Wal-Mart will go to great lengths to build their stores. They will even build them over dead bodies — literally. During the construction stage of their double-decker Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club project in downtown Honolulu, Wal-Mart uncovered no less than 44 burial remains of native Hawaiians. Local protestors have been objecting to this construction for many months, and were visible this week when the Wal-Mart portion of the project finally opened. Native Hawaiian groups had tried to block the store’s opening until the 44 remains of Hawaiians unearthed during construction could be reburied at the Wal-Mart site. “Wal-Mart’s pitch is that it’s slashing prices for you. In this instance, it’s slashing graves,” Moses Haia, a Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. lawyer who has filed a suit against the store, told the Associated Press. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the her company has put the burial remains “in an air-conditioned, darkened trailer in a secure location on the site.” Wal-Mart says it cannot rebury the remains on the site without state approval. So the remains remain in a Wal-Mart trailer. This is Wal-Mart’s seventh store on the Hawaiian Islands.
For other stories of Wal-Mart locations and burial remains, search this database by “burial” or “indian”. Wal-Mart appears to make no bones about its policy on store sitings. If local or state authorities don’t stop them, they will build over dead bodies. It’s part of Wal-Mart Realty’s everyday low policy.
