Make Big Boxes Get Small & Go Downtown. From VermontWalMartWatch.org. Isn't this a smart idea? Limit the store size and make them build downtown and 80% of Saranac Lakers would likely welcome Wal-Mart into their community. A neighborhood Wal-Mart store sells 23,000 items and is less than 50,000 sq. ft.Also, read this (pdf) to see how Rutland, VT dealt with Wal-Mart, downsize and downtown.
Also, a great speech by Bill McKibben at this same website.
2 comments:
This is a realistic approach to dealing with Wal-Mart. Personally, I would rather they weren't in Saranac Lake at all. However, that is not a realistic approach. Better that if W-M is going to come into our community, they do it under our rules.... and small size in a dwontown location IS realistic. In his weekly commentary in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise this past weekend, Howard Riley made reference to the opportunity we have to control Wal-Mart, or any other large scale retailer. He made a clear case for a reasonable size and an appropriate location: downtown. This should be the next effort in Saranac Lake: to give W-M, or whoever wants to open in SL, an opportunity to locate a reasonable sized store downtown where everyone will benefit from it.
Mark Kurtz
I think making Wal-Mart go downtown is an excellent idea. Weren't they initially looking at a downtown location? And wasn't it Cliff Donaldson who showed them the site they are presently interested in? And yes, I believe if you made them go downtown and downsize their store, many locals wouldn't have a problem with that at all.
The village would have to get a few things in writing such as:
1) the store could never be expanded.
2) they would not seek to relocate it out of town.
3) if they didn't make it the building would become the property of the village to do with as they choose.
Wal-Mart has 350 empty buildings in the U.S. The last thing we need here is an empty Wal-Mart and promises from them that mean nothing unless its in writing.
Yes, I would prefer another store, but a downsized Wal-Mart could work. And Wal-Mart has the money to build it. If they were going to pay something like 2 million for the Stanley Chevrolet property, then they have the money to build downtown. It should be a downtown building or nothing.
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