20 replies to this topic

[monsoon]

[cityboi]

This seems to be happening nationwide to Walmart.

[Neo]

cityboi, on May 17 2004, 07:14 AM, said:

This seems to be happening nationwide to Walmart.

Yes it does.  And I personally think it's a good thing.  I know MANY people who simply do not shop at Wal-Mart anymore.  I personally haven't stepped in a Wal-Mart for over a year, not even to take a peek and I know my immediate family avoids Wal-Mart.  They're moving to K-Mart while I'm stick with the tride and true Target.  Most of my shopping is done at specialty stores though.  I go to the grocery store (Harris Teeter) for my groceries, specific brand stores for clothing (i.e. Claiborne) and do a heck of a lot of shopping on Amazon.com and other sites.  I almost receive daily UPS/FedEx shipments, LOL!

Should be noted that I worked for one of Wal-Mart's grocery distrobution centers right after high school for a couple of weeks (literally) and quit.  It's a HORRIBLE place to work, at least the distro center was.  Plus it was about a 45 minute to an hour drive down a bad two lane road and across the state border.  Since that job I've had very good jobs so my quitting was a good thing.

[monsoon]

[Allan]

It's good to hear that at least one city has finally stood up to Walmart.  I have never bought anything at Walmart.  I've only been in the store once, and I don't plan on going back in any time soon!  Most of my friends, and my entire family refuse to shop at Walmart.  I stick to the locally owned grocery store, which is a bit more expensive, although the higher price is worth it for the more personal service.  For other things, I try to stick to locally owned stores, or the smaller chains.  One chain I cannot live without is Meijers, simply because they have everything you could ever want and are open 24 hours...which is helpful when I'm doing a project at 3AM and need to buy additional supplies.

[Spartan]

Congrats to Winston-Salem! Unfortunately I have no choice but to shop at Walmart. They closed all of our Kmarts in the area, and Target is out on the other side of town. I live on the eastern side of Spartanburg County, and the most convient palce to shop is Walmart. There are of course many other places, and while I make a sincere effort to not go to Walmart, I usually wind up going there anyway. We do all of our grocery shopping at Publix which is a great store. There aren't any other places around that are open 24hrs in my town except for the other Walkmarts in the area and a few Walgreens'.

Now in Columbia, it is much more convenient to go to Kmart or Target. But there are many more stores around in a larger city to supplement what Walmart has.

[twincity]

This Wal-Mart still has a chance of being built...its not quite rejected as of yet.   The city council makes the final decision and i think it will be approved.  the opponents are some residents and county planners.   business owners and councilmen want the store to be built. whatever the decision, it will be controversial.

[Myles Away]

There is mounting opposition and when the planning board which is in charge of growth control says this will cause runoff problems, conflicts with Legacy growth plan, and will cause serious traffic problems its a sure thing council will vote no. More opposition is mounting due to the location of another Walmart less than a mile from this one. There are a number of councilmen opposed right now. To win approval they will have to change the building size, change the facade to match the neighborhood, reduce the number of parking spaces, add space for small businesses, change the building's position on the property in relation to the street and make it pedestrian friendly with walkways and trees. The developer is already talking about backing out. Walmart pays developers based on it's big box image. If they have to change their trademark image of blue and gray boxes with large parking lots out front they cut the money they give to developers. The developer will lose thousands on this development if forced to make all the changes on the table and it looks like they will force him to make all of them. Congradulations to everyone invloved at the local neighborhood association fighting this development. Victory is yours!

The power of teamwork from the neighborhood association!

Keep up the fight and lets build and preserve great neighborhoods!

Chris Myles - Brookstown Neighbors

[twincity]

the closest Wal-Mart is about 6 miles away on Hanes Mill Rd. Its good to see the neighbors coming together to make a statement...but tha area( north winston) is experiencing substantial growth.  A lot of older people live in that area so they might be the ones really voicing their opinions.  to me, it seems that they are stopping progress.  Reynolda Rd. is a thoroughfare, a state highway 67?  Stores like this should be on main arteries. i can see if the developers where proposing the store in a neighborhood...thats not the case.

[Danny 4 Peace]

Target has talked about opening downtown. I don't know how serious they are about doing it. They like the retail demographics of Downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods and colleges. It would be a stripped down version of the store but they have talked about opening downtown. They also would take advantage of low intrest loans and facade improvement money. That angers some business owners downtown who think that money should be for small businesses only.

[yadkinv]

Where would the Target be located?

[thebarb20]

Florence, SC has been fighting Wal-Mart for over a year to prevent a supercenter from locating next to a high school which is only 2 lane road and is next to the only waterway in the town .  Jeffries Creek is already polluted and they were trying to prevent more contamination.  Much of this was tied into a nearby town's decision to try to rally for Wal-Mart to reopen a contract w/ a closed t-shirt manufacturer (anvil) that laid off 600 employees.  marion county has 16.8% unemployment and needs the jobs bad.  they were trying to get wal-mart to reinvest in the community it is located in and they actually got a meeting w/ their VP's last week.  However, I do not think much will come of this b/c they do not want to set precedence.

[yadkinv]

As one will note, this is old stuff.  In fact, it seems the opposite might be true.  Not only will Wal -Mart merely have to meet some stiffer requirements, number 5 is indicated.

The following was from the W-S Journal a few days ago.

Wal-Mart plans for store 5
Retailer working on a proposal for Peters Creek Parkway site
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s plans to build a supercenter on Reynolda Road in Winston-Salem touched off a debate over "big-box" developments that lasted for several months.

Now Wal-Mart is not just back at work planning that store, but it is also gearing up to propose another supercenter on Peters Creek Parkway, about five miles south of downtown.

The stores, if approved, would be the fourth and fifth in Forsyth County, joining existing ones on Hanes Mall Boulevard and Hanes Mill Road in Winston-Salem and one on South Main Street in Kernersville.

The Peters Creek Parkway project, which planners say is in the beginning stages, faces an unusual circumstance: part of the 31-acre site straddles the city-county line and those entities now have different rules for large retail developments.

"It raises some real interesting questions," said Glenn Simmons, a longtime city-county planner.

The city and Forsyth County are divided on the rules for large-scale retail developments.

In March, Wal-Mart first submitted plans for a 223,000-square-foot supercenter on Reynolda Road near Shattalon Drive. Many residents of nearby neighborhoods opposed the plans and lobbied for stricter guidelines for such large projects.

In response to those concerns, city-county planners drafted new regulations that were approved by the City-County Planning Board.

The Winston-Salem City Council imposed a moratorium while council members looked at the issue. The council members tweaked the regulations and approved them in September.

The regulations include stricter guidelines in which developments of 75,000 square feet or bigger must meet design criteria on such things as parking, facades and building entrances. A shopping center that has at least one tenant of 75,000 square feet or bigger also must meet the design guidelines. The regulations also require that the design guidelines be imposed if a building with multiple tenants is 150,000 square feet or bigger. Projects of 125,000 square feet or bigger require a special zoning classification.

On Monday, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners rejected the same guidelines.

As a result, the only rules for building big-box developments in the county are what exist in the current county ordinance. It regulates such things as parking and setback requirements.

The preliminary plans for the Peters Creek Parkway supercenter are for a 203,000-square-foot store that would replace several homes, tin-roofed barns and clusters of pine and evergreen trees. The project is a few miles from several grocery stores, fast-food restaurants and a Kmart - one of the only stores left in a shopping center across from Parkland High School.

The new Wal-Mart would face a proposed future extension of West Clemmonsville Road and would back up to a row of one- and two-story houses in the Twin Cedar subdivision off Peters Creek Parkway, Simmons said.

The store would be in an area that county planners hope will develop into a commercial hub accessible by nearby neighborhoods in the future.

Wal-Mart is working with planners on ways to shield the neighborhood from the store by building a tall buffer and putting more space between the store's loading docks and the nearby houses.

Wal-Mart has shown planners detailed drawings of the building's facade, which attempts to create what looks like a number of shops and entrances into the front of the store rather just a plain brick building.

The fancier facade complies with some of the new design guidelines, Simmons said.

Wal-Mart must resubmit a new plan for the proposed supercenter on Reynolda Road to meet the new city regulations, said Glynis Jordan, the deputy planning director.

However, it's not clear how planners will deal with the Peters Creek Parkway project.

About 200 feet of the property that fronts Peters Creek Parkway is in the city. The rest, which would be the bulk of the supercenter, is in the county.

"This adds a layer of complexity," Simmons said.

Planners will have to determine which rules the project must follow.

The company will probably formally submit plans for the two stores so that the City-County Planning Board can consider them early next year, Jordan said.

[PghUSA]

Wal-Mart needs to stop funding the slave labor trade in China and start supporting good paying and good benefit jobs here at home!  I think WS was right in barring there presence, they do have low prices but it comes at a COST folks

[Myles Away]

Walmart is submitting plans. They aren't approved and just because they submitted them doesn't mean they will get approved. I could submit plans to demolish the 1768 Single Brother's House for a lemonade stand if I owned the property but that doesn't mean they will approve it. I've heard the city doesn't support the 150 site and that is from city council.

[StevenRocks]

You'd think there were enough Wal-Marts in the Triad by now.

[AnEverydayJo]

Forsyth county already has 3 Super WMs (2 in the city limits & 1 just outside in K-ville)....how many more do we need? What we really need is more upscale stores and restaurants...not cheap imported goods.

Also, I'd like to see road construction that is able to handle what traffic we have now before any new development begins. I can't image what a Super Center would do to the Reynolda area. Hanes Mall Blvd is a bottle-neck....I avoid it at all costs....over 1 hour to drive  1 mile during peak times. The other store within the city, Hanes Mill Rd, is on it's way of becoming the same way.
I can't image what a Super Center would do to the Reynold area. Hanes Mall Blvd is a bottle-neck....I avoid it at all costs....over 1 hour to drive  1 mile during peak times. The other store within the city, Hanes Mill Rd, is on it's way of becoming the same way.

[twincity]

well said.  i agee, im also not a big fan of walmart supercenters, but at least the city has set excellent guidelines for big box retailers that are eyeing w-s.  we may not like the stores  but its good to know that they wont be too bad of eye sores.  the one bad thing that the city can do nothing about is the out of control spin-off development that follows.  Peters Creek can handle it but im not too sure about the reynolda area.   i think developers are moving ahead with the one on reynolda and the one on peters creek could be more of a mixed use development with office buildings and it could be possibly as tall as 3 storeys.


Here is the site of the walmart on reynolda and a site that is already beings marketed for spinoff businesses

I also agree that the city is doing little about improving and widening roads to handle the trafic that major developments, like these, will bring.  I still dont understand why Hanes Mall blvd is a 2 lane road, but is still one the hottest areas for development.  seems like it would be wise to make it a 4 lne thouroughfare all the way to Jonestown Rd.

this is one of severalnew construction projects that is going up on that narrow, heavily traveled stretch from target to walmart.   imagine the traffic when this is completed.

[JunktionFET]

I suppose that is better than the mega strip malls of the 1980s or early 90s. Instead of having a wall of stores and an ocean-sized parking lot, they are now putting all the stores and such on a mini-grid with parking all around.

[Jerseyman4]

Marion County at 15% unemployment?! Wow. Marlboro County is just behind them with their umemployment as well.

In small towns allover America, away from the cities, Wal Mart trys to situate them outside of the city limits to avoid paying municipal taxes and instead pay county taxes and utilities which is cheaper. Another reason Wal Mart can lower its prices for what they sell.