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Wal-Mart gets Feds to pay for its "driveway"

M

mac-er

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 9, 2003
1,452
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According to the Associated Press, Wal-Mart has gotten $37 million from the Federal Government to pay for the widening of a road to help get its workers to work.

Now, I understand this is a public road, but...

1. Wal-Mart seems to be the sole cause of the need for the widening...so they should at least contribute SOME money.

2. Wal-Mart makes $32 million in, what, a day? I think it wouldn't have hurt them to pay the cost.
 
no shock here... our city just spent $4.7mil to attract a Wal-mart to a specific site, they pretended to be interested, took $300,000 in "incentives" alone, and then they pulled out. $4.4mil on relandscaping alone, which should have been Wal-mart's job. And the best part? The city budget is so broke, we've had to turn off streetlights in many neighborhoods. One little kid was hit and killed because of the lack of streetlights. So residents around here are starting to say that kid died for Wal-mart's flip-flopping.

I hate wal-mart.
 
paulwhannel said:
no shock here... our city just spent $4.7mil to attract a Wal-mart to a specific site, they pretended to be interested, took $300,000 in "incentives" alone, and then they pulled out. $4.4mil on relandscaping alone, which should have been Wal-mart's job. And the best part? The city budget is so broke, we've had to turn off streetlights in many neighborhoods. One little kid was hit and killed because of the lack of streetlights. So residents around here are starting to say that kid died for Wal-mart's flip-flopping.

I hate wal-mart.
Click to expand...

In most (larger) NC cities (and I'm sure elsewhere), if a new store opens or shopping center opens, the city makes the developer pay/contribute to the cost of adding lanes or traffic control because they are the cause of the widening.
 
mac-er said:
According to the Associated Press, Wal-Mart has gotten $37 million from the Federal Government to pay for the widening of a road to help get its workers to work.

Now, I understand this is a public road, but...

1. Wal-Mart seems to be the sole cause of the need for the widening...so they should at least contribute SOME money.

2. Wal-Mart makes $32 million in, what, a day? I think it wouldn't have hurt them to pay the cost.
Click to expand...
No, it's less than a day, their revenue is about $33 million an hour.

So it's more like an hour, instead of a day. ;)
 
Sun Baked said:
No, it's less than a day, their revenue is about $33 million an hour.

So it's more like an hour, instead of a day. ;)
Click to expand...
Not to defend Wal-Mart (because I would NEVER do that), but revenue <> profit. Profit's what one would expect them to use to pay for their own damn road.

And I am glad to see the hatred of Wal-Mart growing among you... it's like the opposite of the Force: We WANT people to hate Wal-Mart, enough to put them out of business. :)
 
In our current society it isn't surprising at all. Pork barrel spending is just completely out of control. No one knows how to say know. In a family budget hard decisions need to be made. The government doesn't care because it isn't there money.
 
That's a crazy number. Now if I only had hindsight, and invested everything into WalMart stock in the early 80's, I'd be a billionaire today. Yes, WalMart is evil.
 
The problem with Wal-Mart, it seems to me, is that as evil as they seem to be, where else can a low to middle income family go and get inexpensive clothes and food and whatever else. There may be options, but many people are somewhat locked in to going to wal-mart because of their finances. (Yes, that is a generalisation)

I for one would have a hard time paying more for things when I am in need just because I dont like the politics of wal-mart. So... people keep going, and wal-mart keeps making gajillions of dollars. Viscious circle. :(
 
mac-er said:
According to the Associated Press, Wal-Mart has gotten $37 million from the Federal Government to pay for the widening of a road to help get its workers to work.
Click to expand...

Wal-Mart hasn't gotten anything. The House passed the bill, which apprently included another $284 billion of other work/improvements in other areas.

Until the Senate argues it, votes on it, passes it, and merges the version they approve (which easily may not have the $37 million for Wal-Mart in it) with the House's version in a conference committee and then it gets signed by the President, no money is going anywhere.

The House passes a lot of things and only a small percentage get past the Senate and then the President. So don't worry, the evil that is Wal-Mart most likely isn't getting anything.
 
pork_barrel.gif
 
leftbanke7 said:
Most grocery stores are open 24/7 and they aren't evil.
Click to expand...

I guess I feel pretty po-dunk. The main grocery stores where I live are Publixes. There is one Kash N Karry and one two Albertson's. I guess they are both open 24/7.

It's time for a change?
 
clayjohanson said:
Not to defend Wal-Mart (because I would NEVER do that), but revenue <> profit. Profit's what one would expect them to use to pay for their own damn road.

And I am glad to see the hatred of Wal-Mart growing among you... it's like the opposite of the Force: We WANT people to hate Wal-Mart, enough to put them out of business. :)
Click to expand...

That will not happen in our lifetime. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the world. Chances that they piss off enough people to go bankrupt are slim to none.
 
Irony

wdlove said:
No one knows how to say know.
Click to expand...

Irony. I love it!

If congestion grows on a particular street, isn't that what the street funds are there for? *If* there are congestion problems, and *if* it's one of the more deserving projects (and not being done just to make some Walmart admin happy), then they should go for it.

Only the Fed Streets and San engineers know for sure.....
 
Mr. Durden said:
The problem with Wal-Mart, it seems to me, is that as evil as they seem to be, where else can a low to middle income family go and get inexpensive clothes and food and whatever else. There may be options, but many people are somewhat locked in to going to wal-mart because of their finances. (Yes, that is a generalisation)

I for one would have a hard time paying more for things when I am in need just because I dont like the politics of wal-mart. So... people keep going, and wal-mart keeps making gajillions of dollars. Viscious circle. :(
Click to expand...

Luckily, my town has kept Wal-Mart out for 25 years or so. I'm not sure how long, but my whole life I can remember zone change hearings, big uproars, and denials! The problem is, when the last local grocery store closed down, the left Kroger to monopolize the whole county. They immediately ended their "triple coupon" promotion, and slowly upped their prices to where they are now about 20% higher than Wal-Mart. I understand that the fact that they are union and pay their employees almost enough to raise a family on causes increased costs, but I know they can do better because they used to. Are there any Supercenter-type stores that actually pay a decent wage to their workers? We don't have to worry about our city or county governments shelling out any cash to them. Our unemployment rate was around 0.8% while Clinton was president, and about 1.5% during todays "hard times". We don't give our money to any corporation.

I do shop at Wal-Mart more than I would like, but not as much as I would if I lived in any of the seven bordering counties that do have a Wal-Mart (or three). That may change, though. My daughter was just born, and she may need constant in-home medical care for her entire life. I'm gonna have to save every dime I can get. My hatred of Wal-Mart isn't even close my love for my daughter.
 
Wal-mart blows.

There are currently three Wal-marts in my town, and there's about to be a fourth. Two of them are the Super-Wal-marts, and the other two are regular size. Right down the road from where I work, there will be two Wal-marts within a 3-4 mile strech once this new one opens. This road already has crazy traffic, especially during tourist season; can't wait to see what it's like once this big-assed Super-Wal-mart opens up, basically right across the street from where I work.
 
acedickson said:
That will not happen in our lifetime. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the world. Chances that they piss off enough people to go bankrupt are slim to none.
Click to expand...


Remember the late 70's early 80's when Kmart was the king. No one ever thought they would go under but they came darn close. You never know when the next big thing may come along and take Wal Mart down.
 
aricher said:
OT here but - Where in Iowa do you live?
Click to expand...

Des Moines. It's not really OT, because it's just sad that a city this size (300,000 isn't large, but it's no village) can still be ripped off my wal-mart.

While I agree that wal-mart may go the way ot Kmart on it's own... i'm not so sure they can be brought down anymore... maybe in 10 or 20 years the federal government will step in, but they surely don't care about the labor infractions now. I've started shopping at Costco, not because I think they're too much better (in terms of being a "good" company), but because wal-mart considers it a major threat.
 
what i dont understand about wal-mart is why they feel the need to pile stores on top of each other. where i live, we got our first wal-mart in 1990. they stayed in the first location for about 10 years until they decided to move about half a mile down the street and put a sam's club in the existing building. so to get the sam's club in, they completely demolished the only 10 year old building and built a new obscenely large place for sams. then wal-mart built itself a new, even more grotesque building for the new 'supercenter.'

i'm sorry, but i dont want to buy my groceries from a place where i can also buy motor oil and bb guns.

about 10 miles up the street there is another wal-mart. and now they want to build yet ANOTHER one in between the two. i dont understand. and its not like i live in a big city either, i live in winston-salem, nc.

and i hate wal-mart.
 
Hate Wal-Mart... why?

We all know they took over toys, then grocery stores, and are working on consumer electronics.

That still leaves out them taking over the gas stations sitting on some of their properties and opening their own convenience stores, burger joints, etc.

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But the reality is, as they open more and more stores they find that same store sales will start falling at some point -- making too many store money losing eyesores.

It happens when you grow too quick and the market economics finally catch up to you.

In the next 10 years we may find Wal-mart may reach the saturation point and run into finacial trouble.

Edit: on the other hand looking at today's news, I'm surprised somebody didn't say -- proof these guys are crooks...

Wal-Mart Director Is Ousted After Probe
 
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