Cities and Counties Take on Big Boxes

Over one hundred communities across the UShave slammed the lid shut on Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and other major retailers.  Big boxes are now facing a backlashwhere they once found welcome mats lined with taxpayer subsidies.

Put simply, local officials are now questioning whether Wal-Mart's cutthroat predatory business practices serve the best public interest of their communities.   Why?

• Wal-Mart Sticks Us With The Bill.  The average store would leave taxpayers in a community stuck picking up about $420,750 per year, including about "$36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches" for the kids of Wal-Mart families; "$108,000 a year for children's health insurance costs; $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance; and $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families."
• We Pay Wal-Mart’s Health Care Costs.  In Georgia, Wal-Mart had more employees depending on state health-insurance assistance than any other major employer in thestate. In California, a study showed that Wal-Mart workers relied on 50% more taxpayer-funded health care per employeethan those at other large retail stores, with taxpayers subsidizing more than $20 million worth of medical care.
• Wal-Mart Drives Local Business Away.  According to PurdueUniversityconsumer sciences Professor Richard Fineberg, they want to dominate the market.  And, in many cases, the death of a grocery store leads to many other stores going under. Since introducing the concept in 1998, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has opened 1,258 Supercenters in 43 states.
• Big Boxes Usually represent poor land use. At an average of 200,000 square feet, the typical Wal-Mart Supercenteris the size of 100 three-bedroom homes. As a result, the stores displace existing homes and entire neighborhoods.
• Wal-Mart Doesn’t Buy American.  Wal-Mart's imports from China have grown so large - $13 billion - that Wal-Mart is putting American factories out of business. "This is no longer a U.S.flag-waving company," Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said. "This is a company which sells Chinese goods because they are cheap, because they [the Chinese] manipulate currency to the disadvantage of American producers."

Wal-Mart’s unfair business practices hurt small local family shops.  They shut unions out of stores, and low wages impose increased social cost on taxpayers.  Communities suffer from a loss of small town charm and wind up looking like sprawling suburbs.

Groups Like  Save Austin and  Sprawl busters have been leading the charge against big boxes, and they have collected materials from  the front lines.  Follow the links to your right to find the people and ideas needed to stop unhealthy sprawl in your area.

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