I knew Wal-Mart was bad, but......

[Tobin S.]

I live in Dayton, Ohio near the Dayton Mall. Wal-Mart had a store about a mile south of the mall at the intersection of State Route 741 and Lyons Road. I drove by there one day and there was a big sign out front saying that that location was closing and that they were moving. I couldn't figure out why they were doing that because that store was always busy. Business appeared to be good. It turned out that they moved about 2 miles and put up a Wal-mart Supercenter. Now my little section of Dayton, technically Miami Township, has this huge empty property that they probably won't be able to do anything with without re-developing the strip mall that it's a part of. Smaller businesses in that strip mall appear to be suffering and I know of one business that is closing.

There were actually plans to put another Wal-Mart Supercenter about 3 miles down the road from the location that closed and 5 miles from the new Supercenter by the Dayton Mall, but those plans were shot down ---> http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2005/06/20/story3.html

That led me to view this:

Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost



You can find it over at Netflix and stream it directly to your computer.

I knew Wal-Mart was bad because of unfair labor relations, but I didn't know exactly how bad and it goes beyond unfair labor relations.

[MrScorpio]

1. This is why some other communities have fought them and won

I'm sorry to hear this about yours

[skygazer]

2. Another great resource is the book Big Box Swindle

By Stacy Mitchell. I did a research paper on Wal-Mart and it was certainly eye-opening. There are a lot more reasons besides employment issues to avoid the store, including the negative impact they have on communities in terms of jobs, economic issues (they often end up costing a town more than they bring in in terms of jobs and taxes) and environmental issues.

[Tobin S.]

6. Yep

The labor issues are reason enough to avoid Wal-Mart. People that work there often do not make a living wage and are actually encouraged by the management to get on public assistance- the community ends up subsidizing Wal-Mart's payroll. Workers are asked to work off the clock so that Wal-Mart doesn't have to pay overtime wages. Workers don't have much choice because they know that they will be fired if they do not comply. There was a big lawsuit over that that ended up costing Wal-Mart a bunch of money, but I doubt that will do anything to deter them and they actually probably still came out ahead of the game. It's impossible for workers to organize because as soon as Wal-Mart gets wind of it they fly in a bunch of suits to the location and start firing people who they find suspicious.

Then we have the workers in third world countries working 14 hours a day 7 days a week to make Wal-Mart products and they still only make barely enough to survive. Those people are slaves.

There was a case down in North Carolina (I think it was there) where a Wal-Mart that was built by the region's water supply was polluting it with pesticides, fertilizer, and herbicides. Wal-Mart would not do anything about the problem until it was threatened with legal action. I'd say that pretty much sums up how they feel about their impact on the environment.

And there are there are the communities and businesses that they destroy as people here in this thread have illustrated.

The whole deal just pisses me off. My dad used to have a second job at Wal-Mart. I never really talked to him about it, but I think I'm going to ask him about how he was treated there.

[hedgehog]

3. Here in Fulton, NY a piece of woods on the edge of the city was developed into a strip

mall 10 years back. (It was actually over the city line into the town so the sales tax wouldn't go to the city, but that's another story.)

There was a K-mart, a grocery store, bank branch and assorted chain stores: card shop, shoe outlet, clothing store, electronics, cosmetics, etc.

K-Mart is on shaky legs, of course, and the grocery chain is having troubles. Then Wal-Mart announced a big store on a woodlot/wet;lands on the other end of the city ( Also over the line into the town so as to avoid sales taxes.)

As of today every store in that strip mall is empty except for the K-Mart and a dollar store. (The bank branch closes next week-end.) Various small outfits around town have gone away, as well.

Two years ago I had several local places to go to buy electronics, clothing, shoes, cosmetics, groceries, small gifts. If (when) the K-Mart goes, I'll be down to one: Wal-Mart.

Soon my choice will be to go to Wal-Mart or 10 miles down the road.



Did I mention that while Wal-Mart promised the town board a super store, they left out departments? I heard a lot of crafters complaining that they expected to see a lot more supplies at this store, and there are very few.

[Maine-ah]

4. the WM here keeps proposing to do the same

leave their location only to build a supercenter a few miles away. They have been denied everytime.

[HopeHoops]

5. WalMart killed an entire strip mall just south of Johnstown, PA.

There was plenty of land in the vicinity, but the strip mall had a shoe store, a toy store, several clothing stores, and a small electronics and household appliances retailer. Hmm. All competition. Instead of buying the cheap land near the strip mall, they BOUGHT the strip mall and managed to kill the lease agreements. They put at least 15 stores out of business, razed the mall, and built their ugly box on the spot.

Locally, there's a strip mall with WalMart in it. Lowe's used to be in the same strip mall but since the access sucks they decided to relocate down the road and built a larger store with great access. The old Lowe's building is empty and has been for about four years. It isn't for a lack of interest. The only kind of business large enough to use that space (other than Home Depot which already has a location just down the road) is a grocery store. Several have expressed an interest. Why haven't they rented? WalMart has a clause in THEIR lease that forbids any establishment that sells groceries from being in the same strip mall. Curiously, they also have a clause that forbids any restaurant in the same strip mall from having a beer, wine, or liquor license.

Are they evil? I would say "yes".

[skygazer]

7. They also kill the specialty stores in a community

Clothing stores, bookstores, hardware stores, outdoor retailers, card stores, grocery stores, etc. People go to Wal-Mart and shop for everything there, leaving these other stores that cannot compete with this huge mega-retailer to wither and die. It doesn't seem to matter that the quality of the products is usually so much less or that they are often made in foreign sweatshops or even that the price difference is not as dramatic as Wal-Mart insinuates (the way they price things to create the illusion of low prices is another interesting aspect) - people want convenience.

What they don't understand is that by patronizing the store, they contribute to the destruction of all those jobs in those other stores, replacing them with Wal-Mart jobs that pay less and provide fewer benefits. Which lowers the spending ability of the community as a whole, which creates more people looking for bargains, which leads them to Wal-Mart. Nasty cycle.

[HopeHoops]

11. Yes, they are probably the most predatory retailer there is.

The Johnstown situation was a little different. Usually they put small stores out of business by selling below cost to unfairly compete. In this case, they ELIMINATED the competition by canceling their leases. As I understand it, WalMart leases almost all of its space. In this case, they bought the property so they could destroy any potential competition.

I won't set foot in a WalMart unless I REALLY have to pee and it is the only place around, which in some places is true. There's no way I would spend a penny there.

[jmowreader]

12. Strange about the alcohol licenses...

There's a Walmart in Fayetteville that's in a strip mall with two restaurants that have liquor licenses.

[HopeHoops]

15. Yeah, I've seen them before. I was thinking about it and I'm not sure that's a WalMart thing.

There had been a Giant Foods in the plaza (before WalMart moved in) and they moved to a strip mall on the other side of the road. I sort of remember reading that they still have the lease to their old space and sublet it to the new tenants. It might actually be the Giant lease that prohibits establishments that serve alcohol in the plaza. I'm not sure, but there are a lot of Giants around here and I can't think of one in a plaza where there's a restaurant with a liquor license.

[whistler162]

8. The odd thing in Camillus NY

is that Walmart took over a defunct Ames store, remnant of a enclosed mall, before building their super store down the road on what had been, in order, a strip mall then enclosed mall before the mall went, for all purposes, belly up from high rental prices and store loss. The Ames/Walmart store is now a Target store.

We lost a lot of stores but I blame that on the great white elephant, Carousel mall, and not on Walmart.

[Archae]

9. Same thing happened here in Sheboygan.

There was a Wal-Mart at the Taylor Heights strip mall, in addition to a number of smaller stores and a Piggly-Wiggly.

Piggly-Wiggly closed.
It's still empty.

Wal-Mart closed in favor of two supercenters at opposite ends of Sheboygan.
It's still empty.

A bookstore closed.
Blockbuster closed.
Card store closed.

All are still empty.

Only thing left is a Subway, and a cell phone store.

[hippywife]

10. They're doing that all over

and leave these big ass empty buildings. Luckily the ones they did that to here, both of them within 10 miles of each other, were taken over by a Sutherland's Lumber and the other a hot tub outlet and a Big Lots. Looked really bad for a while, tho.

And they are building their Neighborhood Markets within a couple of miles of their Stupidcenters, too.

[Pithlet]

26. They tried to build one of those in our neighborhood

when one of their supercenters is only a couple of blocks down the road. We fought it and won, thankfully. If anyone gets wind of one of those going into their community, fight it. Chances are there are meetings and groups fighting it. Join and let your voice be heard. It can be a long hard fight, but it's not impossible.

[bigwillq]

13. I never shop there unless absolutely necessary (nt)

[hippywife]

17. Ditto.

Been doing that so long, I've pretty much forgotten they are there when I decide where all I need to go to get the stuff I need for the week. :hi:

[Tobin S.]

14. kick

:dem:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

16. They always do that. Here they moved just one mile...

they say they needed a bigger store (OK it is bigger) but the REAL reason was they got a big tax break buy building outside the city limits.

The old building sat about 2 years then some one divided into a strip mall.

[rurallib]

18. They are responsible for a lot of empty eyesores around the country

plus a lot of highway expansions they don't pay for etc.
Our county seat has an near empty downtown now, an almost empty mall and a 3 year old Super Center.
Sadly in a rural area, there is not a hell of a lot of choice on where to shop. It's Wally World or drive an hour.

[pokerfan]

19. Walmart = The Grinch

A few years ago a Walmart somewhere (Colorado?) had set up a Toys For Tots bin where customers could buy a toy and drop it in the bin on their way out. What the public didn't know was that Walmart had their employees emptying the bin and restocking the toys on the shelves to be resold again and again.

The story broke somehow and the management mumbled something about an inadvertent error and wrote a big check addressed to Toys For Tots.

[GOPisEvil]

20. This is why I hate Wal-Mart.

Back when old man Walton owned it, they stayed in small towns, like the one I grew up in. The place was always full and provided lots of sales tax revenue. Then when Sam died, his greedy-ass family decided to move into the big cities. So, they closed the little Wal-Mart, and opened a HUGE one inside the San Antonio city limits. The vacant Wal-Mart in my parents' town sat empty for over a decade.

So, fuck you Wal-Mart. You turned your back on some of the small towns that made you. Oh, and you used to only sell stuff made in the USA. If you had held to that, this country might not be in quite the shape it's in.

[Still Blue in PDX]

25. I remember the first time I heard of Wal-Mart.

I was hanging out on an AOL message board (back when Pagans and Christians communicated via message board and I was one of the Christians--long time ago), where the question arose, "What kind of computer do you type on?" A conservative Christian lady answered, "This here one from Wally World." I remember this distinctly because I thought, "She bought a computer from that amusement park in that movie?" It became clear when a brouhaha erupted over Wal-Mart coming to Oregon. That must have been after the greedy family took over.

I remember that woman. Funny, it's been years since I've been an AOL member and just about the same number of years since I've been a church member. Something to think about. :shrug:

Not to cast asparagus on AOL or churches. :rofl:

Anyway, I've grown to loathe all things Wal-Mart.

[proudohioan]

30. Buy USA..... hey I remember that....

Yeah, I had forgotten all about that one! I remember the Wal-Mart ad's for always buy American; that was there big attention getter back in the 80's (?). I wouldn't set foot in a Wal-Mart nowadays.

[NV Whino]

21. Thanks for reminding me about the movie

I've been meaning to watch it and keep forgetting. If you hated them before, you will hate them even more after watching the movie. Despicable company.

[Liberal Veteran]

22. I love Wal-Mart!

I can buy razor blades really cheap there and gargle with them, because I also love gargling razor blades.

I assume no sarcasm tag is needed.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. LOL. i havent seen you in a while. i hope all is well!

[matt819]

24. It's not only Walmart

Keene NH has three grocery stores. A fourth is being built on a former farm. Even if none of the other stores close, we now have a strip mall where before there was a quite pretty spot along the road. (I can appreciate why the family chose to sell, but it's still a loss. The city could have chosen not to allow the property to be rezoned, but that would have left the property owners with a property they weren't going to farm and, sadly, had no other value.)

Next up - at another strip shopping center, a building is going up that will house an auto parts store. This store will be opposite another auto parts chain store, and will be in addition to another three auto parts stores. This in a town and region where the population has remained stable for the better part of the last decade. In this case, my bet is that at least one of the other auto parts stores is going to shut down, leaving more vacant space than there was before. Again, I don't really blame anyone. The property owners want to maximize the value of their properties, and there's nothing in the zoning to prohibit this development. However, the end result, in my view, will be more vacant buildings.

[arcadian]

27. Get this GD shit outta the Lounge.

:P

[sasquatch]

28. Put a costco in their

[Corey_Baker08]

29. I Live In Greenville, OH About 30 Miles Away!!!

:hi: