Wal-mart in urban America
The corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart is located in bucolic Bentonville, Ark., far away from an urban center.
Yet Wal-Mart hasn't become the world's largest retailer by resting on its laurels. The company recently announced plans to build Supercenters in the central city that been ignored in recent years.
Lack of jobs and economic opportunity cause instability in the central city. Ask anyone in needy areas of greater Cincinnati, and they'll tell you that.
The closest proposed store to our area is in Cleveland at Steelyard Commons. But the market in our region seems wide open, too, in many areas.
We all know jobs and economic activity can be an effective counterweight to poverty, crime and despair.
I'm not saying we need a Wal-Mart off Fountain Square. What we do need are visionaries to begin running to the central city -- not away from it.
posted by Byron McCauley at 3:35 PM
18 Comments:
at 5:27 PM, February 19, 2007 
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at 9:07 PM, February 19, 2007 
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at 8:53 AM, February 20, 2007 
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at 9:58 AM, February 20, 2007 
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at 11:07 AM, February 20, 2007 
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Post a Comment*Wal-Mart on the Banks is the closest to something being built abrove ground on that site within the next 5 years.
lets recognize wal mart for the evil that it is. while lining the pockets of ultra rich individuals who were successful in getting special tax cuts for their own benefit from the monsters in washington, they outsource jobs to china, ship our money to china, and in general, do something obscene to the middle class.
i personally will not shop at a walmart. they have put too many local businesses and neighbors out of business.
Visionaries already are running to the center city. Housing up, lots of restaurants and retail opening around Fountain Square. What we really need is for members of the media to stop the city-bashing and negativity, stop feeding the negative perceptions that fly in the face of reality.
Anon 9:07PM Blame your neighbors. The shoppers must be who you hate. They freely shop at and keep Wal-Mart in business.
Walmart is pure evil. If that's what you're looking to "save" us, then God help us all!
I refuse to shop at Walmart. I abhor their business practices and the way that they "suck up" a community of mom and pop stores.
It saddens me that so many people are willing to turn the other way when they KNOW that there are small children somewhere, working in sweatshops, just so us Americans can save 50 cents!
Trash America needs to wake up and stop shopping at Walmart.
If you don't shop at Wal-Mart, how do you know the shoppers are "trash"? I shop there so I guess I’m trash. Please describe a person you believe to be “trash”.
The demographics of the Wal-Mart shopper are all over the spectrum. They are selling HDTVs for $5000.
The spandex, bad dye jobs and 5 trailing kids leading into Walmart leads me to understand the demographic that Walmart is targeting.
Walmart tried to get an "upscale" clothing line but realized that they're target consumer isn't of the "upscale" quality. People who can afford higher priced items aren't concerned with saving 50 cents and certainly aren't shopping at Walmart.
Please, let's just keep anything "chain" out of downtown... They've already overwhelmed the landscape of every major city like locusts, destroying the individual character of so many. There are too many chains downtown already. Stop! Downtown is for Cincinnati businesses.
Unless you want every inch of our city to look like Mason and West Chester.
why not try something new ?? Wal Mart downtown is not a good idea, but too much of our urban core looks like 8th and State, Reading and Rockdale, and other once-thriving intersections overrun by criminals and blight. Plenty of "independent" businessmen on the corners, though !
mrscabes your writings are of an elitist. If you met my family you may be surprised and actually like us. However, your narrow mindless attitude may prefer to live within your "upscale" cocoon.
mrscabes your writings are of an elitist. If you met my family you may be surprised and actually like us. However, with your narrow mindless attitude, you may prefer to live within your "upscale" cocoon.
I do enjoy my upscale cocoon.
However, minus the kind of people that Walmart targets (can you argue that?)...they have terrible business policies and ethics, they treat their employees horribly (ask any woman that can't get promoted there) and they make money because of the sweat of minors in foreign countries! Why in the hell, regardless of financial standing, would you want to shop at a place like that?
I'm sure your family is fine. Just don't make them shop at Walmart.
The irony is the misbelief that Wal-Mart bashers have that by shopping at Nordstrom’s, Kroger, Bloomingdale, "you name it", that somehow they are avoiding the so called "sweat shops".
Pick your numbers. If 85% of Wal-Mart product is produced overseas (China e.g.) and 50% of the "upscale" stores’ product is likewise produced in sweat shops, does that make you feel better shopping at the "Upscales"? What percent of product sold at the “upscales” do you believe is truly “Made in the USA” by USA citizens, and not just labeled such?
Diamonds are mined by the poor. Most clothing is sewn by the poor. Most produce is picked by the illegal immigrant poor. Why does protesting against Wal-Mart alone make you feel better?
The argument I will concede is that Wal-Mart has put smaller businesses out of work, due to the inability of the smaller businesses to compete on price. But this is just history repeating itself.
Home Depot and Lowes put Central Hardware, HQ, Furrow’s, and 10,000’s of smaller hardware stores out of business. But Central Hardware, HQ, and Furrow’s also had previously put smaller businesses out of work. Kroger, Bigg’s, and Meier have put 10,000’s of smaller grocery stores and deli’s out of business. Where do you buy your food?
Your selective boycott of Wal-Mart policies just because today they are the biggest seems extremely hypocritical.
I hate that Walmart. They just lowered that $5000 HDTV to $4000.
RollBack: Philips 63" Cineos Widescreen Plasma HDTV w/ HDMI x2 Inputs
Now $3,998.00
Was: $4,998.00
Please find me an upscale store that still charges $5000-$6000 so I can support the upscales.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5459192
Whatever WalMart sells, even the name brands, the stuff is most likely some off-version of the brand, or it is the line manufactured by the cannibals in Borneo.
Trust me, it isn't the same stuff you buy in the reputable stores.
This is common. I can buy a specific brand shirt online, and the same thing in a store, and the online version of the same shirt is crappier.
Just know that WalMart is getting you somehow. I wouldn't buy anything I truly cared about there.
Anon 7:31pm Why should one trust you, who sees the world thru opaque or at best tinted glass?
I trust facts and my own experiences over your unsubstantiated accusations and nonsense.
This is very convincing writer: "most likely some off-version of the brand".
So Walmart risks countless lawsuits by knowingly selling "knockoffs" or mislabeling product?
No, no "knock-offs" or mis-labeling. Every brand has a variety of qualities within the brand. It's not illegal or deceptive.
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