As is all the rage at fast-food joints these days, Wal-Mart
wants to super-size.
As is all the rage at fast-food joints these days, Wal-Mart wants to super-size.
Wal-Mart is hoping to win Gilroy City Council’s approval to close its current 125,000-square-foot building just south of the Gilroy Premium Outlets and build a 220,000 square-foot facility that would include a grocery store next to the new Costco off Highway 152 and U.S. 101.
The current debate offers an opportunity to once again scrutinize the merits and drawbacks of big box stores. There are numerous questions that deserve careful study:
• How many big box stores are too many?
• Do we need a Home Depot and a Lowe’s, an OfficeMax and a Staples, a Super Wal-Mart and a Costco?
• Are we so hooked on out-of-towners’ sales tax dollars that we should allow any big box store that wants to come to Gilroy to build here?
• What are reasonable parameters for deciding whether to welcome a big box store – corporate citizenship, unionized employees, living wages, the health of small area businesses, empty-box syndrome – or should the city simply look at land-use issues alone?
Opponents say a Super Wal-Mart will kill area small businesses. We say Gilroy is already too far down the path of inviting big box stores – such as Costco, Home Depot and Lowe’s, for example – and their accompanying sales tax dollars to let this be a concern. Small businesses – as they did when Wal-Mart first arrived – will adjust to compete.
Opponents say Wal-Mart is not a good corporate citizen, mistreats its workers and doesn’t pay living wages. Wal-Mart has been in Gilroy for years and it has competed successfully with other employers to hire workers. Anyone who objects to Wal-Mart’s policies doesn’t have to spend a dime there.
Opponents say Gilroy will become a victim of the empty-box syndrome.
According to Sprawl-Busters, Wal-Mart has 325 buildings – totaling 29 million square feet – for sale or lease in 36 states.
Now that’s a worry.
Gilroy doesn’t need another ugly, empty building dotting its streets.
The old Kmart center, the former (and recently demolished) Nob Hill building, the McWhorter’s building, the cannery – and the empty lots scattered throughout downtown – are plenty. The current Wal-Mart store’s location – in a prime spot along U.S. 101 – would make an empty big box store especially visible and troublesome.
We urge council members to approve the Super Wal-Mart if it meets all the zoning, planning, land-use and other regulations that apply – with one very important condition. The approval must be contingent on Wal-Mart securing a long-term tenant for its current building.
No new tenant, no Super Wal-Mart.
