Recent News
May 2nd, 2012
Suffolk-area Walmart and Sam’s Club stores are asking customers to dig deep to help raise money for the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. As part of the Walmart company’s longstanding involvement in the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which supports 170 children’s hospitals across America, Suffolk-area stores will be taking donations and holding fundraising events through June 15. According to North Main Street Walmart manager Amanda Powell, the company has raised more than $600 million for the charity in the past 25 years. Powell’s store has been a reliable contributor to that grand sum, last year raising the second-largest amount companywide and the largest amount for CHKD, she said.
Read more at the Suffolk News-Herald
May 1st, 2012
It started out as a simple request: Vote for the Youngstown/Warren area in WalMart’s national “Fighting Hunger Together” Campaign. More than 98,000 votes later, the Mahoning Valley remained in the No. 1 spot in WalMart’s “Fighting Hunger Together” Campaign around 11:40 p.m. Monday, with just 20 minutes of voting left. “It’s an incredible display of tenacity by the people of the Valley in order to help hungry people,” said Michael Iberis, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. Up for grabs is $1 million, which is money that can go a long way to help the food bank and Catholic Charities feed the Mahoning Valley. “We’re so happy that everyone has rallied to come together to vote for this area,” said Nancy Voitus, executive director of Catholic Charities.
Watch full video at WKBN-TV
May 1st, 2012
The microwave had to go. When Antioch resident Abby Aguilar, a Wal-Mart event coordinator, walked into Antioch Rescue Squad and saw a microwave that was at least 15 years old, she wanted to replace it with something better. Aguilar spoke with several Antioch Rescue Squad volunteers and learned that the volunteers there were going out of pocket for food and toiletries. The station is the home away from home for the paramedics and EMTs who work 24-hour shifts. However, the place was not stocked with kitchen appliances, utensils and toiletries. On Sunday, Antioch Rescue Squad received about $2,000 worth of items from Wal-Mart ranging from a new microwave to toothbrushes and toilet paper.
Read more at Lake County News-Sun
May 1st, 2012
A local partnership is raising money to help sick kids right here in Siouxland. Children’s Miracle Network is getting some fundraising help from Walmart and Sam’s Club. The stores have raised more than $600 million nationwide in the last 25 years, and the three Sioux City stores are out to beat last year’s goal of $61,000. Starting at midnight tonight, every time a cashier checks someone out, their register will prompt them to ask the customer if they’d like to donate to CMN.
Watch full video at KMEG-TV
April 30th, 2012
Walmart announced that its Acres for America program is conserving an additional 300 acres of land to protect and restore wildlife habitats in the heart of U.S. cities, including Bridgeport, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. “Walmart is proud to help protect and restore important natural habitats in communities that we serve,” said Jennifer May-Brust, Walmart VP realty supplier management and compliance. “The Acres for America program exemplifies our commitment to sustainable development as it directly links our land use to land preservation. Our urban restoration projects often times involve volunteers, including our customers and associates, and provide a way for people to connect with and enjoy nature right in their backyard.” In 2011, Walmart expanded its Acres for America investments to include urban conservation projects in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles.
Read more at Chain Store Age
April 30th, 2012
Here’s another sign that more corporations and organizations view sustainability as a competitive necessity and not just a public relations afterthought: According to a new survey released Friday by IT service company Rackspace, nearly three-quarters of respondents believe that — when there’s an equal choice — sustainability gives a service provider an edge over its counterparts. That ‘need to have’ sustainability factor has become an important and ongoing theme for some major corporations as they work to determine the environmental impact of their supply chains — and not just in IT services. The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is working to eliminate 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by the end of 2015, for example.
Read more at GreenBiz
April 30th, 2012
Attention, Walmart shoppers: now you can pay for online purchases with cash. The retailer has launched a “Pay With Cash” program, allowing customers to buy items online, then visit a Walmart store and pay for their purchase with cash. “Many of our customers shop paycheck to paycheck and are looking for more ways to purchase items online but don’t have the means to a credit, debit or prepaid card,” said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com, in a statement. “Our new ‘Pay with Cash’ offering is designed just for them.” Once a customer buys an item through Walmart’s website, they receive an order confirmation and e-mail receipt with order number.
Read more at USA Today
April 30th, 2012
A store with groceries and a pharmacy will fill a vacant storefront in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Locals hope it will bring foot traffic to a hard-hit shopping center.
Word that Wal-Mart is opening a Neighborhood Market in Panorama City is getting a markedly different reception than the criticism heaped on a similar grocery-only store that the retailing giant plans to open in downtown Los Angeles.
Residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley have watched as the recession turned once-thriving commercial hubs into vacant storefronts. The Vannord Center, a 90,000-square-foot-center at the corner of busy Van Nuys Boulevard and Nordhoff Street, has been hit particularly hard with more than half of its 30 tenants closing their doors.
So any concerns that a Wal-Mart store might push out mom-and-pop shops, or threaten union jobs, is being outweighed by the benefits that the national retailer will bring to the struggling center, said manager Suzanne Ponder. Valley Food Warehouse, which anchored the mall, closed five years ago and the building has been vacant.
“It’s a blessing,” Ponder said as plumbing and electrical workers in hard hats installed service lines inside the 31,000-square-foot building, stripped back to its frame. “It’s just what we needed.”
Others are also enthused.
Enriqueta Mendoza, 41, poked her head into the store while pushing her baby in a stroller. She has six children at home, Mendoza said, and it’s been hard to find fresh vegetables, fruit and milk since a small ethnic grocer across the street closed its doors.
The closest supermarkets are more than a mile away and she usually walks to buy groceries, she said. “Muy buena,” she said with a smile.
Scheduled for a fall opening, the Panorama City location will be the retailer’s seventh store in Los Angeles. Another Wal-Mart a mile south of the Vannord Center sells discount merchandise but has limited groceries.
April 27th, 2012
Almost everyone was surprised by the heated opposition to the proposed Walmart Superstore at Northcross mall five years ago.
It took protests and lawsuits, but in the end, Walmart built a much smaller store than planned.
Back then, Jason Meeker was spokesman for the neighborhood group, Responsible Growth for Northcross, or RG4N.
“We had said we wanted a grocery center there,” he said. “And that’s what it is, it’s Walmart neighborhood market.”
After two years in the once-troubled area, the store is now surrounded by other new businesses and shoppers are plentiful.
“And they say it was going to ruin all the businesses and all this stuff. Look at all the businesses, what are you talking about? This was nothing,” Walmart shopper Estrella Rummans said. “And the people that complain about it were the first ones that came.”
Read more at Austin YNN
