It was more than just a frigid weather pattern that caused the “chilly reception” that Wal-Mart received on March 8th.before the Milwaukee Plan Commission. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Commission put off action on a request from Wal-Mart to rezone property for what will eventually become a 222,000 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter. The Plan Commission was responding to the objections of local residents who can’t find anything super about the proposed supercenter. “We really don’t want a Wal-Mart shoved down our throat,” one resident told the Commission. An Atlanta developer, who has run into controversy over a similar project in a Nashville, TN indian burial ground, is proposing to tear down a nearly empty mall and start off with a 135,000 s.f. Wal-Mart, which would later metastasize into a larger superstore. The mall owner, JDN of Atlanta, will tear down the existing mall and move its only occupant, a Walgreen’s, to another location on the site. The JDN plan calls for the Wal-Mart loading dock to be located near residential homes. But the company says it will solve that problem by planting trees and a 12 foot wall. (A wall around the Wal). But the neighbors know you can’t hide a supercenter behind a 12 foot wall, and you can’t silence the truck traffic noise. It appears that even the resident who support a Wal-Mart at the Southgate mall don’t want it to stay open 24 hours a day. “That’s not even negotiable at this time,” said the local Alderman, but the key words in that sentence are the last three. Wal-Mart will eventually come back into the Commission and ask for permission just to stock the store late at night, with maybe a few late evenings around Xmas. Then later they can ask just to keep it open all night. But if residents in Milwaukee don’t want a Wal-Mart shoved down their throat, they’re going to have to do a little shoving back of their own.
The citizens in West Boylston, MA recently refused to allow Wal-Mart to stay open 24 hours a day — not even to restock their store. Scroll down to see their story below, and learn why they said Wal-Mart was a bad neighbor.
