78,000 sf Walmart coming to SoWal [opening June15]

[Here4Good]

Small markets will not. Many restaurants will not. Automotive, tires, will NOT survive. A few funky niche merchants surviving can not contribute enough to the job market, we need more small busnesses to be able to employ people for jobs.

DISCLAIMER: I don't shop at Walmart, I'm a Target shopper and always have been - and I think the store at Pier Park is close enough, I wouldn't want a Target in this spot either.

Now, I appreciate your passion, but I have to disagree with you on a few points:

We pay taxes because WalMart doesn't insure their employees: Neither do the small retailers. Few employers in South Walton offer any kind of benefits for part-time retail employees, which is what we are talking about.

Small markets and automotive retailers will go out of business: all of our small markets are either on the beach, or are very specialized Mexican markets on 98. People will always shop at the markets on the beach, tourists end up going to Tom Thumb twice a day for beer and other things they forgot. As for automotive, what stores are you talking about? John-John is a repair shop, they will be fine. I don't know of any other place in Sowal to even buy an air filter.

Restaurants will go out of business: I am finding it hard to draw a line from Walmart to Cafe 30a, or even the less expensive places like Ballyhoo.

A few funky niche merchants will survive: that's really all we have now! We don't have "necessity" stores, other than Publix, and they are the ones most threatened by Walmart. I'm not going to go to Walmart for books instead of Sundog, because Walmart has a very small selection. I'm not going to go to Walmart for jewelry instead of the Zoo Gallery, that would be insane. I'm not going to go to Walmart for artisan bread instead of Wild Olives.

Why didn't Modica Market and For the Health of It fold after the Publix opened around the corner? Because they are different, people don't shop there JUST because they have groceries, they shop there because they have higher quality and specialty items, and our higher-end visitors want that.

I agree with the premise that we don't mind driving to the Walmart in Destin if we need to go to Walmart - like I said, I think the distance to the Target store is fine.

I also agree that this is Joe's land, it's already zoned for this purpose, and there is no turning back now. I don't want to villify Joe: they've done a better job of self-zoning than Walton County has done, and we are all better off for having Sacred Heart here.

 

[Smiling JOe]

we need more small busnesses to be able to employ people for jobs.

That might be an entirely different thread, since small businesses are getting creamed by the gov't in the way of taxes. Here in Florida, employers' expense for unemployment is increasing over 1,000% in 2010. We wonder how to stimulate the economy, putting more and more burden on our grandchildren, when a more simple answer could be huge tax cuts for employers, who actually hire and pay employees. Instead, we stamp them into the ground, making them have to fire employees because they cannot afford them. Who will survive this mess? Giants like Walmart, who can absorb the expense in other ways, like forcing suppliers to give cheaper prices. The mom and pops cannot afford to do that, and they will suffer greatly. All of these taxes on businesses end up crushing small businesses which will drive more customers to the Walmarts and Targets of the world. I wonder if Walmart has lobbyists who push for such things in gov't. Sure, they get pinched too, but their market share increases enough that they can jack up their "discounted" prices high enough to make up the difference and be a monopoly.

 

[Gidget]

I often wonder why people hate Wal-Mart but don't feel the same way about Target. Here's an interesting article - appears others wonder the same:

Target as Bad as Wal-Mart? You Decide | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

So is it ok to shop at Target but not Wal-Mart then? Or are they very similar in many ways. Would people be as upset if a Target were moving in the area? I wonder.

My thoughts are that they are very similar when you get right down to it. Am I wrong?

Thanks for sharing any thoughts. I've learned a lot from this thread.

G

 

[kathydwells]

I often wonder why people hate Wal-Mart but don't feel the same way about Target. Here's an interesting article - appears others wonder the same:

Target as Bad as Wal-Mart? You Decide | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

So is it ok to shop at Target but not Wal-Mart then? Or are they very similar in many ways. Would people be as upset if a Target were moving in the area? I wonder.

My thoughts are that they are very similar when you get right down to it. Am I wrong?

Thanks for sharing any thoughts. I've learned a lot from this thread.

G

I have often wondered the same thing. Target, same as Walmart, just in a prettier package some would say.

 

[florida girl]

What a stir this thread has made! 6 pages! I'm not even going to attempt to read it all. I do have a thought however, Wal-mart is such a huge company, not much can be done to actually stop it. Should Publix continue to gouge its customers while it can? Or should they attempt to strengthen customer loyalty? If it survives, it will be quite an accomplishment! I would hope that our codes concerning signs and other scenic corridor policies would certainly be reanalyzed! It's hard now trying to survive in business, much less with Wal-mart coming in! From the looks of it, many haven't!

 

[SHELLY]

So is it ok to shop at Target but not Wal-Mart then? Or are they very similar in many ways. Would people be as upset if a Target were moving in the area? I wonder.

...we might not have long to wait; usually where there is a successful Walmart, Target will follow.

I think most people's ire is misdirected at Walmart in this case--I'm betting JOE is the one who wooed Walmart here, not the other way around.

Does everyone really think that all that empty land belonging to JOE was going to be turned into "Watersound Phase XXXIII, XXXVI, XXXV....?"

 

[Gidget]

Various news articles for those who haven't seen them:

CHEAPENING PARADISE OR A BIG-BOX BLESSING? Will South Walton welcome Wal-Mart? | wal, mart, walton - Local News - WaltonSun.com

The proposed South Walton Wal-Mart's color palette is also on file at the county annex.: Local News Photo : WaltonSun.com

South Walton debates Walmart proposal | south, beach, walmart - News - The News Herald

Poll at Walton Sun

Should South Walton welcome Walmart? Yes 61% No 35% I don't care 3%

Gidget

 

[danhall]

Some facts

I want my body to be burned, at which point a suitable copy of me will be created using injection-molded polystyrene. I will dance like a whirling dervish in ecstasy, while gagging on Vault soda and slicing my finger wide open on the spine of a Hannah Montana do-it-yourself adventure paperback. I will forget that we never needed the things this corporation sells in the first place. I will be a good little consumer, because I am free to do as they tell me. Help me, Wal-Mart, to forget that my grandmother could make fresh cobbler from the tangle of blackberry vines in her backyard. Shrink wrap the memories that I can barely recall after staring into my appliances, and sell them back to me at everyday low prices. Fashion is overrated, and at the apex of taste and refinement in this culture I will enjoy evaluating my fellow citizen's physical worthiness through a blue smock with a big yellow smiley face. I will swallow the illusion that things are going to happen this way whether I want them or not. I will accept my fate at the feet of the corporate state.

Some Facts about Wal-Mart:


In 2005, Wal-Mart real-estate manager Jeff Doss spoke about an oft-cited remark by company founder Sam Walton that Wal-Mart would not build stores in towns if the residents did not want them. "Were that the case," he said, "we'd never build a store anywhere". [Kenneth E. Stone, "Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities," 1997]

As of 2008, if Wal-Mart was its own country, it would rank as the eighth largest importer of Chinese goods, ahead of Russia and India. ["US-China Trade Statistics and China's World Trade Statistics," US-China Business Council, 2008]

In Virginia, for example, 60 cents of every dollar spent downtown, stays downtown--compared to just six cents for every dollar spent at a big-box stores like Wal-Mart. [Rocky Mountain Institute]

A Wal-Mart official stated that "it is common" for the company to request subsidies in "about 1/3 of all [retail] projects." This suggests that over a thousand Wal-Mart stores have received taxpayer subsidies, despite their $12 billion in profits in 2007. ["New Research Shows Wal-Mart Rigs the System to Skip Out on $2.3 Billion in State Taxes," Citizens for Tax Justice, 4/16/07]

n 2008, the average full time Associate (34 hours per week) earns $10.84 hourly for an annual income of $19,165. That’s $2,000 below the Federal Poverty Line for a family of four. [http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/08poverty.shtml]

Last year, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earned $29.7 million in total compensation, or 1,551 times the annual income of the average full time Wal-Mart Associate. [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/20/business/fi-briefs20.6]

If an average full-time Wal-Mart employee chooses the least expensive family coverage plan, they would have to spend over 20% of their income before the health insurance provided any reimbursement.[ EBRI Issue Brief October 2007]

70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China. [China Business Weekly, November 29, 2004]

As of 2008, a full time Wal-Mart Associates earns 16% less than the average retail wage. [http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t16.htm]

As of [March 5, 2005], Wal-Mart Realty has a total of 356 buildings for sale or lease, a total of 26,699,678 million square feet of empty stores. That's enough empty space to fill up 534 football fields. This phenomenal figure makes Wal-Mart the King of Dead Air in America and the world. No othe retailer has this many dead stores in its inventory. The annual figure ranges around 350 to 400 from year to year.

 

[LuciferSam]

Just curious, is buying stuff you need some kind of spirtual undertaking for some? For me it's always been like wham bam thank you maam.

 

[danhall]

Just curious, is buying stuff you need some kind of spirtual undertaking for some? For me it's always been like wham bam thank you maam.

Ahhh, you equate purchasing with quick, meaningless sex. Now you are on to something. Banality is our saviour, and mindless consumption is it's only begotten son...