Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Coming soon enough

2006-02-20
Bentonville, AR. Wal-Mart?’s 24 Million Square Feet of Dark Stores

Wal-Mart discount stores are slowly disappearing. Over the past 5 years, Wal-Mart has shut down 35.3 million square feet of discount stores. Since 1999, Sprawl-Busters has monitored Wal-Mart?’s abandoned stores. These are stores the company leaves behind to build bigger stores?—what the company likes to call ?“dark stores.?” Last year, for example, we reported that Wal-Mart had 356 dead stores, with 26.69 million square feet of empty space on the market. At that time, 31% of these dead stores were over 100,000 s.f. As of February, 2006, Wal-Mart Realty is still sitting on a colossal amount of dead air. A total of 310 stores in 38 states are on the list of ?“available buildings?”, a total of 24.39 million square feet, or roughly 508 football fields of empty stores. The top ten states in 2006 with empty Wal-Mart?’s are as follows:
Texas, 31
Tennessee, 26
Ohio, 19
Georgia, 17
Illinois, 17
Iowa, 14
Louisiana, 12
Kentucky, 11
Michigan, 11
North Carolina, 11
In the ?“million square foot?” club of states carrying more than a million square feet of empty Wal-Marts, are the following 6 states: Georgia, 1.32 million; Illinois, 1.4 million; Michigan, 1.23 million; Ohio, 1.62 million; Tennessee, 1.8 million; and Texas, 2.3 million. Last year, states with over a million square feet of empty space included Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Michigan. In 2006, Illinois and Ohio are new on the million square foot list, while Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma have dropped below a million. In 2006, a total of 91 stores (29%) are over 100,000 s.f. Most of these dead stores are former discount stores that Wal-Mart replaced with a larger format supercenter.




What you can do: According to the company?’s SEC filings, between 2000 and 2005, Wal-Mart closed down a net of 35.305 million square feet of discount stores. In terms of discount store count, in 2005, Wal-Mart had 1,353 discount stores, or 448 fewer discount stores than the retailer had in 2000. The company?’s number of discount stores began rolling backwards around 1995. In the past 5 years, Wal-Mart has closed the equivalent of 735 football fields worth of discount stores.

Sheriff's going to handle this??

2006-01-11
Tucson, AZ. Wal-Mart Worst Spot For Police Calls 4 Years Straight

It?’s official. The results are in. For the fourth year straight, Wal-Mart has won the top spot as the crime magnet in Tucson, Arizona. The Wal-Mart supercenter at West Valencia Road on the southwest side of the city has a ?“super?” amount of police calls, according to the Arizona Daily Star. It seems the cops in Tucson know the Wal-Mart address quite well. Police responded to calls from Wal-Mart 908 times in 2005, or an average of nearly 2.5 police calls a day. The good news is that the number is down from 2004, when the Tucson police drove over to the Wal-Mart 1,195 times, or 3.3 calls per day. Roughly 45% of the Wal-Mart calls are for shoplifting. Tucson police had to set up ?“special deployments?” at Wal-Mart during the Xmas season to try to hold down the incidence of shoplifting. Looking to put a Smiley Face on the subject, Tucson Police Sgt. Mark Robinson told the Daily Star: ''Because they're on the Top 10 doesn't mean they're dangerous places to be. In fact, being on the Top 10 could mean it's a safe place to be because people care enough to call police.'' He described Wal-Mart?’s security force as ?“aggressive.?” It turns out that Wal-Mart store officials have been meeting monthly with police, on the public dime, to talk crime-prevention strategy. ''We work closely with the TPD to ensure that they spend a minimal amount of time at our stores,'' a Wal-Mart spokesman noted. The Daily Star added, however, that along with the petty crimes there were more serious incidents on the incident reports, such as assaults, robberies and shootings.



What you can do: You won?’t find a ?“We?’re #1?” sign on this issue in Wal-Mart?’s window, but the world?’s largest retailer has arguably the largest crime statistics in the retail industry. Over the years, Sprawl-Busters has reported on the significant public safety costs that these big box stores can create, especially in small towns strapped for revenues. For earlier stories on the major cost of police response, search Newsflash by ?“crime.?” For a profile of crime at Wal-Mart specifically, call 1-877 DUNK WAL and order the book ?“The Case Against Wal-Mart.?”

RG Reynolds-burg

2006-01-29
Reynoldsburg, OH. Preserved Farm To Get Home Depot As Neighbor?

The city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, which calls itself ?“the birthplace of the tomato?”, may end up with fruit on its face if Home Depot gets its way. The city, like many other small towns, is busy at work on an ambitious downtown revitalization project. But at the same time, it is opening up its arms to big box sprawl on the highway, which is like tossing a tomato at their downtown investment. According to the Columbus Dispatch, a 90 acre farm near Reynoldsburg has been donated to the state?’s Farmland Preservation Program, to keep it out of development. A developer from Canton, Ohio, Giltz & Associates, wants to build a shopping center with a Home Depot. Reynoldsburg officials opposed preserving the farm, but the owner, Helen Trotter, refused to sell her land to developers, and chose instead to preserve it as farmland. Trotter?’s acreage is in the township of Jefferson, but Reynoldsburg surrounds her property. The developer is now buying up the land where the proposed Home Depot will sit. Mayor Bob McPherson, who likes to call himself ?“Mayor Bob,?” apparently sees no problem with a new Home Depot just five miles from an existing Home Depot. The thought may not have occurred that Home Depot will shut down the other store, leaving Mayor Bob with an empty store and a lot of tomato on his face. Mayor Bob told the newspaper that the new Home Depot would serve a different market than the one five minutes away. ''I think they know their business better than we know,'' the Mayor said.


What you can do: If Mayor Bob could peel the skin off the feelings of businesspeople in downtown Reynoldsburg, he?’d probably hear a lot of concern about what a ?“category killer?” on the edge of town will do to smaller businesses already in the central business district. And will the local gas stations like it when Mayor Bob breaks the news that Home Depot is opening up gas stations also? Residents in the greater Columbus, Ohio area who don?’t want to see Mayor Bob with tomato stains on his jacket, can reach him at 1-614-322-6800. Let Hizzoner know that another Home Depot is going to put an economic squeeze on local business.

Shoplifters

Of course the number of police calls to any Wally World are higher than others! They actually care about not having the scum walk out the door with stolen merchandise.

I witnessed a shoplifter walk out of the Sears Hardware (small little ole Sears) right in front of three employees. The theft detector thing was sounding...the shoplifter was carrying a huge box running as fast as he could. Not one employee even attempted to stop the theif or follow to get a description. The employee that was waiting on me said ''Oh well theres another one''.

I asked him if he was going to call the police and he told me it happens all the time.