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Does it Cost to Shop at Wal-Mart? & Kohl's Thought
Posted: Aug 5 2004, 07:57 AM
Wal-Mart's been in the news lately both directly and indirectly. After chronic complaints from places that have said their businesses were overrun by Wal-Mart, there was a study done by UC Berkeley to investigate the cost Wal-Mart had on the state of California and the finding is intriguing, especially given the hot topic these days about outsourcing, the economy, and jobs.
The study's finding was that Wal-Mart costs the state of California $86 million dollars in 2001 for public assistance to Wal-Mart employees who aren't able to subsist on their earnings alone. If this is any bit true, then the Wal-Mart phenomenon may be a significant factor of the national economy that isn't getting discussed. California only has 138 regular Wal-Mart stores, these are not even the SUPER Wal-Mart centers, which America has 1471 of!
Want a visual, check out this map:
Wal-Mart Stores in the US
What does this do to the economies of other areas of the country? One can only imagine. The low prices come at costs that have been hidden from view. Home Depot is the number two retailer to Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart eclipses Home Depot's revenues by four times. That's a lot of cash and a lot of power. In Marin, they're trying to write legislation that would prevent Wal-Mart from opening their Super Centers up there. There are efforts to do this in S. California too. Wal-Mart Super Centers are trying to edge into California. They want to build 40 of them in California in the next 2 years.
The shadow of the Wal-Mart Super Center isn't quite hanging over Silicon Valley yet, but I ran into a couple last night that made me think a little more critically about a less ominous name moving into Silicon Valley, Kohl's Department store. In Campbell, there's been a lot of debate about traffic impact vs. tax revenues for the city coming from the 4-story Kohl's that will go across the street from Fry's on Hamilton Ave. near 17. Is there more to this debate than what was aired? My suspicions were stirred last night when that couple told me they just found out that Bruener's is filing for bankruptcy. Maybe I missed something, but Bruener's going out of business was not part of the deal.
Also, Kohl's is not just coming to Campbell. There's one going into Santa Clara off of Lawrence Expwy. Are there more?
The study's finding was that Wal-Mart costs the state of California $86 million dollars in 2001 for public assistance to Wal-Mart employees who aren't able to subsist on their earnings alone. If this is any bit true, then the Wal-Mart phenomenon may be a significant factor of the national economy that isn't getting discussed. California only has 138 regular Wal-Mart stores, these are not even the SUPER Wal-Mart centers, which America has 1471 of!
Want a visual, check out this map:
Wal-Mart Stores in the US
What does this do to the economies of other areas of the country? One can only imagine. The low prices come at costs that have been hidden from view. Home Depot is the number two retailer to Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart eclipses Home Depot's revenues by four times. That's a lot of cash and a lot of power. In Marin, they're trying to write legislation that would prevent Wal-Mart from opening their Super Centers up there. There are efforts to do this in S. California too. Wal-Mart Super Centers are trying to edge into California. They want to build 40 of them in California in the next 2 years.
The shadow of the Wal-Mart Super Center isn't quite hanging over Silicon Valley yet, but I ran into a couple last night that made me think a little more critically about a less ominous name moving into Silicon Valley, Kohl's Department store. In Campbell, there's been a lot of debate about traffic impact vs. tax revenues for the city coming from the 4-story Kohl's that will go across the street from Fry's on Hamilton Ave. near 17. Is there more to this debate than what was aired? My suspicions were stirred last night when that couple told me they just found out that Bruener's is filing for bankruptcy. Maybe I missed something, but Bruener's going out of business was not part of the deal.
Also, Kohl's is not just coming to Campbell. There's one going into Santa Clara off of Lawrence Expwy. Are there more?
