If you want to be rich, really, really rich in America, the first step is to marry into a wealthy family. Married niece of Sam Walton, check. Next you have to learn how to go on corporate welfare so that tax payers finance your personal wealth. Suckering Missouri taxpayers for $8 million, check. Clearly Enos [...]

There’ a piece of information concerning abandoned Walmarts that I’d like to have: how much public money went into the construction of the store and how much of that money returned to the public treasury in the form of income, property and sales taxes?
I really like to know what the break even point is for [...]

As I read my morning news the first ten stories on my reader page had some permutation of the headline: Wal-Mart sales beat estimates. But beating a low-balled estimate isn’t difficult. I found a more interesting head on page 2:
Wal-Mart donates building.
Why in the world would Walmart give away a perfectly good building? Because it [...]

Jonathan first brought this graphic to our attention back in July of last year (I particularly like it because it allows you to zoom in on your community) but I want to use it this morning to high-light what is rapidly becoming an economic mantra: It’s too big to fail.
As we as a nation rush [...]

The phenomenon of abandoned Walmarts has grown to such proportions that it is now the subject of academics. Julia Christensen, an artist and professor at Oberlin College in Ohio, set out to study what happens to the big boxes…
And the businesses that initially moved in next door in hopes of a parasitic relationship.
From National Public [...]

And that’s a good thing. I’ve written here before about what people do with abandoned Walmarts, but in the news this morning is the story of Walmart moving into an abandoned Costco in Vancouver, British Columbia. Walmart can be educated.
From the Daily Commercial News And Construction Record:
The Grandview Highway Wal-Mart in Vancouver is scheduled to [...]

What is a parish government to do when a hurricane destroys its offices? Why move into a conveniently abandoned Walmart of course. For only $20,000 per month in rent (paid, in part, with federal tax dollars, no less, from FEMA.)
From WLTV in New Orleans:
Lafourche Parish Council members signed a contract Thursday that guarantees the former [...]

I look at the facade of this abandoned Wal-Mart in Hemet, California, I think, what a great opportunity for politically motivated taggers. That big block of blue is just begging for a message. And with our recession, there are going to be a lot more canvases out there.
From The Press-Enterprise:
Since plans for a new Sam’s [...]

That’s not a very pretty image. Al Norman believes, nonetheless, that the fear of a cannibalization factor is a major contributing factor to Wal-Mart’s unilateral decision to not build a record 45 Supercenters over the past 10 months.
From The Huffington Post:
According to a list released this week, Wal-Mart Stores has abandoned a record-shattering 45 proposed [...]

The headline in Memphis, Tennessee’s The Commercial Appeal this morning wasn’t meant to signal a philosophical shift at Wal-Mart, but the phrasing caught my eye in light of a post yesterday and a Wall Street Journal story from Tuesday.
While the Commercial Appeal story is about yet another abandoned Wal-Mart (this one located at 5000 American [...]

Hat tip to Brewed Fresh Daily for the catch.
Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

As the economy that will be President George Bush’s second legacy — the death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan is first — continues south, I was struck by the poignan-cy of the city council of Carlinville, Illinois, disallowing a zoning change for an abandoned Wal-Mart.
The Carlinville Southern Baptist Church bought the building to convert it [...]