WALMART CAN’T WAIT Scratch that bit about “within a couple monthsâ€: A representative of Walmart told neighbors yesterday that construction of the new Supercenter behind the Marq*E Entertainment Center at Silber Rd. and I-10 will begin next week: “Several Afton Village residents spoke highly of Ikea, which they say reached out to the neighborhood well before plans were drawn for its larger store, which required the permanent closing of Afton Street from the I-10 feeder road. [Public affairs rep Kellie Duhr and Houston operations manager Jerry Peacock] said that Walmart believes in community and has a record of being a good neighbor. They said that philosophy would continue at the Silber store. ‘We bought the property. We can build there,’ Duhr said. ‘We’re here now, and it’s important to work with the community.’†[Memorial Examiner, previously on Swamplot]
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I Love Kellie. They own the land, and in this city they can do what they want. Build it,they will come & buy. Yes, Yes, Oh, God! Yes.
Wal-Mart is a corporate monster that is notorious for its bad employment and business practices. This will be another embarrassment to Houston and its lack of community focused building/ planning practices. We do not want another Wal-Mart in Houston and certainly not in our neighborhood. Why were the citizens not notified or given the opportunity to voice their environmental, traffic, and noise/ light pollution concerns before the plans were finalized. For some reason now Wal-Mart is in a hurry to get started prior to their planned meeting with residents in the area. This is to be expected from such a disgusting company. We will never bring business to this establishment!
If that Wal-Mart PR person keeps using the same line, perhaps one day it will magically come true? Other than any subsidies or tax incentives the city might give WM, this one is a hard fight. I am pretty sure they’ve owned the land for a long time, this development has been on the public record since at April at least, it seems, and that area isn’t going to be able to fall back on traffic arguments or infrastructure since that area is pretty ready with Marq-E there.
Wal-Mart has done this before probably thousands of times, and have received no small amount of coaching on how to frame the argument, use of language, etc. to win over the public opinion (or at least the opinions of their weak-minded, toddler-like future shoppers). Don’t believe a word they say, and if it’s too good to be true, it probably is…