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Walmart brings jobs, controversy
Jul 03, 2010
By RICHARD PAYERCHIN
journalrick@gmail.com
Tom Kuluris outside the Walmart being built in Lorain.
LORAIN – Five years ago, when Lorain voters halted Wal-Mart’s attempt to build a store along Cooper Foster Park Road, company officials said they wouldn’t give up trying to enter Lorain.
Today, a new Walmart is under construction at the Lighthouse Village Shopping Center, 4380 Leavitt Road on Lorain’s west side. (VIDEO)
Although Walmart attracts legions of customers who expect low prices, it also attracts criticism from those who argue that the retail giant drives local mom-and-pop stores out of business; that it imports foreign-made goods and keeps its vendors in a stranglehold.
It’s no different now in Lorain.
The Walmart store will bring commerce and people, jobs and income tax revenue to Lorain, said Tom Kuluris, president of Liberty Development Co., which is developing the Lighthouse Village shopping center.
“They’re going to be a great addition out here,” Kuluris said on a recent visit to the site. “They will add to the tax base significantly.” (VIDEO)
But others say Walmart’s low prices take a toll on the community. Shoppers should take their dollars elsewhere for better products and better business practices, said Diana Lyon, of Sheffield Lake. She is a retired small business owner who ran her own print and publishing shop in Amherst.
“Maybe three times a year I get dragged in there,” Lyon said of Walmart. “I shop there, but I feel guilty each time because of the stuff I read. They’re in your face.”
Lyon pointed to problems documented at http://walmartwatch.com/; www.walmartmovie.com/, about the movie “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price;” and http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html.
The Midway Mall Walmart in Elyria will also close when the new Lorain store opens, leaving an empty building.
The closure was noted in “12 Dead in Ohio” on The Writing on the Wal blog, a website run by Jeff Hess, of Cleveland Heights, who started the blog in summer 2005 as No Cleveland Walmart. Ohio now has 12 empty Walmart stores and the company leaves “communities to deal with acres of cracked asphalt and an empty big-box that no one wants.”
Smaller, locally owned stores may have higher prices, but often they have better service, Hess said, drawing the comparison with mom-and-pop hardware stores. Money spent there stays in the local economy, while Walmart stores act like funnels sending dollars to China, he said.
“This is all about community: Do you want your community to thrive, or do you want to save some pennies?” Hess said.
The Lorain Walmart caught the attention of Al Norman, of www.sprawl-busters.com, who reported Ohio now has 1.2 million square feet of dead Walmart buildings.
Norman, dubbed the guru of the anti-Walmart movement, also recounted the history of the Lorain Walmart debate at http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=3729.
Walmart touts its own economic benefits at its corporate website, www.walmartstores.com.
In Ohio alone, Walmart has 124 supercenters, 20 discount stores, 29 Sam’s Clubs and four distribution centers. The company had 52,364 workers in the Buckeye State, earning an average wage of $11.86 an hour, the company notes.
In fiscal year 2010, Walmart spent $15.18 billion for merchandise and services with 1,852 suppliers in Ohio, supporting 149,286 supplier jobs, according to the company.
Hess and Lyon conceded many people shop at Walmart because they don’t have a lot of money to spend at other stores.
“There’s a hardcore economic reality about Walmart,” Hess said. “They are a huge part of the lower and poverty classes that don’t have any choice.”
Lyon agreed.
“The tax revenue to the city is obvious because Lorain needs a lot of help, but at what cost?” Lyon said. “It’s a vicious cycle. You can’t stop it now.”
Despite Lorain’s strong union heritage, shopper Helen Sherman noted Kmart has done well, even though it is a non-union store.
Walmart may cause trouble for the nearby Kmart store, she said.
“The biggest threat I see may be Kmart losing a lot of business and people would have to be laid off,” Sherman said. “For Lorain, it means you have a closer store with some better prices. I am glad that they are finally coming and you do not have to drive to Elyria or Sandusky.”
Marcus Atkinson, 25, of Lorain, said he heard criticism about Walmart’s business practices and was wary about the store. He began shopping there and returns because prices are cheap.
He predicted business trouble for the Kmart store, but noted when he used to live near 28th Street, he also forecast the closure of the Rite-Aid when Walgreens opened. Atkinson said he was wrong in that instance.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Atkinson said . “I hope both of them can stay open.”
Lorain resident Pat Cox, 37, lived in Winchester, Ky., when a Walmart opened and residents predicted the doom for the nearby Kmart.
“But it didn’t happen because our Kmart was smart enough to look at what was happening and offer a price that was competitive,” Cox said.
Customers will go where the prices and quality is best, Cox said. With Walmart’s physical size — 186,135 square feet — smaller local stores also will have their niche, she said.
“There’s a lot of people that just flat-out don’t want to walk through a large store like that when they need a loaf of bread or a pack of hot dogs,” Cox said. “You don’t want to walk 10 miles when all you want is a loaf of bread.”
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