Wal-mart rethinking super store in Maine town

[Rhonda]

Wal-mart was to build a new supercenter in a neighboring town (well kind of neighboring...35 minute drive by interstate) and they already have a very small and claustrophobic store there.
It is now on hold due to the "anti Wal-Mart" sentiment in the towns in the State of Maine.
Lately a few coastal towns have put in place maximum sizes for "superstores" such as Wally, Home Depot, etc to maintain the look and feel of their ambiance of the past.
Quoting the Wal-Mart official: "anti Wal-Mart reception they are getting is going to weigh heavily on whether to relocate in an area or not." They go further stating "They've taken a real beating in Maine"
I believe Vermont and some New Hampshire towns have also told Wally to go search elsewhere.
We've had a bunch of anti-union ads running here on our local TV stations and I do know that wally employees were mulling unions again, especially in the grocery areas of their superstores. I wonder how much $$$ the super power has given into those ads. The website is unionfacts.com

 

[Victoria]

They've "taken a beating" in Stratford Ontario as well. Fine by me. Shakespeare and WalMart just don't fit.

V

 

[Joe Mioux]

A superwalmart has been put on hold in my town because of an endangered pygmy rattle snake.

They are studying the snakes movement on the proposed site. They dug a 3ft deep trench around a 40 acre field, laid a 6 foot tall weed fence (half in the ground - half out of the ground) and enclosed the site.

I swear the two grocery store owners are hatching these snakes and throwing them over the fence.

I drive through downtown Carlyle now, and there is nothing left buy servce and professional businesses.... oh yea some antique stores.... you know your town is doomed when the antique stores move in to the old clothing, shoe, jewelry, etc stores.

 

[Rhonda]

But Joe........do you want to see the Wal-Mart there??
How far away is the "local" Wally World?
And our town........has 4 insurance offices......one health clinic.......4 restaurants = bars....
11 empty store fronts (owned by out of state entities who want waaayyy too much rent)...2 florists......two antique/art galleries....1 laundromat, 2 lawyer offices, 1 army-navy store, 1 home heating, 2 jewelers - soon to be one - .......aww crap, we live in identical towns !!

 

[logan]

They're starting to look the same here, they've just changed the name. Difficult not to buy on price alone, but if only we all tried, make it a combined effort and shop at small business, local stores as much as we can, hopefully it will add up to nip the giants in the but. (I know...wishful thinking)

 

[Joe Mioux]

But Joe........do you want to see the Wal-Mart there??
How far away is the "local" Wally World?
And our town........has 4 insurance offices......one health clinic.......4 restaurants = bars....
11 empty store fronts (owned by out of state entities who want waaayyy too much rent)...2 florists......two antique/art galleries....1 laundromat, 2 lawyer offices, 1 army-navy store, 1 home heating, 2 jewelers - soon to be one - .......aww crap, we live in identical towns !!

The current Wal-Mart is 2 blocks south and 12 blocks west of me. The only Walmart traffic that comes past the shop is cars traveling from the north of me.

The new Super Walmart will be 10 blocks north of my shop and traffic from the south, east and partly from the west will drive past the shop.

Walmart has been in Carlyle since 1981ish.

and yes Rhonda is appears your town and my town seem pretty similar.

Joe

OH btw, I saw your archery comment in Dianne's thread. Hopefully this weekend I will finish a little display case that you will find interesting. I will post a pic.

 

[Kristine]

Wally put on hold a super walmart in the next town south. Scuttlebut was economics, but then Meijer (the first orrigional big box one stop shopping store) also announced a superstore in the same town. So then scuttlebut changed to not wanted to compete with the hometown boy.

 

[Bigted]

I don't get the anti-walmart thing. Yeah, it does put a lot of little guys out of business, but if not Walmart then someone else will. If there are economies of scale to be had, someone will take advantage of them. At least Walmart is an American company.

Walmart brings name brand items at pretty reasonable prices--something that people in small towns need. They also bring jobs, admittedly lower level jobs, but still jobs. Try getting a sales job in a flower shop and see how much you make.

Maybe it's because I live in a big smog-choked city that I don't understand the opposition?

 

[Joe Mioux]

I don't get the anti-walmart thing. Yeah, it does put a lot of little guys out of business, but if not Walmart then someone else will. If there are economies of scale to be had, someone will take advantage of them. At least Walmart is an American company.

Walmart brings name brand items at pretty reasonable prices--something that people in small towns need. They also bring jobs, admittedly lower level jobs, but still jobs. Try getting a sales job in a flower shop and see how much you make.

Maybe it's because I live in a big smog-choked city that I don't understand the opposition?

Another factor that doesn't get mentioned is that there are a lot of buildings that fall in disrepair after walmart knocks out the mom's and pops. Property taxes go down because of it and hence the municipalities and counties lose revenue. However, they do gain revenue on the sales tax side, assuming the municipality didn't offer them some tax rebates or abatements.

joe

 

[BOSS]

I don't get the anti-walmart thing. Yeah, it does put a lot of little guys out of business,

Point and match....Ted, IMO you answered your own comment pretty well.

In reality, nothing good comes from having a Walmart in a community. Even their company propaganda about all the "good they do" is bogus as far as I can tell.

The problem arises when the competition is continually reduced and you are left with a couple "super-stores" and no real competition.

Yes, Wally brings lower prices, but is that a good thing? They also bring lower wages and a lower standard of living as well.

We have a huge Wally-World here, has been for about 5 years, I think I've been there about 5 times...I prefer to pay more to a mom and pop than to save a couple bucks, and see my friends get put out of business.