BlogWood: MT Archives

Fighting the Ybor Wal-Mart

It looks like Wal-Mart is coming to Ybor, or at least pretty close.

Rumors are flying about Wal-Mart’s still unannounced plans to build a supercenter on SR 60, just South of Ybor City. As locations for a big box retailer go, this one is pretty damn unobjectionable: it’s in a rundown industrial area right next to an expressway, and fronts a major state road.

So, there wont be a whole lot of hand wringing over environmental impacts or traffic problems. In fact, the only people who are objecting thus far are some Ybor developers and historic preservationists who rightly fear an encroachment of “Anywhere USA” toward the Ybor Historic District (pdf).

Of course, there’s already a collection of chain stores and restaurants with absolutely no unique qualities whatsoever right in the middle of Ybor City, but we’ll ignore that particular albatross for the time being.

Unfortunately for those who would like to see Ybor keep some of whatever character can still be glimpsed through the growing layers of blood and binge drink vomit that is left behind by the partying weekend hordes who see the area as theirs to shit on, Ybor is starved for retail right now, and there is an ample supply of captive potential customers in the projects and nearby neighborhoods.

I would venture to guess that the prevailing attitude amongst those future Wal-Mart victims is summed up by this guy.

Andrew Floyd, 62, moved to Ybor 45 years ago when it was a thriving neighborhood of Cubans, Italians and African-Americans. Over the years, most of his neighbors left. In the 1980s, homes abandoned because of a drug epidemic were knocked down to make room for warehouses. Now investors are sprucing up the remaining homes around him.

But grocery stores are reluctant to return. To get food, he drives 15 minutes to a Kash n' Karry on 50th Street. Floyd said he lives off Social Security, so he would embrace Wal-Mart's discount prices.

"I think it would be great," he said. "I'll shop there."

And this guy.

Dan Snow loves the location and character of his Ybor City neighborhood.

But he's quick to describe the drawbacks.

``I have to drive to Bayshore Boulevard to get groceries,'' Snow said.

That could change if Wal- Mart Stores Inc. builds a Supercenter on 30 acres at the southeast corner of Adamo Drive and 22nd Street across from Ybor's historic district.

``It's funny because we would never envision a Wal- Mart coming down here,'' said Snow, who lives on Fifth Avenue, a few streets north of the possible site. ``I'm sure some people won't like the way it looks, but it wouldn't be a bad thing.''

See, people in the neighborhoods around the proposed location are gonna welcome Wal-Mart with open arms. The idea of dissuading a walking distance grocery store will be completely alien, especially since many of these people probably already shop at some other Wal-Mart that’s a long bus ride away.

The city of Tampa doesn’t seem too bothered by the idea of Wal-Mart either, seeing anything as better than the blighted warehouses that dot the area now, though City Councilperson Linda Saul-Sena seems ready to fight on aesthetic grounds.

When the news of the negotiations broke last week, Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena, a preservationist, began looking into what the city could do to deter Wal- Mart from coming.

She's happy to hear the company wouldn't build its traditional supercenter design but says that ``the better thing for them to do is not come to that location at all.''

``It's inappropriate for that area and would be better suited closer to Brandon,'' she said.

I think that Nathan Newman has it right: Perhaps the best way to fight Wal-Mart is through regulation.

We aren't going to convince people to improve Wal-Mart's working conditions by telling them they really don't want what Wal-Mart's selling, since they obviously do. What we can do is point out that many of the things they like about Wal-Mart -- especially the convenience and decent prices -- are compatible with the workers being treated with respect and dignity. The prices might go up a little bit, but most folks will treat that as a reasonable tradeoff. But if you tell them it's a choice between decent wages and having Wal-Mart altogether, I'm afraid we're fighting a losing battle.

Maybe it's because at heart I'm a Wal-Mart shopper and only avoid the place on principle that I have strong sympathy for those who support bringing them into towns across the country. I testified in Chicago in support of our bill to require living wages at large retail stores, and the aldermen from the poor parts of Chicago where Wal-Mart wanted to put their stores were rapturous at the prospect of bringing a few more shopping choices to areas ignored by most retail outfits. They were quite willing to regulate Wal-Mart but they were somewhat angry at the activists who wanted to block it from coming altogether. I'd rather choose a strategy -- fight to regulate and raise standards at Wal-Mart -- that accomodates both the desires by shoppers for what Wal-Mart sells and the desires by those same people as citizens that the workers at Wal-Mart get paid a decent wage.

And it just so happens that Tampa has some leverage.

To build a Wal-Mart store of any kind, the retail giant would need a zoning change. The city won't grant it unless the company is willing to adapt to the area, Huey said. The 30-acre property is currently zoned for industrial use and needs approval from the Tampa City Council to change the zoning.

So a workable plan to create a Wal-Mart that’s just a little better than the usual indelible blob of evil might include architectural guidelines and rules that force Wal-Mart to pay decent wages and to provide meaningful benefits to their employees. If Wal-Mart can’t deal with that, then fuck ‘em - they can build somewhere else.

Wal-Mart claims to pay it’s employees an average of close to $10 per hour, but that average is achieved by including bloated executive salaries. The real average wage of hourly employees is so low that most cannot afford company health insurance. Many Wal-Mart workers end up getting food stamps and other public assistance just to scrape by. In essence, this becomes a government subsidy to the richest retailer in the world.

Why don’t we take Wal-Mart’s CEO’s words and make Wal-Mart live up to them. The Slate article linked above quotes CEO Scott.

Wal-Mart's average wage is around $10 an hour, nearly double the federal minimum wage. The truth is that our wages are competitive with comparable retailers in each of the more than 3,500 communities we serve, with one exception - a handful of urban markets with unionized grocery workers. ...Few people realize that about 74 percent of Wal-Mart hourly store associates work full-time, compared to 20 to 40 percent at comparable retailers. This means Wal-Mart spends more broadly on health benefits than do most big retailers, whose part-timers are not offered health insurance. You may not be aware that we are one of the few retail firms that offer health benefits to part-timers. Premiums begin at less than $40 a month for an individual and less than $155 per month for a family.

Now, this is mostly bullshit, and is debunked in the rest of the article, but what’s wrong with asking Wal-Mart to live by these words? Let’s require them to pay hourly workers $10 per hour. Let’s make them prove that most of their hourly workers are able to afford company health insurance. Let’s force them to adhere to some basic minimum standards, with real penalties, like closing down stores, if they slip up.

Call or email Linda Saul-Sena and encourage her to pursue a strategy of regulation to force Wal-Mart to build a nice looking store, and, more importantly, to force Wal-Mart to be a nicer neighbor.

Praise Ms. Saul-Sena for her willingness to stand up to Wal-Mart, and politely demand that she include the rights of workers in any deals that she may be considering. Remind her that Wal-Mart will drive down wages in the area and force more working families into poverty and homelessness, which will ultimately cost local governments real money, unless the company is forced to pay a living wage and provide decent benefits.

You should also contact the other members of Tampa’s City Council and share your concerns with them.

Simply allowing the retail giant to plop down a minimum wage-paying generic, neighborhood-killing monster with little or no oversight would be a real tragedy.