New Wal-Mart in Midland - One Step Closer

Midland Reporter-Telegram staff writer Mark Werpney reports that the Midland Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved zoning changes that would allow the building of a new Wal-Mart SuperCenter at the Northeast corner of I-20 and Rankin Highway in Midland, Texas. Link: MyWestTexas.com.

Assuming the City Council approves the project and construction proceeds as planned, the store could open in the first quarter of 2005. According to the report, the building will be 203,168 square feet which is roughly the same size as the existing Midland Wal-Mart SuperCenter which has square footage of 204,482.

This year Wal-Mart plans to open 50 new discount stores and more than 220 new SuperCenters, some of which will be existing stores moving to new locations, according to an April 17 article in The Economist titled "How Big Can It Grow?" Link: Economist Premium Content . Hopefully, the new Midland SuperCenter won't result in the closure of one somewhere else.

Sam Walton's business plan was based on the idea of getting savings from suppliers and passing it along to the customers thus gaining market share with prices lower than its competitors. So, the customers win, but the competitors have to adapt. It can cause some initial discomfort among the competitors, but in the long run, that's a good thing. Here's a very persuasive analogy from The Economist:

In the popular imagination, Wal-Mart ruthlessly exterminates the competition, especially local mom and pop retailers. Yet as [Darrell Rigby of Bain Consultancy] argues, Wal-mart is more than just a destructive force. "Wal-Mart is good for retailing in the same way that any good predator is good for an ecology," says Mr. Rigby. "Life works though struggle, and many retailers are better today because of Wal-Mart."

We all win. Here's more:

Shoppers make such big savings that economists credit Wal-Mart with driving down America's inflation rate.

Now, if only they could do something about those plastic bags blowing all over the place.

Comments

[Eric]

This sort of serious academic analysis serves to further highlight the well-known fact that California, and San Francisco in particular, is suspended in its own alternate, disfunctional universe, as documented here:

Barring Big-Box Stores (link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/20/BAG8N67NRE1.DTL)

[Eric]

Sorry...let's try that URL again:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/20/BAG8N67NRE1.DTL

[George]

Well said, Eric. It's too bad that the citizens of San Francisco seem to have some ideal that, if realized, would hurt the low to moderate income families who would have benefited the most from the low prices at a Wal-Mart.

[pam]

As a Californian, I can tell you there's a little more to it than that. The "mom and pops" were driven out by big retail lonnng ago, no worries there. In my hometown, they just turned the old downtown shops into antique stores or potpourri emporiums and went on with life.

It's this: A Supersized Wal-Mart would destroy business for ... the existing regular-sized Wal-Mart half a mile down the street, and its partner store, Safe-Way. That's two giant stores, sure to go out of business if SWM goes in. Leaving a huge new shopping center empty.

The city council turned down a super WalMart for this reason. So guess what those paragons of consumerism did? Sued the city, saying the city didn't have the right to decide its own zoning laws. The town next door didn't want a SWM either, but they're afraid of getting sued, so they'll probably let the thing get built.

We don't mind supersized businesses in CA. We've got many of them, believe me. It's not all surfboards and coconuts here. We just don't like Wal-Mart's tactics.