"We kept Wal-Mart out of our town!"

[Lou]

Given they

Yes JR, they pay property tax and yes I have looked into how and what they pay for my area. Because of the local school needs the local property tax around here has almost doubled. Walmart has proudly expressed how they pay the same percentage as everyone else. What they didn't admit is that when their buildings are assessed, they send lawyers to the town, have a hearing an have the property assessment reduced by 40%. Therefore, they don't pay the same as everyone else. Wouldn't you just love it if your property taxes were reduced by 40%. Go ahead and challenge it JR, it's public knowledge. AS for generating jobs. Take the total amount of employees in a walmart. Now add up all the employees and business owners that lost thier job from the small busnesses that went belly up because of walmart. How many more or less jobs are in that town. You will be amazed. Lou

[Jim Redelfs]

So Samantha was right: She's NOT a woman?

(Just making a joke using your semantics.)

In the Photo Center, those that stand (some for HOURS) at the kiosks, ordering prints from digital media are, by far and away, disproportionately women.

This disproportion is particularly obvious when it is a mother with one or more preschooler in the shopping cart. Mom makes these unfortunate babies and toddlers sit, sometimes for hours, while they ignore their anguished cries of boredom while she orders photos prints. There ought to be a law...

[Jim Redelfs]

Why?

Those lower prices must "trump" whatever reasons you have to "hate" Walmart.

Are you LESS careful when shopping elsewhere?

[Samantha Hill - remove TRASH t]

Pork, my dear, pork. At the local government level, but pork nonetheless.

[Kurt Ullman]

The price drops are a specific budget item in their marketing budget.

r

[Jim Redelfs]

The City of Omaha quickly annexes any Walmart store originally built outside of the city limits. This benefits Omaha's sales tax income (handsomely) as well as the property taxes collected.

As for Walmart's "inner city" presence, Omaha is about to open its first Walmart store on a site previously occupied by another building - a bowling alley - and definitely INSIDE the city in a location that some would argue qualifies as "inner city".

IIRC, it is to be the first TWO-STORY Supercenter. This I have to see.

[Kurt Ullman]

And of course building highways, running sewers, etc is not a function of government in your area? Also, nobody ever builds anything near a WalMart to use the infrastructure so it is only built for Walmart and nobody else benefits and n0 other buildings are built so no other tax money comes in. Cities and towns loss leader as much as any retailer.

and give them a nine year tax

Sounds like more of a problem with the local tax authority. WM is pretty much required by its fudiciary responsibility to try and get the most out anyone they are negotiating with.

[HeyBub]

Don't know about that. But I do know Walmart has insisted that manufacturers of some food products reduce the size of their packaging thereby reducing costs. For example, a box of cereal that's half air with the explanation "contents may have settled during shipment" crap. The reality is that the cereal company found that people THOUGHT they were getting more with simply a bigger box! Walmart cracked down on that and saved themselves enormous sums in shipping air around the country.

Just look at the "X" ounce box of Kellog's Corn Flakes at Walmart and compare the box to the same ounce-size at your local market.

Walmart also insists on reasonable packaging. Again, they've insisted that packaging protect the contents, not serve as a vehicle for advertising. In some cases, the overall weight of the product has been halved!

[George]

Absolutely. But the government didn't pay for my lot and let me use it for free or install my driveway or extend the mains just for me and install the sewer lateral or water lines into the house.

Also, nobody ever builds anything

Not in my area. So far the original Walmarts and the new sites we prepared for or are preparing for them are occupied only by them. The highway interchange, traffic signals etc are solely for their use. And even if they were shared by others why would the taxpayers need to pay for it? Let a developer buy and prepare the property and lease it to their commercial customers or as in the case of some organizations that have multiple properties have their property management division acquire and prepare the site for their use.

Cities and towns loss leader as much as any

The program is run by the state and the locals have little to say. Sure, everyone should negotiate for the best deal and then there is greed. I don't see any particular other reason why Walmart needs to be a welfare queen.

[HeyBub]

>

Ah, okay. They are within the incorporated city limits of Los Angeles. As for zoning, I see how Walmart was able to sneak in (at least to Panorama City). Walmart's location was once a General Motors assembly plant. GM moved out, leaving the area zoned for commercial enterprises, and Walmart moved in before the Los Angeles zoning commission could blink. I guess.

I'm in a city only two down from LA in size (NY, LA, Chicago, Houston...), but we don't have any zoning. So I'm not as familiar with how zoning regulations work.

[Steve Barker DLT]

I can assure you the reason for the skylights is savings on the electrical bill. It's not just a 'side effect'. It's the main reason. Natural lighting could hardly increase sales. And it's used equally all across the store, not just the food section.

s

Now they are using more natural light in store -- particularly the grocery section. Why? It increases sales. Side effect -- cuts down on electrical usage.

[Kurt Ullman]

Which, of course they are also not doing solely for WalMart. Every WM I have seen is surrounded by other buildings, many coming to the area specifically for the traffic WM generates. I would find it hard to beleive that the city buys the lots, too.

Well then your area is the only one in the known galaxy where that has occurred. Heck the WMs LIKE to have other places around because it also tends to drive even more traffic to them. Also, are they really the only ones that the infrastructure goes to? The roads just stop and there is absolutely nobody between where the roads and sewers stopped before and where they go now? Nothing further on? Again, outside normal.

The

That is a good question, but I doubt it is a WM only question. Manufacturers, wharehouses, other big boxes, heck even banks get the same economic development incentives in our area and I would bet yours, too.

Which of course boils down the entire discussion, to WM offends you so you don't think they should get what many others of similar size get.

[Harry K]

And it has been pointed out several times that businesses do _not_ pay sales tax ever, anywhere. The customer pays it.

Samantha's "theory" is bogus no matter how you look at it.

Harry K

[Caesar Romano]

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:01:40 -0400, George wrote Re Re: "We kept Wal-Mart out of our town!":

Yep, same here. Corporate welfare.

The business entity gets the town to do the infrastructure improvement ($30 million on the last project here). The local politicos get the tax revenue to shower on their favorite friends & projects, the taxpayers get to pay the bill and the neighbors get to live with the noise and congestion.

Works great for everyone except the tax payers and neighbors.

[Mark Lloyd]

That sounds right, considering the Wal-Mart Supercenter here.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I try to limit driving (to use less gas), and combine trips when possible. I get groceries at whatever store I'm going to for something else. I have different reasons for different stores, including:

Wal-Mart: lower prices, and sometimes the only place locally to get some things. The lowest gasoline price ($3.49) in town yesterday.

Brookshire's: I get prescriptions filled there, and it's easy to get groceries while waiting

Kroger: the only place in town to get out-of-town newspapers inside the store. I really don't like newspaper vending machines

I like to go to Wal-Mart between 2 and 4 AM. There's few customers, the traffic is light, and it's not so hot outside (I was in the middle of the south central hot spot almost 3 weeks ago, but it's in the seventies now).

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Including really thin plastic parts that break much too easily, making the product useless.

[SMS]

We have no Wal-Mart very close to us, but I find when traveling, especially on vacations involving camping, they're very useful. Unlike Target, they have an excellent sporting goods and camping department. I also like Fred Meyer (Kroger owns them now) for that type of stuff when up in Oregon.

The Wal-Marts closest to us have no grocery stores, so I can't comment on them. But from what I've seen of them, they don't have a lot of what I'd be buying anyway, Costco has much better quality stuff like meat, fish, and produce.

What I like about Wal-Mart is that unlike stores like Safeway and Lucky, they don't gouge on everything other than what's on sale that week. When I "save" more than I spend at Safeway it means that everything I purchased was less than half the regular price.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Wed 20 Aug 2008 10:30:54a, Mark Lloyd told us...

If I drive in a logical loop from my home and back again, it's approximately 3 miles. Within that loop I can stop at WM, Fry's, Safeway, Albertson's, and Basha's (Local chain), without expending any additional fuel. This allows me to take advantage of whoever may be the best prices on items I need.

[mm]

Thanks for the reply. This part I don't know much about.

That might be because the lot is smaller, although bowling alley's are usually pretty big, and usually have parking lots already. Forget I said anything. Well, every bowling alley I've ever seen has been in the suburbs or near the suburbs. I've lived IN the city for 18 years, and I don't remember any bowling alleys. Of course things change the farther west one goes. Never mind.