Two points about the WalMart discussion have been interesting - one is how much WalMart plays into future revenue projections and therefore what the city believes could be leveraged with bonds on the ballot this fall; second is the notion of energy efficient design at the new Super WalMart.
I had written about my sympathy for the Lafayette City Council in February 2005 regarding their December 2004 damned if you do, damned if you don't predicament with WalMart. Councilor Kerry Bensman helped me with a bit of history to WalMart back then - he has alluded to the bigger picture in a recent comment below.
So how does WalMart's tax breaks on sales square with long-term revenue projections for the city budget? My call for not shopping there on ethical grounds I expect will not truly keep the hordes from swarming, it is just my voice in the wilderness. But, if WalMart doesn't bring in more revenue than they did at their South Boulder Road locale, they don't actually get any kick-back. And I'm intrigued at any kind of energy efficiency aspect - such stipulations would likely have been a deal breaker. Lafayette residents haven't clamored for that as a priority like Boulder residents (yet). Here's what WalMart says they're doing without being asked.
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You can read my longer comments on W*M elsewhere on the blog.
W*M is not a stupid company. They are paranoid about keeping their costs down. Which is why they drive energy efficency these days.
As for how the new store squares with the city revenue projections. I have argued the city revenue projections are wrong. Too high.
Will WM hit their own revenue targets? Once again, they aren't stupid. But the impact on the city's can be really a mess, especially in 2008 and 2009.
That's what my analysis shows. So now we will see.
Dan, your article from Feb 2005 is a great read. Having previously been an exec with a supplier of WalMart, I can attest to everything you wrote about their tactics with suppliers. And, we had to do exactly what you said, we cut employees, we cut benefits for remaining employees, we off-shored production to China. We cut to the bone. To make up for part of it, our smaller clients paid more, which exacerbates the problem. Makes WalMart even stronger. These are among the reasons I don’t darken the door of a WalMart.
But, most consumers only care about their own day to day lives and their own cost of living. It’s not a problem if people lose their jobs to a communist country, as long as it’s not their job. The average citizen could care less that this has enabled foreign countries, particularly in Asia, to hold 25% of marketable U.S. Treasuries. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNAT00276920070531) What happens when foreign governments own most of our federal government’s debt? Do they “own” us? (rhetorical question)
Regarding the energy issue – WalMart is doing much more than the webpage you highlighted shows, but only in select locations. They have a test store in Aurora where they’re testing dozens of applications. A SuperCenter recently opened in Kansas City (Jan 07) that WalMart claims consumes 20% less energy. They also claim it’s the first in a series. Is the new store in Lafayette included in this series?
Like Kerry says, WalMart constantly looks for ways to cut costs. And, in so doing, is looking for ways to cut energy consumption. Is that enough? Car manufacturers also look for ways to cut energy costs in their factories, but produce high mileage cars only when they’re mandated to. Perhaps this issue would’ve been a deal breaker, if pressed. Lafayette’s not in a position to impose these kinds of conditions on a big box retailer. But, these discussions need to start taking place.
How?
To answer "How?" Is it too simplistic to believe this should be brought up when a retailer, like Lowe's, approaches the city?
Unless you believe these retailers are only coming to Lafayette by default, they have very viable economic reasons to approach the city. No one's forcing them.
Although I believe WalMart was serious about closing the smaller store in Lafayette at one time, that was back when they were trying to determine exactly where the SuperCenters were going to be located. Their thinking changed between 1997 and 2005. When they opened the SuperCenter in Broomfield and the SuperCenter in Longmont, their obvious next move was to put a SuperCenter in the middle. They played Lafayette the way they had to. And, Lafayette had little choice but to go along becaue of the fear of losing revenue.
To strenthen Lafayette's position, the town needs more large retailers. Then the potential loss of one isn't so scary.
To simply ask questions about sustainability, or how they're going to mitigate the impact, or about energy efficiency shouldn't offend anyone. I'd guarantee Lafayette isn't the first town to ask these questions of these national guys.
Dan stated in the original post that the residents of Lafayette haven't clamored for energy efficiency yet like the residents of Boulder. I submit that it wasn't the residents who got the ball rolling in Boulder, it was the leadership. Same can be true in Lafayette.
If we can't get leadership at the local level on sustainability, how in the heck are we going to get citizens on board?
Actually we do have leadership on sustainability, and have moved faster than Boulder in some areas. The city has used a Governor's program to jumpstart a review of all the city's facilities for energy efficiency and hired Johnson Controls to come up with a list of upgrades which will be paid back through savings in energy costs. I am representing Lafayette on BoCo's consortium of cities energy taskforce and CML's energy committee (Colorado Municipal League). The taskforce is working on sustainable residential and commercial building code standards which can be adopted by the individual cities. The CML committee has just re-written its goals to include support for energy efficiency and sustainability. At the next council meeting council will be discussing new city fleet acquisition standards and other sustainable items.
I applaud Councilor Phillip's involvement and leadership on this.
A huge challenge is how do we get the everyday citizen involved. The council recently passed an ordinance that will increase recycling in the non-HOA parts of town.(Here in Indian Peaks and other HOAs that's been done for 10 years.)
But from what I've read, a major positive impact would be to get folks to simply change out their incandescent light bulbs for the new energy saving ones. So perhaps we could start there.
Getting property owners to retrofit their homes and buildings requires them to make an upfront investment. And that's the hurdle.
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