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"A study at Loyola University that tracked the economic effect that a West Side Chicago Wal-Mart had on a local community found that within two years, 82 local businesses had closed their doors, Steven Barrison, executive vice president of the Small Business Congress of New York City wrote in Wednesday's New York Daily News. He also pointed to a separate study, "The Effects of Walmart on Local Labor Markets," which found that “for every two jobs Wal-Mart ‘creates,’ three local jobs are destroyed.â€

Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/views/blog...mart-is-bad-for-small-business/#ixzz1nEZ879kV
 
Lenser said:
I'm no fan of Walmart but it's a gross oversimplification to claim that it put other companies out of business - it wouldn't have been able to do so had millions of customers not begun flocking to their stores and buying all manner of goods.
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Well of course it's an oversimplification but my point still rests. Walmart is predatory. They have deep pockets. They open up in small communities and deliberately undercut all the local businesses until they fold one by one, and then they raise their prices.

... and you're right, we get what we deserve if we're so ignorant and so willing to destroy the livelihoods of our own communities and the diversity of them to save an extra buck here and there. In the final analysis, however, I will choose not to shop there. I can afford not to and I know better.

Edited to add: Thanks for citing that Gabe. I read your post after I posted mine.
 
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Guys, I agree with you both regarding Walmart. Just saying that Walmart would be nothing without its customer base. Walmart's predatory nature was - and still is - enabled by bargain-hunting consumers.

I'm in Leslieville and we fought the development of a "Smart Center" (love that term) at 629 Eastern, a former film production shop with several sound stages and production offices. It's one of the few times Walmart had been beaten back in North America. Even stranger was the OMB coming down on the side of those residents who were fighting Walmart. A strange saga all around. Alas, that stretch of Eastern is still in limbo. I don't know what the story is but it wouldn't surprise me if Walmart took another run at it.
 
Lenser said:
Guys, I agree with you both regarding Walmart. Just saying that Walmart would be nothing without its customer base. Walmart's predatory nature was - and still is - enabled by bargain-hunting consumers.

I'm in Leslieville and we fought the development of a "Smart Center" (love that term) at 629 Eastern, a former film production shop with several sound stages and production offices. It's one of the few times Walmart had been beaten back in North America. Even stranger was the OMB coming down on the side of those residents who were fighting Walmart. A strange saga all around. Alas, that stretch of Eastern is still in limbo. I don't know what the story is but it wouldn't surprise me if Walmart took another run at it.
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Mitch is looking to sell the 18.5 acre piece of land that was the subject of much debate almost 5 years ago. I'm confident a more savy urban developer will acquire this and submit a redevelopment proposal that meets the needs of Leslieville and Toronto as a whole. Stay tuned!
 
Hope it all pans out, bAuHaUS. By the way, who is Mitch? One of the owners? Who owns that parcel these days, anyway? Back in the day, it was the Markopoulos family, I think. Then they sold to Ken Ferguson, who turned around and sold it when Filmport was green-lit. I thought Smart Centers still owned it.

I have lots of friends who used to work at 629 back in its heyday - carps, scenics, gaffers, grips, transport. It was a thriving shop once. Last time it saw use was the inglorious detention centre for the G20. I'd love to see something new come out of it - it's a sizeable chunk of land. Eastern could do with a little pick-me-up.
 
Lenser said:
Hope it all pans out, bAuHaUS. By the way, who is Mitch? One of the owners? Who owns that parcel these days, anyway? Back in the day, it was the Markopoulos family, I think. Then they sold to Ken Ferguson, who turned around and sold it when Filmport was green-lit. I thought Smart Centers still owned it.

I have lots of friends who used to work at 629 back in its heyday - carps, scenics, gaffers, grips, transport. It was a thriving shop once. Last time it saw use was the inglorious detention centre for the G20. I'd love to see something new come out of it - it's a sizeable chunk of land. Eastern could do with a little pick-me-up.
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Sorry Lenser, Mitch Goldhar owner of SmartCentres. He still owns this tract of land, paid $25M for it. He's quietly putting it on market and is welcoming purchase bids. Personally I'd like to see something like The Grove in LA. It's a great mixed-use centre anchored by the Farmer's market at one end. Whatever happens here should definately make good use of the existing film studio building, bringing additional film-related jobs into the neighbourhood, with a healthy mix of 'live-work-shop-dine". SmartCentres just didn't have the right vision and design know how. There are many urban developers out there that can capitalize on this great opportunity.
 
Thanks, bAuHaUS... hoping it won't be long now. It's already lain fallow for too long a time. It'll be interesting to see if they keep any of the existing buildings or tear it all down and build anew. I don't personally hold out too much hope that it will once again be a film and television hub; lots of production has moved westward to industrial Etobicoke - among other places in the area, there's a huge facility on Kipling - a former glass factory - which is playing host to several productions, both features and series. There's still some production up at Downsview, and Pinewood is great but it's expensive so it's mostly reserved for high-end productions with deeper pockets. Lots of shooting being done in the Hammer too, these days. No, it wouldn't surprise me if the parcel owned by SmartCentres is sold for a mix of residential, office and retail, with a few mid-rises in the bunch. Although who knows... now that Lever/Ponds is going to be redone as an office redevelopment, we might see more extreme verticality in the neighbourhood.
 
All great insights Lenser. We'll have to sit tight on this one and see where things end up.
 
I don't see the big deal here. Why are downtown dwellers without autos not allowed to have a Wal-Mart in their neighbourhood? Are downtowners without cars somehow not allowed to benefit from Wal-Mart's good prices? As long as the developer builds the site to blend into and architecturally add to the existing buildings, what's the big deal? All of the hipster boutique shops in the Market sell goods that are nearly all made in China or South Asia - same as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart may have employment standards we don't like, but what of all the family owned stores in the Market where the owners' children slave away for long hours, often with no pay or employment regulations whatsoever.

I just do not see the reason for the protest. As long as the store and the parking are designed to match the neighbourhood. If Wal-Mart wanted to open an architecturally-appropriate store in Cabbagetown I would be one of the first customers through the door. Of course, I'm the sort of shopper that really likes the new Don Mills pedestrian mall, so maybe I'm not downtown hip.
 
An existing Wal-Mart Supercentre is only 2.5 kilometres away from Kensington Market anyways (the Dufferin Mall one).
 
Johnny Au said:
An existing Wal-Mart Supercentre is only 2.5 kilometres away from Kensington Market anyways (the Dufferin Mall one).
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At average walking speed of 4-5 kph, it will take a resident of the Kensington Market area at least one hour round trip to shop at that Wal-Mart. That's not a realistic solution to providing the local community with access to prices and products those outside of the downtown have.

Here's a proposed Wal-Mart for downtown Washington DC. Looks nice to me, and would fit the downtown Toronto style and area, IMO.

walmart.jpg


http://dirt.asla.org/2011/09/14/walmart-is-coming-to-d-c-is-this-good-or-bad/
 

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If only the Kensington project looked THIS good...one really have to go back to the P&C thread to do a comparison with the current proposal.

AoD
 
Admiral Beez said:
At average walking speed of 4-5 kph, it will take a resident of the Kensington Market area at least one hour round trip to shop at that Wal-Mart. That's not a realistic solution to providing the local community with access to prices and products those outside of the downtown have.
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Why would one walk? It's 10 minutes on the 506 from Dufferin to Augusta.
 
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