Wal-Mart Lawsuit against Zionsville

The subject of Wal-Mart and what is can do to a small town or city is definitely a hot topic. I found an article on line at wthr.com- Zionsville prepared to fight Wal-Mart lawsuit
www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8559725

Apparently, Wal-Mart is suing a small city, Zionsville because the planning commission rejected a twice proposed store. Much like the concerned citizens of Ashland, Va and the pink flamingos, major concerns of traffic increase and crime issues were presented. In addition to those concerns the citizens really feel that a Wal-Mart is not needed since there is one in close proximity-just three miles.

The news story also indicated that there is an ordinance to keep "big box"/superstores from developing in the city, which Wal-Mart is challenging as well.

Seems that Wal-Mart is not only known for its roll back prices but tearing communities to pieces.

Kenyatta

Walmart Stats

Here's a website that shows statistics on Walmart's effect on small towns. It also gives pros and cons of Walmart's presence. Some retailers say that Walmart cater to young customers, therefore, their store focus on elders to counter Walmart's strategy. Others say that Walmart's presence has increased vacancies due to its mixture of products.http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/557book/c313.impactwalmart

Interesting

Not sure if this has anything to do with Wal-Mart, but I went looking for stories about closing businesses and I thought this was interesting. Find it here: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8413750_ITM

Miller

Blog - Does Wal-Mart Ruin Small Towns

This guy, Joshua Hawn, has a blog dedicated to "Small Town Living". His post from March of 2007 questions does Wal-Mart ruin small towns as he has just gotten one in his hometown. He actually compares going to Wal-Mart as a way to view sides/people of his community he had never seen, which is something I had never thought of. It's a pretty interesting little read. Here's the link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/183049/_does_walmart_ruin_small_towns_main.html?cat=9

Big box fights in the Wasatch front area of Utah

The website provided in the link below is very interesting and showcases local discussions and articles in Utah regarding whether Wal-Mart is providing the Wasatch front area with vital tax revenue and low prices for citizens or if they are destroying the culture and vitality of local businesses.

http://www.utahstories.com/wal-mart%20research1.html

This debate is primarily about economics and whether or not the positives of big box businesses outweigh the negatives.  Many communities in Utah seem to be fighting the same uphill battle of David vs. Goliath that Ashland, Virginia lost to Wal-Mart.  The citizens of Utah are also concerned about the buildings and strip malls tarnishing the beautiful landscapes of Utah.  This site also addresses many unseen costs that might not be addressed by city councils when they are trying to attract big boxes in their areas.  These unseen costs include the fact that areas that have thriving local businesses maintain higher property values than areas that do not.  Also, as more big boxes are brought in an increased police presence is needed to handle the increase in crime that accompanies 24 hour businesses.  Several topics addressed in the movie are also mentioned such as increased traffic and profits being moved out of the local economies. 

There is also a section on this site about smart growth that may prove helpful when we discuss this topic in class.

There's been some promising feedback over on the city-data.com Virginia forum. The residents seem genuinely eager to answer questions about the area. Check it out here.

~Wes

Fighting Wal-Mart thru development controls

I found the following website by searching under Wal- Mart, Land Use, Small Town, & .edu, hoping to find an academic article. http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2005/walmart_solutions_antitrust.php
Although the article was not academic, it helped lead me to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), an organization that focuses on the issues caused not just by Wal-Mart, but all big-box retailers. The article was written by Stacey Mitchell, who also wrote Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Business & The Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why it Matters. She is the senior researcher at ILSR.

The solution that Mitchell provided in this article was that a community should be proactive about expanding its control over development. The two ways she suggested was requiring an economic impact analysis and restricting the size and location for new retail projects. She did say this could be difficult since city officials often think their economy will receive a boost from the big-boxes (like we saw in the documentary) and because Wal-Mart publishes its own research that down-play the negatives (also, like we saw in the documentary).

ILSR (http://www.ilsr.org/index.html) created the Big Box Toolkit (http://www.bigboxtoolkit.com/index.php), which provides guidelines to help communities go up against big-box chains.

Mitchell lives in Maine, where the Informed Growth Act was passed in June 2007. The act requires that cities do economic impact studies when new retail stores are more than 75,000 square feet. Most Home Depots are 150,000 square feet.

I think the Big Box Toolkit could be a great resource, especially to small communities. If the citizens of Ashland had access to this toolkit, they may have felt that they were better trained to compete against Wal-Mart.

Ashland Perspectives Continued

I was finally able to catch up with Reader Dunkel (Professor of Sociology at Randolf-Macon) at the advice of Ms. Landry. He had not performed the market anaysis, but is still trying to get the MKTing dept at the University on board to do this.

As the current President of the Pink Flamingos (PF) , (Why does this sound like a knock off from GREASE and the Pink Ladies?) they have fought many battles on behalf of the town. They are currently fighting a battle with AmTrak. You remember the film told us that the quaint little town had a train stop in the middle of downtown? Well come to find out Amtrak is trying to remove this stop along with 2 others in neighboring counties. The PFs have joined forces in this battle with their neighboring county!

Change must really get their feathers ruffled!

-Jason

We all were wanting the know, "what the heck was up with the Pink Flamingos?" Here's what Sprawl-Busters has to say about that:

1999-07-20
Ashland, VA. Flamingos Attack Wal-Mart.

The flamingo is a bird that can stand for long periods of time on one leg. Area residents are hopeful that the retail community in Ashland does not have to learn how to survive on one leg. Existing malls like Ashland Junction will absorb the greatest impact if Wal-Mart comes to town, and the Mechumps creek that runs through the property will certainly be degraded, eventually dumping its waters into the Chesapeake Bay.Residents are also concerned about worsening air quality in the area. The developer's attorney has told residents that his company will soon make public an economic impact study about the full impact of their 410,000 s.f. Wal-Mart mall. Before the study is even published, local residents say they know what it will conclude: Wal-Mart will have no adverse impact on any public services or public revenues. But the flamingos in town know better. For more details about the Ashland battle, contact sprawl-busters at info@sprawl-busters.com

For more info: http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=245

Ashland Coffee and Tea

I called and spoke with Ms. Landry, the owner of Ashland Coffee and Tea and an active participant (as we saw last night) in the Pink Flamingos. First let me say she was awesome to talk to!!

So.....what did i find out? Well i just wanted to really get her input as to the state of things since Satan built his store in her town. She said her business has not been affected really by Wal-Mart. ( I wouldnt really consider Wal-Mart a huge competitor with her niche' to begin with.) She did take the opportunity to let me know that Starbucks had built between her and the interstate in the last year and that has had an affect on her business.

When i asked her about the affects of building the Wal-Mart on their community, she cited that the location kept it away from the downtown area so it hasnt really hit alot of businesses hard. She ventured to guess that the 2 local groceries (Food Lion and U-Cress) probably felt it the most, giving up parts of their market share to Wal-Mart. Second she felt the hardware store probably felt the blow more than others.

I went on to ask her about the participation in the process of fighting the building of Wal-Mart in their town. She offered that the people felt ignored and were very disheartened with the decision (as we all could have guessed). She didnt feel that the Lame Duck City Council voted for the Wal-Mart as a direct result of them not being re-elected. Their minds were made up even before the election.

She offered that the recent influx of new residents (that has driven her to move outside the city limits at this point) has probably helped lessen the blow of the new SuperCenter being located there and that most of the local stores who have survived have their niche's they serve that has been paramount in their survival.

I have a call in to a professor at Randolf-Macon College in Ashland. She referred me to him for some more substantial evidence of the effects of Wal-mart. Apparently he has conducted economic impact studies since Wal-Marts arrival.

-Jason

Talking with Residents

I started a thread on city-data.com's Virginia forum last night to see if any of the "locals" could offer any new information about what's happened to local business since Wal-Mart's entry to the market. So far I have had one response, but the poster did provide a link to this recent article about the Cross Bros. local grocery. There was no specific mention of Wal-Mart, but the article did have this to say:

The 96-year-old store has been able to retain its comfortable, family-style approach to business throughout the years despite increasing competition from larger grocery chains.... Until recently, the store's customer base has been steady. "It may be smaller now because of some big-box stores and some larger markets," David said. "But we still carry some specialty items that other stores don't carry such as specialty cut steaks, fresh ground beef cut in-house and our own house sausage."

The article mostely dealt with the store's history and personal reflections on community involvement, but it does provide some insight that these local business owners were able to survive despite the doomsday prognostications from the "flamingo troupe".

The forum reply also gave a link to Ashland Coffee & Tea. Not much info there other than coffee descriptions, but apparently the head flamingo was able to survive as well.

We could probably use the forum to gather more information, so head on over and post if you have questions. You can visit my post here. I'm considering posting our blog address over there to invite cross-discussion, but figured I should wait for approval... Dr. HM, what do you think?

~Wes

The Opening Gambit

Okay, so we have seen the movie, but what happenend after? How is Ashland, VA doing now? Are there other towns in the midst of Big Box fights? What are the land use issues here? It's all fair game! Please post any interesting content or thoughts that you may have that would add to our discussion.

Since this is an extra thing, I do want to offer an incentive: You can earn up to five extra credit points by participating in a meaningful way on our blog. That means your posts need to be sustantive and substantial. We'll see how it goes. It's my hope that we'll create something worthwhile that will enhance our understanding of the many issues raised in the documentary Store Wars. Happy Blogging!