified, but it was Wal-Mart's intent to have stores across the city.

Sans says the proposed stores would range from smaller neighborhood markets of 30,000 square feet to superstores.

The City Council is scheduled to consider repealing the ordinance on Tuesday.

[mhays]

So they have to do an EIS. Big whoop.

[Brandon716]

^^^I know that Walmart has sold food for years, but when did Walgreens get in the business of selling more than sodas and a few frozen dinners in a freezer? I've never seen a full food service Walgreens.

[vid]

Originally Posted by mhays

So they have to do an EIS. Big whoop.

Walmart is so poor it can't afford to do one!

[NYC4Life]

UPDATED 9:10 AM
Council Holds Hearing On Bringing Wal-Mart To New York City
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...-new-york-city

Just ahead of today's City Council hearing on Wal-Mart's possible move to the city, the retail giant has reached a deal with a key construction union.

The agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York guarantees union workers will build or renovate any stores Wal-Mart opens in the five boroughs in the next five years.

Wal-Mart critics, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, have ripped the big-box store for what they call unfair labor practices with its employees.

Wal-Mart officials say they won’t participate in today's hearing.

© 1999-2011 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[M II A II R II K]

Wal-Mart draws ire even in poor parts of Brooklyn


By Bernd Debusmann - Thu Feb 3



Read More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110203/...wtbWFydGRyYXc-

Wal-Mart's lengthy struggle to open in New York City has hit fresh problems -- a controversial report that said America's biggest discounter does not just sell cheap, it makes neighborhoods poorer. The report concludes that Wal-Mart, the biggest U.S. private employer, kills jobs rather than creates them, drives down wages and is a tax burden because it does not give health and other benefits to many part-time employees, leaving a burden on Medicaid and other public programs.

The New York City Council will hold a public hearing on Thursday on the impact a Wal-Mart would have but the retailer has declined to attend. Wal-Mart dismisses the critical report -- released in January by City University of New York's Hunter College Center for Community Planning -- as "randomly selected statements from ... flawed studies." The report is based on 50 studies of Wal-Mart openings and comes as the company tries to gain a foothold in some of New York's poorest neighborhoods.

"The overwhelming weight of the independent research on the impact of Wal-Mart stores ... shows that Wal-Mart depresses area wages and labor benefits ... pushes out more retail jobs than it creates, and results in more retail vacancies," the report concluded.

Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said a store would bring good jobs and good shopping for fresh food to locals. To push its case, Wal-Mart launched a public relations blitz in mid-January with radio and newspaper ads and a website, www.WalMartNYC.com, which features positive coverage of the company. New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio calls a possible Wal-Mart store in New York "a Trojan horse." "It looks appealing to a lot of families who are hurting but it turns into a big problem in the long term because of the net elimination of jobs," de Blasio said.

.....

[lawfin]

I agree...I think this is why WM ran into stiff opposition on a proposal to get into Lakeview here in Chicago....

I mean sure put a WM in post-industrial abandonment on the far south side.....there is no or very little retail to destroy to begin with; but it is possibly;ey devastating to an otherwise healthy retail district

[Lyly]

Yep, my town said no to WalMart too because we didn't want to kill local business. (Not that it matters too much, everything closes at 5:00PM, exactly the time that everyone gets off of work to go shopping. So everyone ends up driving across the county to go to Wally World anyway)

[M II A II R II K]

D.C. mayor to Wal-Mart: Open store at Skyland or forget your other four


By Jonathan O’Connell, Published: May 25

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...DBH_story.html

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray delivered an ultimatum in a face-to-face meeting with Wal-Mart officials at a real estate convention here Monday: If the chain wants to enter the District at all, it had better commit to opening at Skyland Shopping Center, the long-delayed redevelopment project in Gray’s home ward that he considers the most important development project in the city. Wal-Mart has announced four sites in D.C. where it would like to open stores and has been meeting with residents, community groups and members of the D.C. Council to build support. The sites are on Georgia and New Jersey avenues in Northwest, New York Avenue NE and East Capitol Street, areas that have few shopping options and have not seen significant development in recent years.

But in the meeting, held with Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins and five members of the D.C. Council at an annual convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers, Gray said he made clear that he will not support the chain’s efforts to open anywhere in the city without anchoring a redevelopment of Skyland, an aging retail complex at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Alabama and Naylor avenues in the Southeast neighborhood of Good Hope. “They’re interested in developing four stores,” the mayor said in an interview after the meeting. “All of us said, ‘What about a fifth store?’ They hemmed and hawed, and it ultimately came down to — you have a choice. You can do five stores or you can do no stores.”

.....

[SpongeG]

i read in the portland thread walmart wants to add 19 stores to that city 19 thats insane but they may be smaller stores focused on grocery components - could be interesting

[M II A II R II K]

Walmart easily received approval for four new big box stores in Washington, D.C.


Read More: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/a...-walmart/full/

SUMMARY

Walmart easily received approval for four new big box stores in Washington, D.C. With so much opposition elsewhere, why the open arms in the Beltway? Reporter Lydia DePillis writes that D.C. politicians "...treated anti-Walmart activism more like an annoying distraction than an opportunity to score populist points."

DePillis has behind-the-scenes insight into Walmart's process of wooing cities into approving their projects. For example:

"In the middle of last year, Walmart held a couple of focus groups at THEARC in Congress Heights, paying selected residents $100 and a boxed dinner to participate. According to Ward 8 community activist Phil Pannell, who was asked to take part, the subject was 'economic development.' But all the questions had to do with Walmart."

[NYC4Life]

9:48 AM
Report: Walmart Takes Swing At Possible Spot Near Citi Field
By: NY1 News

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...ear-citi-field

Its plans to open up shop in Brooklyn have faced stiff opposition, but that's reportedly not stopping Walmart from hoping for a location near Citi Field.

According to the Daily News, the big box retailer is lobbying lawmakers to set up shop in the retail and entertainment complex that's planned as a central part of the area's redevelopment.

Walmart's other proposed site in East New York is on a site being developed by Related companies, which is also co-developing the site at Willets Point.

Most elected officials oppose Walmart's proposed store, citing the company's labor practices.

© 1999-2012 NY1 News and Time Warner Cable Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[10023]

So Flushing and East New York? Not exactly diving into the middle of the city, but these areas probably make sense.

[RCDC]

"Walmart kills local business." "Shop locally." "Target rules." etc.:

CoStar: Retail demand in District would remain high even after Wal-Mart opens stores in city

In fact, the current disparity between demand and supply for the kind of goods that Wal-Mart sells within a two-mile area surrounding the Georgia Avenue and Missouri Street site, where Wal-Mart plans to open its first store in the District by the end of next year, is enough to support an additional 250,000 square feet of grocery or discount department store space, even after factoring in potential overlap from another proposed Wal-Mart to be incorporated into the neighboring Fort Totten Square project.

[mhays]

Hopefully it'll be filled by someone that doesn't pay poverty wages.

You have a tough job selling these guys RCDC. We have so much to grab onto.

[vid]

Is expecting a discount retail store to provide living wages and careers really reasonable in a capitalist country like the US? This isn't Denmark. Save those jobs for the high school students!