Wal-Mart

            If you listen to some opponents, you’d think Sherman’s army was scorching sacred Southern soil again, only this time marching under the Walmart standard. And today, January 25th, five days after Robert E. Lee’s birthday, Walmart meets its challengers in court, defending the Orange County (Virginia) Board of Supervisor’s decision to approve a…

            For several years the same drama with the same plot has been played out in hamlets across America: Walmart wanted a new store on a chosen tract but the company itself – not the merits of the land use decision – became the focal point of local debate.  As I have written before, and for…

Wal-Mart announced this week that it will begin developing aggressively its “Neighborhood Market” store in areas between Supercenters.  Neighborhood Markets have been around for over ten years but exist in only a few locations. This footprint is 42,000 square feet, about 25% the size of a Supercenter.

One news article speculated that the smaller format…

Two days ago the Board of Supervisors in Virginia’s Orange County approved a Wal-Mart.  Whether the 55-acre tract was within or just near the Wilderness Battlefield where up to 30,000 Union and Confederate troops were killed or wounded, was a key issue placed before the board.  According to news reports, several historic preservationist groups had…