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The big scoop everyone's buzzing about today is that Wal-Mart is sniffing around for a location in D.C., maybe in Poplar Point, maybe elsewhere. Jonathan O'Connell first reported the news in the Washington Business Journal, and has since updated with more comments from Wal-Mart, in which the company basically says that it's looking, but it's not likely to happen in the immediate future.
The crucial piece of information in all of this is that the developer the giant corporation has been working with at Poplar Point, Jeff Epperson, acknowledges that any such move would "require a public-private venture," or in other words, public dollars or land of some kind, and the mayor's office appears to be committed not to offering Wal-Mart any kind of subsidies, at Poplar Point or elsewhere. And even if Wal-Mart found a suitable location where it could build without D.C. government assistance, you can be sure of a negative reaction from unions and residents. Remember the 2004 Wal-Mart fight in Brookland? That store never saw the light of day.
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Save money. Live Better. In my pants.
I've been longing for a place where fat people who love to wear sweatpants in public could gather in D.C. this would fill that void.
What the Mall in the summer doesn’t do it for you? Wait, I guess that’s more of a fat people who love to wear JORTS in public kinda place.
As long as that Wal-Mart plans to put a McDonald's in the store, then you dreams will come true.
Please come to the RI Ave shopping center. NWL has recently left. Maybe Walmart could build a smaller store there? I wouldn't mind. It would be better than a vacant store which will probably stay vacant for the immediate future.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Trust me, you would rather have that shell stay a shell. Building a Wal-Mart at that location would kill all chance of small locally-owned businesses opening anywhere in the area, and would further encourage the perception of the area as a crappy place you want to drive by as fast as you can. There needs to be another use for that space. NOT another big box store, please! Wal-Mart would indeed be the worst of all. It sucks the souls from people, I swear.
I'm not sure keeping an empty shell in that location is a cause worth advocating. Plus, in case you had not noticed, the small locally-owned business in that area have issues.
Um, do you live near that vacant building? Or on RI Ave? Because I do live around there (Brookland) and at this point I am more than happy to take whatever will fill that vacant space and provide some competition for Giant and Unsafeway. I'm no Wal-Mart cheerleader, but the standards of what is considered acceptable along RI Ave are pathetic. Small businesses didn't bring Columbia Heights up, Target did. And frankly, some of these "small businesses" wouldn't be missed. *cough cough liquor stores*
that's incredibly cheeky that they're asking for public funding. Hope the Fenty admin shows some spine.
Wal-Mart can open a store on one condition: it has to be a Hypermart USA built entirely to the specs of the Topeka store. If it's good enough for the capital of Kansas, it's good enough for the capital of America.
DC has enough pickup truck owners to justify a Walmart?!?
Awesome!
I know the default position for DCist's target demographic is Wal-Mart=Satan, but during my six month sojourn to Fargo last year I became addicted to Wal-Mart. Don't hate, appreciate.
Not hating, just saying:
last time I was in Fargo it was -50 F. -64 F w/ windchill. And dark. I'm thinking anyplace warm and bright would be appreciated there.
Bonus points if it's smoke free and big enough not to smell cheddar sausage and beer farts. :)
Double bonus points if it sells ice fishing supplies. ;)
Deal: Wal-Mart can come to DC, but we ain't giving them a penny and they have to let the UFCW organize their workers and they have to not suck. Deal?
Fair enough, but I'm not really authorized to bargain on behalf of Wal-Mart.
More industry in unpopulated areas, the more jobs..the less crime. We need to take these abandoned pits and build things. We all know walmart sucks, but its industry. Too many abandoned places in DC to be the Nation's capitol.
As long as they don't just plop down a big box store with massive parking lots, and make adaptations to their standard model, like Target did in Columbia Heights.
The thing is, Walmart could bring a grocery store, too, something that SE could use since it's a food desert.
Speaking of Target, what's the difference between that and Wally World? The city gave loans to build DCUSA - could something similar to that financial agreement work instead of the district just giving Walmart free money?
I don't care one way or the other about a Wal-Mart in DC just as long as pet owners don't tie up their children outside the store.
More likely they'd leave them locked in the car.
Count the DC plates in the parking lot of the Wal Mart in Kingstowne. There is demand.