Wal-Mart War Room - Chapter 2

[kimo55]

Sprawlmart may not gain any footing in the possible Daiei kaheka thing in da news...
Daiei at this locale is profitable.
their lease extends til 2018.
A&B may buy the land it sits on... for possible redevelopment of the structure and area.

so enjoy that ol' timey 60's Hawaii feel there while ya can citizens. Cus it will soon look like an Irvine strip mall.

****

additionally, here's my prediction, based on:
* sam's club's slow demise lately.
* walmart laying off people and the sales not meeting expectations.
* neigborhood businesses not enjoying any residual traffic or cashola from people walmart brings into the area. something walmart promised would happen to pull the wool over peoples eyes.
* lack of business promised to high rent paying enterprises in the walmart building, the "shops at keeaumoku".

they simply don't see any of the promised business walmart vouchsafed to them. And retail consultants are doing the usual word shuffle to say, "well we never said it would be immediate. they gotta wait for the dust to settle."
or some such avoid/evade verbiage...


Ok so the prediction is:
Walmart and "Sam's-club-over-the-head-of-local-businesses" will close and we will have remaining, a huge worthless behemoth of a structure, (that's what it is now, of course) but it will be empty and NO one can fill it. we are left with an eyesore and aint a dayum thing anyone can do about it.

and we can thank walmart for screwing up and over another town.

think about it:
Hawaii. one of the most beautiful places in the world. and we are killing it.

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

Sprawlmart may not gain any footing in the possible Daiei kaheka thing in da news...
Daiei at this locale is profitable.
their lease extends til 2018.
A&B may buy the land it sits on... for possible redevelopment of the structure and area.

so enjoy that ol' timey 60's Hawaii feel there while ya can citizens. Cus it will soon look like an Irvine strip mall.

****

additionally, here's my prediction, based on:
* sam's club's slow demise lately.
* walmart laying off people and the sales not meeting expectations.
* neigborhood businesses not enjoying any residual traffic or cashola from people walmart brings into the area. something walmart promised would happen to pull the wool over peoples eyes.
* lack of business promised to high rent paying enterprises in the walmart building, the "shops at keeaumoku".

they simply don't see any of the promised business walmart vouchsafed to them. And retail consultants are doing the usual word shuffle to say, "well we never said it would be immediate. they gotta wait for the dust to settle."
or some such avoid/evade verbiage...


Ok so the prediction is:
Walmart and "Sam's-club-over-the-head-of-local-businesses" will close and we will have remaining, a huge worthless behemoth of a structure, (that's what it is now, of course) but it will be empty and NO one can fill it. we are left with an eyesore and aint a dayum thing anyone can do about it.

and we can thank walmart for screwing up and over another town.

think about it:
Hawaii. one of the most beautiful places in the world. and we are killing it.

The most profitable WM outlets are the SuperWMs that have a supermarket component to them. If WM concedes that they cannot lure enough business customers to Keeaumoku and has to close Sam's Club and IF they can't buy the Kaheka Daiei, they might try to save face in Honolulu by converting that Sam's Club space into a supermarket area and convert WM Keeaumoku into a SuperWM. They're starting to propose SuperWMs for city centers now; maybe that's what they were planning to do in Honolulu in the first place but maybe the City Council put the kybosh on that initially. If Sam's Club fails and there's this huge empty space owned by WM, I think your City Council would rather have a business occupying that space (and thereby adding tax revenue) than to have it stand as a vacant eyesore.

SuperWMs are the reason why the WM stock hasn't fallen as much as it should have already, based on sluggish November revenues (i.e., they're still making money, but not as much as they had hoped for the holiday season)...people will always need to buy food; they may not necessarily need anything else that you can find at WM (or at least can forego buying them for awhile with the high cost of gas and other necessary commodities).

Miulang

P.S. Add to this picture the fact that IF WM Keeaumoku becomes a SuperWM and Daiei remains independent (because of the reasons Kimo stated above), the competition might drive this Daiei under anyway, which, if A&B buys the Kaheka land, means that A&B can tear down that Daiei and redevelop that property sooner than 2018.

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

Interesting (and lengthy) socioeconomic analysis of the average WM shopper. People who always shop at WM might be incensed at this analysis (i.e., being lumped into the "lower income" category), but it is true that where WM has its greatest success is in poorer, more rural parts of the country; where the outcry against WM has been loudest has tended to be in the more densely populated cities where there tend to be better educated and wealthier people.

Miulang

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i...s=featherstone

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

WM was named "Grinch of the Year 2004" in a national poll sponsored by Jobs with Justice, a Progressive organization, for its low low wages and high high barriers to health care benefits for employees.

Miulang

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1222-03.htm

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

As I speculated here previously, WM is eying more opportunities to expand within cities, not as standalones, but as part of a sprawlmart with higher end stores. Dunno why they think their mix of products is going to be of any interest to patrons of Ann Taylor, etc. Kinda reminds me of the Wailea Shopping Plaza on Maui, which has really yupscale retail outlets (Versace, etc) and one ABC Store on the second level.

Miulang

http://www.sacbee.com/content/busine...12770535c.html

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

I bet Walmart is drolling over this article about Daiei.

Will there be any Daiei store closings in Hawaii?

KalihiBoy


http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/29/business/index3.html

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

The biggest WM news story today is about 2 WM assistant managers in Indiana who were told by their manager to "get a gun and get rid" of a stray cat that was hanging around outside the dumpster behind the store. The 2 employees and other managers suspected of taking part in the plot were suspended without pay for the action pending an internal investigation, and the 2 employees were charged with federal animal cruelty. So will the ASPCA now issue a boycott of WM???

Miulang

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/s...701368,00.html

[kimo55]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

WM assistant managers told by their manager to "get a gun and get rid" of a stray cat

Miulang

....guns don't kill animals.
Walmart employees kill animals!

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

Another stupid "former" WM employee trick: This WM greeter in IA was fired for handing out pictures of himself (altered digitally) wearing only a sack with "WM" on it. Then his claim for unemployment was rejected. I guess WM doesn't screen its employees for intelligence, does it?

Duh.

Miulang

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story....DxmTz3jLzxrLCG

[kimo55]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

Another stupid "former" WM employee trick: This WM greeter in IA was fired for handing out pictures of himself (altered digitally) wearing only a sack with "WM" on it. Then his claim for unemployment was rejected. I guess WM doesn't screen its employees for intelligence, does it?

Duh.

Miulang

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story....DxmTz3jLzxrLCG

here is a pic showing two employees with the new walmart sack uniform. They look fairly satisfied with the look and fit...

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/04/81/88...92_100X100.jpg

[kimo55]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room

This WM greeter in IA was fired for handing out pictures of himself (altered digitally) wearing only a sack with "WM" on it.

ok, gang. I KNOW you all are clamoring for a glimpse of the actual pic in question.
Hope you didn't just eat.

http://www.squizzle.com/pictures/walmart.jpg

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room - Chapter 2

And you KNOW there has to be a PS to go along with that picture, doncha? Well, when CNN asked him what he thought of the whole thing, here is his reply, "When I first seen it, I pretty near died laughing," he said.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room - Chapter 2

WM has launched an aggressive PR campaign to try to change the perception that they are union-unfriendly, low paying and discriminatory.

Will it work? Dunno. The ads are appearing in 100 newspapers. Don't know if Hawai'i is considered a big enough market to worry about.

Miulang

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/...263590611.html

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room - Chapter 2

I didnt know Walter Cronkite worked for Walmart.

KalihiBoy

[Miulang]

Re: Wal-Mart War Room - Chapter 2

OK, I confess. I went to the sort of local WM (it's about 20 miles outside Seattle, and the closest one...WM's scared to build in Seattle proper, although there are Walgreens on just about every corner) but only because we were given a WM gift card for Christmas and had to use it before WM started charging a "nonuse" fee and took away the value of the card. Ended up spending about $13 more than the face value of the card...couldn't believe the families with 5 kids pushing 2 shopping carts full of "made in every Third World Country" goods. I think if we went in there with the goal of only purchasing "Made in America" goods, we'd still be in there, 4 hours later, looking high and low...

Miulang