Wal-Mart and the landscape
We've discussed the way in which retailers shape the American landscape. Mostly it is in a "positive" way, where they add new stores at top locations. But they can also have a subtractive effect, when the retailers abandon stores.
Wal-Mart's growth is leaving a blight of empty stores across the US landscape. That's according to a Wall Street Journal article ("Wal-Mart's Surge Leaves Dead Stores Behind", 9/15/2004).
What's happening, according to the article, is that as Wal-Mart drops its "big box" stores in order to open even bigger superstores, the large buildings find no tenants, or very low-rent ones. This policy of build-and-abandon may help Wal-Mart's bottom line, but it is harmful to local communities. As the article puts it, "They complain that the empty buildings are eyesores that can boost crime and vandalism and bring down property values. And where darkened stores anchor strip malls, they can depress sales of remaining retailers."
Getting new tenants for big stores gets harder as fewer and fewer big chains dominate and others (K-Mart, Sears, Toys 'R' Us) begin to fade. In some cases, Wal-Mart will block sale to a competitor. Flea markets and even churches sometimes move into the buildings, which are hard to subdivide. They are not suitable for office space.
In any case, the location was originally chosen for its geographical advantages (at key intersections, for example). An empty store in such a location can be like a black hole sucking energy out of part of the community.
Wal-Mart isn't the only problem, just the most widespread. Target, Home Depot, and K-Mart have done the same. Communities are starting to react by passing retail size-limit ordinances, by trying to require big box stores to find new tenants before they close, or by forcing companies to demolish long-empty buildings. But there's always the threat that the company will just move out to the next town or play town against town. In addition, when the big company leases but does not own the building, it is hard to restrict its moves. There's a lot of competition for the right to have one of these stores in many communities, where property taxes and paychecks can make a difference, so that these stores are often subsidized with tax breaks and so on.
While many of these spaces eventually find a tenant, this is another illustration of the power big retailers have to shape the land and the debate. Their very existence, which can be a boon to shoppers, can be the death of downtowns and many small and midsize merchants; now it seems they can do their reshaping of the local economy then move on to greener pastures elsewhere, leaving the municipality to clean up.
