How many Wal-Marts does one town need?

[jmowreader]

In the "what's the worst place you've ever been" thread in the Lounge, I explained that Fayetteville has six Wal-Marts.

In today's paper, there is this job offering: "Need electricians and helpers for new Wal-Mart in Fayetteville and Sam's Club in Lumberton."

Seven Wal-Marts? That's like one Wal-Mart for every 10,000 people...and they build huge Wal-Marts here.

[Clark2008]

1. None.

Even though my Dem governor is promoting them. :cry:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310AP_Wal_Mart_Degrees.html

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen wants the state to do a better job at preparing students for careers at Wal-Mart. But he's not talking about stocking shelves or checking out customers at the retail giant.

Instead, Bredesen wants to tailor community college programs to offer courses on retail management.

Bredesen, a Democrat, pitched his proposal on how to address a management shortage at big-box retail stores on a recent trip to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

While no formal arrangement has been struck, Bredesen and Wal-Mart officials agreed to work on developing a curriculum.

Bredesen told The Associated Press he would consider an arrangement where community colleges teach Wal-Mart-specific skills, if the company would agree to guarantee jobs for graduates with good grades.

I like Bredesen, but this proposal is just S-T-U-P-I-D!!!

[jmowreader]

21. What "shortage of big-box management"?

Governor Bredesen just offered to pay to run Wal-Mart's management development program, and to ask people to pay to attend it.

Not even Home Depot is this fucking evil--at least we pay people while they're going to our management training program, and we run it ourselves.

This makes sense in one, probably unlikely, scenario: if the company will agree to pay the state for each graduate they hire, and to rebate some of the student's college expenses.

If they do that, this could be a win-win-win situation. Wal-Mart wins because they don't have to spend the money to develop the management training program. The state wins because Wal-Mart will probably send all of its prospective managers to community college in Tennessee. And the managers win because they'll leave the program not only as a manager, but with an associate's degree in Retail Management, which isn't happening now.

[NMMNG]

2. As many as the town will support

At least that seems to be Wal-Mart's persepctive.

[China_cat]

3. We have 14.

And 2 more building.

[Philosoraptor]

4. Yes, the correct answer is 14.

or more. but at least 14

[evox]

5. None.

We just need more Targets.

[fishwax]

12. welcome to DU!

:hi:

I'll take target over walmart any day :)

[izzie]

6. Well they are like the old five and dime.

Even small cities had a few of those in town. Woolworth, was that the name?, was in every small city and usually they had others much like them. Trouble is I can not recall the names. They all looked alike and usually sat dead center in any city. Fact I recall my father once bought the inside walls from one and built 3 apt. I recall it so well as he got it so cheap and my sister and I spent a year filling all those nail holes daily. Drove us crazy.

[mcscajun]

7. Woolworth's is correct.

F.W. Woolworth's was the name on the signs, but everyone just called it "Woolworth's" or "the five-and-dime". Woolworth converted itself to Foot Locker some time ago.

Another such chain was S.H. Kress & Co., another, S.S. Kresge, the precursor of KMart; oddly enough, all three chains were accused of putting local stores out of business, much as Wal-Mart is today.

[izzie]

10. The names ring a bell believe me. We usually just called it the dime store

Even in a Summer resort where I grew up one was opened in the Summer. Our family were told it was all junk so do not go in or buy. I know little about them because of that.I do not know if it is even true it was just how we grew up. I hate to go to walmarts as usually I never find what I am looking for soooooooooooo I usually make sure some one saw it in their before I go. I really am not a shopper. It is like growing grass a waste of what I wish to do, like read.

[mcscajun]

11. The stuff was pretty much junk, the precursor to today's "Dollar Store"

but bargains were to be had, and the lunch counter was a frequent stop in summers past.

They had banana splits for a variety of prices; you'd select a balloon from a string of them over the counter, the waitress would prick it with a pin, and the paper with your price (at that time, anything from a penny to 49 cents) and that's how much you'd pay for the dessert.

It was also the source for every child's horrible Mother's Day gift of "Evening in Paris", a purely revolting perfume that was easy on the wallet, and hard on mama's sensibilities.

[izzie]

15. In an blue bottle. I recall ,my father said the other stuff was made here

here,Japan and China and the funny part of it was that he had tons of 'skieballs' and his gifts were from China and we now have them all over the house They were usually brass. You rolled a ball up a flat road about 6 feet by say 2 feet, and it hit into different slots and you got points and then a gift. Lots of people played them and may still do it for all I know. By the way did Wal-mart take over the dime store business or what happened to all those stores? I figured they went out because so many stores moved into Mall and where the packing was better than a down town place.

[mcscajun]

16. Wal-Mart picked up a lot of the Canadian Woolworth stores

when they were sold. Not the case in the US, AFAIK.

[LostinVA]

8. Good grief, where????

I remember when the first one opened across from Cross Creek Mall... my BIL was stationed at Bragg then. That wasn't that long ago... and Fayetteville isn't THAT big, even with Bragg and Pope.

(I remember back in 1982, when everything around the Mall was grass)

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Self-delete. Thought OP was in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

[jmowreader]

20. I have NO idea where they're going to put it

Actually, it's five Wal-Marts and a Sam's Club:

Wal-Mart 1 and Sam's Club: corner of Skibo and Yadkin. This is a displacement site: the Wal-Mart here replaced the one you're thinking of (across from the mall); the Sam's replaced the one at Marketfair Mall. The displaced Sam's is empty, but the displaced Wal-Mart now contains a Goody's Family Clothing and a Hobby Lobby.

Wal-Mart 2: north Ramsey Street, near Methodist College. This is also a displacement site; the Wal-Mart they vacated is also on North Ramsey, and it's empty.

Wal-Mart 3: US 401 South, on the Hoke County line (or very close to it)

Wal-Mart 4: Spring Lake, which is a bedroom community for Fort Bragg.

Wal-Mart 5: at the top of the hill in Hope Mills.

This you're gonna trip out about: the new Sam's is very slightly--500 sf, iirc--than the old one. They built the new one because they wanted a gas station on Skibo Road and couldn't do it any other way. The city wouldn't let them put one at the Sam's site because it's too close to wetlands. The state wouldn't let them put one at the Wal-Mart site because of several reasons--there's a minimum offset between a gas station and another business (the main store was being counted as a separate business here because the gas stations trade under a different name) they couldn't meet, there's a minimum offset between wetlands and a gas station that they couldn't meet, and you can't put a gas station on a slope, which their parking lot is. They had a decent site right on Skibo, but by the time Bentonville decided to get into the gas business, the site had been sold and a strip mall built on it. This left another hunk of ground that I wouldn't have built a gas station on (you can't see the station from Skibo Road, one of the most heavily traveled thoroughfares in the state) but they decided they had to. The ONLY way the guy who owned the land would sell is if they took the whole thing, so now there's a smaller Sam's sitting on it.

There's only one conceivable place to put it--on Route 87 close to the Interstate so it can catch all the people from the Stedman area.

[SheilaT]

9. So long as any other store

is operating, there's room for another Wal-Mart.

Until every single store is a Wal-Mart there's clearly a need for yet another one.

What a silly question.

Personally, I haven't been inside one in years, and I'm constantly harassing friends who shop there.

[graywarrior]

13. Berlin NH is getting a super wal-mart.

There's practically nothing here since the mill closed.

[Craig3410]

14. Try living in my Fayetteville...

30 minutes from Wal-Mart HQ; you can't get away from them here!

[jmowreader]

22. I'll trade you your Wal-Mart HQ...

for our traffic system. In Fayettenam, NC, the traffic lights will leave you sitting there looking at an empty street waiting for the light to turn green so long your engine will overheat from lack of airflow, and the other drivers are so inept getting killed in a traffic accident is recorded as "natural causes."

[The2ndWheel]

18. As many as it takes

When everything is Wal-Mart, nothing will be Wal-Mart, and then we'll all be Wal-Marted inside the Wal-Mart.

[lectrobyte]

19. I thought you meant Arkansas, too. Raleigh has about 10, more

if you count the ones on the outskirts. I think they built at least some of these because a Target or Super K-Mart had opened in an area.

[lebkuchen]

23. They are gone or going from Germany! YES!

A company called "Real" has purchased them, or at least is taking over the properties.

[ikojo]

24. Are you talking Wal-Mart or Walgreens?

Springfield IL has a population of 100k and has two Wal-Marts..one on the north side of town and the other on the west side of town.

St Louis City and County seem to have a Walgreens every few blocks, especially in the city.

[Aristus]

25. My hometown of Puyallup, Washington has one Wal-Mart so far,

and one CostCo. They've been talking about building a second Wal-Mart on the other side of town. The only reason I can think of for this is that the Wal-Mart thugs are hoping a second store will siphon business away from CostCo. Whether that's true or not, I can only envision a second Wal-Mart siphoning business from the first one. I can't imagine loyal CostCo members switching over to Wal-Mart just because there happens to be two of them.

[deaniac21]

26. Wal Mart has never known what they were doing. I bet they are

losing money at a record pace.