The Portland Tribune is reporting that Wal-Mart will expand its Eastport Plaza location by about 22,000 square feet, adding a grocery and 100 jobs.
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Wal-Mart will open grocery at Eastport Plaza22 comments to Wal-Mart will open grocery at Eastport Plaza |
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Doesn’t thrill me.
Unless their willing to make substantial facade improvements, and change the entrance orientation of their store so it intereacts with the street environment, I’m not inclined to like this idea either. We need a real grocery store that sells high food value food, not more cheap processed GMO crap food. Plus 100 Walmart jobs is not the sort of job growth I want to support. I’d rather see retail jobs in the town center.
The newspaper article in the O this morning claims that Walmart is offering “organic food, clothes made with organic cotton and seafood caught in the wild.” I wonder that this looks like in their store. What about a commitment to buying products manufactured locally? What about paying a living wage? I doubt it.
An expanded Walmart is simply NOT what we need here- and we should be sure to let the mayor know that this is not the road we want to be going down right now…. or ever! We need more food options- but that should come in to form of something much more local. I would love to get to the point where we are looking at a cooperative- or at least having a store like New Seasons opening up for business! In any case, an expanded Walmart would just be a greater stumbling block for something much better.
Who’s calling Sam?
Just a sec Jeff…I don’t think it’s time to get out the NIMBY caps and the exclamation points yet. The truth of the matter is that, in Portland, the people that shop at WalMart are probably always going to shop at WalMart or some other similar type of place. I don’t think there’s as much concern about them competing with a New Seasons type store or a co-op. There’s always one way to find out for sure though- that’s to ask New Seasons if the presence of a WalMart with a grocery section factors into their decision making.
In addition – this is a 16.6% increase in the square footage of an existing WalMart – not a huge expansion in WalMart numbers. And, their store could definitely be improved. And, given their history with attempting to develop in Portland, I’m guessing they may be more inclined to negotiate than their usual m.o.
So, yes, WalMart is not what we need here – but since we already have it – ie it’s already in our backyard (actually in my front yard and provides a not so stunning view in the winter)- are their any opportunities to fix what’s wrong with the WalMart we have?
So, here you have Cora’s things that would make the WalMart we have (and probably can’t get rid of) better list:
1. They make it a “green” flagship store and remodel their entire building and the expansion so the facility is net zero / carbon neutral.
2. They pay to add a grade separated cycle track on Holgate between where the buffered bike lanes end and through Eastport Plaza to connect up with the Center Street bicycle boulevard.
3. The new expansion has a pedestrian oriented main entrance that fronts on Holgate near the bus stop, complete with storefront windows.
4. They establish some sort of endowment to support a large-scale community project. Some ideas: paying for portions of the Lents Park master plan implementation and endowing the maintenance of the park – without asking for any naming rights; endowing the salaries of administrative staff for a Community Improvement District that helps us get rolling on creating and maintaining EcoDistrict projects in Lents; endowing the salaries of administrative and maintenance staff for a year-round indoor public market in the Lents Town Center; buying and redeveloping a storefront location for a grocery co-op and endowing the operational cost of the co-op; paying for the implementation of the 205 freeway art project and endowing the maintenance of that project and the other gateway art in the town center; developing a community kitchen and food craft education center in the Lents Town Center and endowing the operational funding; (I think you get the drift at this point)
at this point – I’m going to open up the floor for other suggestions of how we can make the WalMart we already have (and probably can’t get rid of) better list -
That said – I am in no way being a WalMart apologist here. In fact, I loathe WalMart deep in my very soul and the irony that I live next to one never once leaves the front of my mind. In my utopia, the WalMart would go-away and be replaced with downtown Park City, Utah and the Moroccan Pavilion from Epcot Center.
I’ll send Amy Ruiz and the Mayor a link to this post so they can participate in the conversation – or at least keep track of it. Please make an effort to get other people over to this post and talking too.
I’ve got a little perspective to offer here, and I’m no huge fan either…
- When I lived in Vegas, they did a similar overhaul of a store near my house that was at the time similar to our WM. The renovated building looked a lot more like the Johnson Creek WM than, say, a grocery store glommed on to our old school WM.
- The company has been touting its sustainable stores for a little while now. Don’t know if anything they’re doing is actually meaningful, but it makes a good soundbyte. http://walmartstores.com/download/3338.pdf
- I haven’t been in a WM grocery in 2 1/2 years, but at the time its offerings were comparable to any other grocery store (Vons/Safeway, Albertson’s, Smith’s/Fred Meyer) with the notable exception of a general lack of a dedicated organic section. Maybe that’s changed, maybe it hasn’t.
Might not be a bad idea to invite a WM rep to visit an LNA meeting to talk, and listen.
ok , so walmart is expanding to include groceries,I think that this is going to be beneficial to those people who do regular food shopping ( think freddies). To the people who are looking for sustainable, organic food there really is no impact at all. We still need to forage for ourselves(there are avenues for it though)especially in these tough economic times (real numbers well over 10% unemployed) some people will need to put something on the table that might be GMO it is still better than nothing so rather than start to bash a business lets see how to help the business maybe tailor its food choices to reflect more of the Lents neighborhood. Walmart has a track record of investing in the local communities and I am sure that they will be reached out to in the future for the pars master plan either in the planning stage or the implementing of the plan. I hope that they will be forthcoming with support. I believe that Wal-mart wont affect the coming of New Seasons or a New Seasons type store, i think the economy might though, remember that while some want to buy organic/local /sustainable the price on it might be prohibitive. I am glad that there are choices for food
The only thing that could possibly earn support from me for Walmart is an agreement to return to their pre NAFTA and GATT policy of buying products made in the USA. They used to advertise that! Once the free trade agreements were signed they became better known for actually FORCING companies to move overseas! I’m not against putting a thing or two on the table. If we can get them to pay for improvements to the park, great. If we can get them to support a community center- fine. I’m sure we can brainstorm more. Since they’re here….. and there probably isn’t anything we can do to get them to leave!
I’ll try to think of some other ideas today. An expanded Walmart? Bad road. Can we make it worth it? Maybe. Honestly- in my opinion- if it’s good for Walmart- it’s bad for America. That’s the kind of company they are. They don’t care. Period. OK enough of my bashing!
Once we have a list of things that we’d like from them- how and in what venue do we present them with our “wish list”?
For what it’s worth, I perused a just-opened supercenter today, and found it very similar to the ones I’d visited two years ago, with the notable difference of much brighter interior colors (think Target in blue and grey instead of red and white).
And, the checkout clerk said in the back they go through the trash and sort out the recycling, which is kind of weird considering the only things to do with recyclables like glass bottles here is either toss them or take them, in person, to the dump for “recycling.”
The digging through the trash seems weird to me too. Why not just supply the divided trash receptacles and encourage the customers to presort? Why put their employees through that? I think it’s just another example of why WalMart culture needs to change in a much bigger way than normal green-washing allows.
Maybe they’ll learn a lesson from Portland – if they actually decide to play by our rules.
Some people are too quick to jump up and start condemning when they hear that something new is coming to Lents. Walmart will have no effect on a New Seasons style store coming to Lents.
Walmart has their place in the area, and customers that will patronize them. I have no idea why we think that we can make unreasonable demands on them just because they are trying to enlarge and add onto their existing business.
I believe that upon further studies you will find that if there is a separation of recyclable material from trash it is done before it ever reaches the dumpster.
We are in no position to make rules. We can make requests and suggestions, but I don’t think that you will make any headway trying to play Mr. Tough guy.
Damien, I like the idea of inviting them to a LNA meeting and get the real facts about what is going in.
Clint, I don’t anyone here is trying to make unreasonable demands. But, they are attempting to add 22,000 square feet to a store- and that has traffic impacts and neighborhood impacts. The land-use process is in place to ensure that those impacts are minimal and that any change in the use of any given parcel has adequate building, transportation and other system improvements to accompany it.
I think it is reasonable for us to ask them to have a recycling collection system. It’s not a huge expensive endeavor. The amount of trash the visitors to their store generates is significant and has an effect on the amount of litter in the neighborhood, and in the operations of our refuse collection system and in the size of our landfills. Also, remember that 100 jobs they say they will be creating may very well be our neighbors. Would you want your neighbor to have to pick through trash just because WalMart coporate offices didn’t want to pay for the extra bins and bags so the customers can presort the recyclables when they actually throw the trash away?
Given the history of how WalMart has fared in Portland regarding building new stores, I think we have a lot of leverage. I don’t imagine that we as a neighborhood are actually making rules – but there’s also the Mayor’s office, who aren’t keen on WalMart, and the other neighborhood that we can have an alliance with. We are in the position to ask WalMart to do things a little differently if they want to expand, at least as far as the building systems, architecture and system improvements go…
Here’s an idea. In exchange for supporting Walmart gaining a grocery foothold in Portland- they help get a few manufacturers set up in Freeway Lands AND agree to sell their products in ALL of their stores. It’s not quite a return to their “buy American” campaign, but it would certainly help offset a few the million jobs that have been lost to outsourcing over the last decade because of their practices. If any company is in a position to do something like this- it’s Walmart. Are there local manufactures that would be willing to expand their operations and perhaps open larger facilities in Freeway Lands if they were guaranteed a place on Walmart’s shelves?
An agreement like this would go a long way towards gaining my support.
“We cannot continue to be a solvent nation as long as we pursue this current accelerating direction. Our company is firmly committed to the philosophy by buying everything possible from suppliers who manufacture their products in the United States.”
– Sam Walton, Wal-Mart Press Release, 3/13/85
There are much better industrial and economic uses for the Freeway Land site than having manufacturers of disposable goods setting up shop there.
Disposable? I think an example might be in order here. We don’t actually manufacture much here in the good ol’ US of A anymore- but there are some companies that are still hanging on! On such company is Best Manufacturing which makes, of all things, some of the best kitchen whisks you can buy AND they’re affordable. They’re made RIGHT HERE in PORTLAND!!! What percent of the market share do they hold here? God only knows- but I guarantee you that all the whisks sold at Walmart are made in China or somewhere OTHER than here. Here’s a great video which actually shows them making whisks here in Portland:
http://cookingupastory.com/the-awesome-whisk
I’d bet that if these whisks were sold at every Walmart in the world- that they would have to make a lot more whisks. If these were the only whisks that Walmart sold- they’d definately have to open a larger facility and employ lots more people in their operation! This is the kind of thing that we should be asking for. A long-term contract with companies like this to sell their goods at Walmart. When they have agreements in place with several Portland companies- we’ll talk about them expanding!
Sure, there might be other economic uses for Freeway Lands- but better? I’d be happy with a company that manufactures something like solar panels or electric cars…. I don’t quite understand how ensuring a few portland companies a share of Walmart’s market would be a poor use of our industrial land. Maybe you could explain your point a little more?
The more I think about it- the more I think this is a good idea. If Walmart wants to add a grocery store to their existing store in Lents they can sell some goods produced in Portland at all their stores! If they want to add another store entirely- I’d actually support it if they signed enough long-term contracts with Portland Manufacturing firms. That’s the only way Walmart is going to create enough jobs in Portland to make it worth having them here. As far as what their store *looks* like? I really don’t care as much about that. I’d like some green features- but even a store that is totally off the grid wouldn’t make me support them- that would take a “buy Portland” campaign.
The problem is that people don’t buy as many whisks when we’re in a recession. On the other hand, something like a streetcar manufacturing facility
a. has higher wages for its workers
b. is a product that is generated by capital projects which are product orders that aren’t as dependent on retail consumerism
c. supports even more jobs outside of the factory because component orders are placed with other fabrication businesses
Whisks are great – so are Leatherman tools – but they’re not as dependable during economic downturns
I think we need to be producing for capital projects AND we need desperately to stop buying all of our consumer goods from China. We need to do both. If Best decided to produce their whisks in China instead of in Portland- we’d lose a few more jobs. All the jobs that we’ve lost like this aren’t going to be offset by a few industries like streetcar manufacturing. We should be producing streetcars- you’re right, but we should also be manufacturing kitchen whisks, solar panels, children’s toys, socks, fishing poles, toothpicks, billiard balls, whirlpool spas, shaving brushes, toilet paper, scalpels, lawnmowers, and on and on. We should be producing more for ourselves- and the rest of the world. We need a positive trade balance. We need to export MORE than we import. Thanks to Walmart, we’re sending lots of empty shipping containers back to China. As long as that’s the case- our economy is going to continue to spiral downward.
Right now I go all the way to Winco at Gateway or Clackamas for my big grocery shopping and I stop at Trader Joes on Johnson Creek about once or twice a month and spend less than $50/mo there. Freddies has actually reduced their security coverage again, so I don’t really feel safe there, hate being bugged for change, so I will only shop there now when my son is there, but his hours have been severely reduced.
I wouldn’t mind a closer grocery store and at least Winco or Walmart should be affordable. I’d be happier to spend more of my budget at Walmart for groceries and more if the store were REALLY clean. I hate touching their carts, so if they sold groceries, I would want to see more cleanliness in and around the store. Oh, and what about the employees walking around as shoppers are in THEIR way. They should teach better employee behavior when moving around the store. Should haven’t to put up with rudeness to spend my money and get a good deal.
My sister in law shops at Walmart in Woodburn and buys her groceries there and she says it is worth the drive. (She lives in Molalla.)
I like Winco too. The prices are good and they have a lot of bulk stuff which is usually a lot cheaper as well! It’s too bad that they are so far away. It’s not too bad, distance-wise, if you’re going to get a bunch of stuff or if you just happen to be that way. For day-to-day shopping, I usually just go to Freddies. Sometimes I go to Food For Less. I’m not all that sold on Trader Joe’s- they have good cottage cheese! It’s another place I sometimes stop by when I’m out that way but wouldn’t make a trip just to go there.
We’ve been saying for a while now that it would be nice to have more grocery options in Lents. This, along with wishing that we had a place anywhere around here to buy natural food is what started the co-op conversation which eventually led to the formation of the food-buying club. Other options? I guess there are many- and this one is offering itself to us, so the question is should we just take it?
What we’re being offered would probably be affordable. Other than that, in my opinion, it is about the worst possible option. I don’t like Walmart at all. It’s not that I don’t like cheap prices- it’s that I like the freedoms that I’ve enjoyed over my lifetime as an American. I think that the direction the country has headed economically since NAFTA and GATT (thanks largely to Walmart) is frightening. I actually worry that the life of my soon-to-be-first-born is going to be nothing at all like mine. What kind of world is he going to grow up in? Will it be a world where the most powerful nation *isn’t* a freedom loving democracy- but a communist dictatorship? My opinion that Walmart’s business practices are moving us in that direction.
What about Winco? It’s too bad that we have two of them that are reasonably close already- they probably wouldn’t open a third midway between them. As I said- I like their low prices and bulk food- and I really like the fact that the business is worker-owned. I don’t think twice about spending money there- At least I don’t feel that by buying groceries there I’m undermining the future of my country!
There’s a class of grocery that lies between the two. The Safeways and Fred Meyers are huge corporate beasts that I’m not thrilled about dumping money into- but again, they aren’t as bad as Walmart- in my opinion.
Basically what I yearn for is something reasonably affordable and locally owned that sells food that isn’t going to kill me. It would be nice if the carts were clean- but I’d much rather have produce that wasn’t laced with pesticides! Could we have both?
So what we’re being offered is a Walmart Grocery. I don’t think that a Walmart Grocery would compete, really, with the kind of store that I want. If, say, a New Seasons opened up in the town center it would simply draw a different crowd with different interests in food. If a co-op forms- I’d probably spend my money there. Folks that chose to shop at Walmart would probably be shopping at Winco otherwise. Still, I say if Walmart wants to expand here- we should ask that they do more for our local economy than “add” 100 jobs. We should also demand that they show some appreciation to the country that allows them to exist and ask that they support some of our local businesses.
OK- I have to go grocery shopping! Thanks for writing!!
Jeff
Why has this become a chat room? You either like the idea of WalMart adding to the existing business or you don’t. If you have any idea what the new layout is going to be put it out there so we can see it. But all of this maybe, might be, or could be isn’t getting anybody anywhere. It is a lot like the sex phone center that was supposed to be installed on the corner of 97th in the town center. Which be the way, was never even purposed. Why don’t we wait until we can find out from the corporate office what they intend to do with the existing building and then discuss it. Just because someone hates Walmart from the depths of their soul. And someone else will not give their ok to proceed unless walmart agrees to their demands is getting pretty rediculous. And if the City hall is so dead set against Walmart you have no worries.
This is a discussion! This is just the place for debating issues like this!! The current news on Walmart? Cadmium in children’s jewelry. I’m happy to hear that Walmart has agreed to pull the jewelry that had been identified as testing positive for cadmium- some of which contained as much as 85% of this substance which is a known carcinogen and is more toxic than lead. Walmart is apologizing for this- but will they be careful about what they sell from China in the future? I’m not confident. I also wouldn’t trust them when it comes to selling more food. Even though it might take more time- I’d much prefer waiting for a food provider that can be trusted- like a cooperative grocery. Joan’s group is getting to the point where they’re looking for space to expand- this is a step towards the eventual establishment of a cooperative. Short of a cooperative, we’d be better off with a more local alternative anyway.
The last word on the tainted jewelry- the Chinese government issued a statement basically apologizing but saying that most cadmium-laced children’s products produced in China are meant for its domestic market place. Nice eh? “We only meant to poison OUR OWN CHILDREN!!” One of these days, someone will open up a store much like Walmart or Target- but that only sells products produced domestically. If that store wants to have a grocery store- fine!
I have shopped at WalMart. Five years ago I had not and was pretty sure I would not EVER. Finances changed that particular scenario. And also finding out that my precious Target (tar-zhay) was not as “clean” as I thought. Really, WalMart is not the only retailer importing from China or elsewhere. Also, I know folks whose families have been impacted by what they consider poor labor practices at Freddie or won’t shop at Winco for similar reasons.
I made a pilgrimage to the SuperCenter in Troutdale to see what all the fuss in about. . ..and yes, it’s like a cheaper Freddies/Safeway interms of offerings and prices. And I know more than a couple of folks who travel to the SuperCenters once or twice per month from Portland proper, and fill up their gas-powered large automobiles with groceries.
I am adopting a “wait-and-see”. I think there are many folks like me who gather groceries for their household in a variety of places. The food buying group, Freddies, Winco, Trader Joe’s and yes, sometimes WalMart. I have run into many folks at the Holgate WM that I never expected to see there. I usually prefer to shop the Johnson Creek WM because uh, the Eastport one lacks a certain, uh-ruh, ambiance.