From the MercedSunStar.com:
Wal-Mart's battle to win the hearts and minds of Merced, California, kicked off Thursday night with the first public meeting on plans to build a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center in the southeast corner of the city.Wal-Mart handed out information sheets and bottled water at the door. In return the audience handed Wal-Mart representatives a volley of questions about how the 275-acre warehouse facility would affect traffic, air quality and the local economy.
About 150 people attended the session, which was sponsored by Wal-Mart at the Multicultural Arts Center on West Main Street.
Though the forum was meant to answer questions specifically about the distribution center Wal-Mart wants to build here, company representatives were forced to answer for Wal-Mart's controversial image as a behemoth retailer that some say squashes local competition and exploits workers.
"Why do we want to welcome a corporation to Merced that has such a poor record as a corporate neighbor?" asked audience member Tom Grave. "I'm not sure why we see this as an enhancing element for Merced. I think we can do better."
Wal-Mart representatives said they wanted to counter the "misinformation" that they say has been circulating in the local community.A 20-minute slide presentation listed facts about the center: It could provide up to 900 full-time jobs with starting wages of $13 to $14 an hour; Wal-Mart has not received any tax incentives or government subsidies for building the center; the center would generate a maximum of 900 truck trips daily.
Some audience members responded with their own facts and stories.
Lysa DeThomas, a Merced teacher, said her parents live in New Mexico near a recently opened Wal-Mart Supercenter. DeThomas said her relatives were promised jobs at the supercenter, but the jobs were given to people from outside the area and the wages were lower than promised.
Keith Morris, Wal-Mart's senior manager of public affairs, responded that a distribution center is different from a supercenter.
"But if you're lying about wages at a supercenter why wouldn't you lie about wages at a distribution center?" asked DeThomas.
Morris said Wal-Mart will be under too much scrutiny from local officials to lie about projected jobs and wages.
"If we don't meet these goals, I guarantee you there's going to be officials that will take some action," said Morris.
Many questioners asked Wal-Mart representatives for "something in writing" that would guarantee jobs for local residents.
Morris said the environmental impact report about the distribution center will serve as a kind of written guarantee about how the distribution center will affect the local community.
But, as audience member Nancy Goodban pointed out, the impact report analyzes environmental concerns, not economic ones.
The City Council voted Monday night to award the $344,655 contract to write the report to EDAW, Inc., the same consultants writing the impact report about the proposed 1,200-acre Riverside Motorsports Park near Atwater.
Wal-Mart will pay for the report, but the city selected the consultants to write it, said Morris, to avoid any hint of bias.
That report will outline what Wal-Mart must do to lessen its impacts on traffic, air quality and other environmental factors.
The impact report could take up to a year to complete, said Morris, and then it must go to the Planning Commission for approval.
"We're under a microscope wherever we go," said Morris. "If we put a number out there and it's not correct, I guarantee you it will follow us around wherever we go. You cannot hide from that kind of stuff when you're the nation's largest retailer."
Posted by Laura - May 19, 2006 09:37 AM - In The News