In 1989, Wal-Mart opened its first supercenter in Washington, Missouri. If you don't know, a supercenter is a Wal-Mart with a grocery store attached to it. The problem was that by that time, there were already over 2,000 Wal-Marts in operation and the distribution network for groceries was based in the rural lower Midwest and upper-South where most of its stores already were. Therefore, as the number of supercenters expanded over the course of the 1990s, the company often closed many of its original retail stores. It is still doing this today.
The Center for Labor and Community Research, a non-profit consultanting group which studied the potential impact of Wal-Mart moving into Chicago, puts the total number of abandoned Wal-Marts in the country as of March 2004 at 396. I think that figure is much too low.
Here is the list of properties being sold at the moment by Wal-Mart Realty, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That may be 396 properties - I don't have time to count.
But the Center also explains that Wal-Mart leases 70% (yes, 70%) of its stores:
When a location is no longer optimal, Wal-Mart often moves on to greener pastures, leaving an empty eyesore or a dangerous abandoned site. As a result, many communities have been saddled with the cost of tearing down, securing or policing abandoned Wal-Marts. This problem is further exacerbated by the strategy of overbuilding. This tactic calls for the construction of multiple stores near competitors in order to steal their customer base and drive them out of business. This is done even though the Wal-Mart stores may operate nearer to each other than optimal, and in the end "cannibalize" one another's business. Once the goal of running the enemy out of town is accomplished, Wal-Mart is left with a superfluous location which can be freely abandoned.
Imagine how high the total of abandoned Wal-Marts would be if you could count formerly-leased properties that Wal-Mart Realty wasn't listing.
Yet Wal-Mart Realty tells us:
"Wal-Mart Stores and Sam's Clubs are often so successful that they outgrow their buildings and relocate to better serve our customers. When this happens, Wal-Mart Realty looks for ways to help the community continue to prosper by offering these properties for sublease and/or sale. Over the course of the last five years, Wal-Mart Realty has leased or sold over 50 million s.f. of building space. It is our commitment to these communities and our shareholders to keep these buildings in productive use."
In my community there is an abandoned Wal-Mart that has another retailer occupying part of it. You can still see Wal-Mart's one-time signature brown and orange stripes where the other retailer hasn't occupied. I have lived here for six years and that part of the property has been abandoned the whole time. At least a town in Mississippi managed to open a middle school in their Wal-Mart carcass.
Doesn't that tell you all you need to know about educational spending in America today? From one cheapskate property owner to another.
JR