WalMart ass whompin'

[eauclaireliberal]

California town the latest to snub Wal-Mart

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO, May 28 (Reuters) - The town of Hercules, California, has upscale aspirations and its vision of the good life rules out a Wal-Mart store.

Similarly, three Maine towns are considering a "box-free" zone to prevent Wal-Mart from opening in an area of coastal New England known for its colonial charm, an idea mirroring wealthy and quaint Nantucket's recent ban on chain stores.

The city council of the mixed-race bedroom community of 23,000 east of San Francisco voted this week to invoke eminent domain to block Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) from building a 99,000 square foot (9,200 sq metre) store near the town's waterfront.

The area is the centerpiece of Hercules' redevelopment effort, which aims to create a destination on par with high-end Sausalito across the bay. That would complement Hercules' plan to market itself as an "anti-suburb" with new neighborhoods appealing to home buyers nostalgic for old-fashioned residential areas within cities.

The unusual move stunned California's big-box retailers, who usually benefit from eminent domain, which allows government to take private property for its use or for use by third parties if their projects would benefit the public.

"To use eminent domain is such an abuse of the process," said Rex Hime, president of the California Business Properties Association, which represents large retailers.

More at link:

Continued ...


EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5 PARAGRAPHS
FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE PER DU RULES.

[depakid]

1. ".....it just keeps right on going."

You bet your shorsighted, greedy little ass it does.

With any luck, this escallation will help empower communities elsewhere around the country as they try to delink from destructive globalization.

[applegrove]

2. These towns and villages are keeping money in their district by avoiding

Walmart. They are keeping small businesses alive. They are spreading the wealth in their own communities. And they will be ready for when oil is so expensive.. people go back to walking when they shop.

[IndyJones]

5. That's pretty funny!

[applegrove]

6. I don't see funny? The money could go to the middle class in these

towns.. or it could go to a corporation in Arkansas & to the NYStock exchange. Which would you pick if you were a town in California?

[Raine]

3. LOL, Walmart uses eminent domain but

don't want it used against them :eyes: "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" hahahaha!

[NYC]

4. I found that part hilarious.

Hypocrisy at its finest.

[Maine-ah]

7. three towns just recently put limits on store sizes.

it's actually just the retail space to be allowed. For example, the town next to me just did a 150k retail space limit. That does not limit the size of the building, just their retail space. Now, we have a wal mart, and a Home Depot. Population is aprx. 7600 people. The town that just put limits in has a population of aprx. 3800 people. They just approved a Lowes. These two towns are next door to eachother. I have no idea how any of the hardware stores that are locally owned are going to survive this. We have one that has been in business for over 100 years. I also don't understand why these big box stores want to come into these small places, where there is obviously not the population to support them. They hire tons of people in the beginning, and everybody is happy about the jobs. Then they start canning people after 6 months.

Another problem that is not being addressed is the roads. At the end of town where HD and WM are what used to be a 2 minute drive now takes a 1/2 hour. Traffic congestion is terrible. I am not exaggerating this. Since those two stores moved in so has Staples, TJ Maxx, Sports Authority, Wendy's, Bookland, and now a Tim Hortons. WTF!


On edit:

There are also three new buildings going up,on that same end of town, which I'm not even sure what they are going to be yet.