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As reported in the Pleasanton Weekly last July, Wal-Mart, the country’s largest retailer, is seeking a Pleasanton city permit to open one of its new “Neighborhood Market” grocery stores in the vacant 33,000-square-foot supermarket space once occupied by Nob Hill.
But even after submitting detailed plans for moving into the long-empty Nob Hill facilities, it’s not clear that the Wal-Mart move can be made as quickly and smoothly as the retailer would like.
Natalie Amos, Pleasanton’s associate planner, sent a letter to Wal-Mart last Thursday seeking more detailed information about the retailer’s operating plans, specifically if the Neighborhood Market, as the store will be called, will have uses that Nob Hill didn’t offer to its customers. These would include a pharmacy, bank, coffee and juice kiosks and other “tenant improvements.”
Amos said that although Wal-Mart had scuttled planned changes in the building’s color scheme, new entry and exit customer doors in the front and visible roof-top equipment, which could trigger a review by the city Planning Commission and City Council, those changes have yet to be made in plans submitted for an operating permit.
The extent of changes planned by Wal-Mart is important because Wal-Mart intends to reopen the former Nob Hill store with almost no visible changes that could trigger a Design Review by the Planning Commission. If its Neighborhood Market looks essentially like the old Nob Hill, Wal-Mart can receive occupancy permits just as Raley’s Corporation could do if it decided to reopen its Nob Hill grocery again.
A Design Review, however, would require a formal review by city planners and possibly public hearings before both the Planning Commission and the City Council. In previous actions involving Wal-Mart, two on the City Council — Mayor Jennifer Hosterman and Councilman Matt Sullivan — have been outspoken critics of Wal-Mart’s non-union business plan and opposed the Rosewood Drive Wal-Mart’s application to enlarge its garden shop and add a storage facility. It’s not clear that they would support Wal-Mart’s petition to reopen the Nob Hill store under its Neighborhood Market nameplate.
In Wal-Mart’s petition for zoning approval, Judy V. Davidoff of the San Francisco law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, said representatives of Wal-Mart, which is headquartered n Bentonville, Ark., asked that “the Zoning Approval be granted and the hold on the building permit be released immediately as the proposed use is fully consistent with PUD 84-4 and any applicable zoning requirements, and design review is not required.”
Nob Hill was granted an operating permit as part of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) in 1980. It had no pharmacy and was open 16 hours a day. Davidoff said that the proposed Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market would sell 24,000 different products, including a wide range of grocery, pharmaceuticals, health and wellness items, and frequently purchased general merchandise consumables. It would have approximately 95 employees and would be open from 6 a.m. to midnight.
Brian Dolan, Pleasanton’s community development director, said the ball’s back in Wal-Mart’s court in terms of providing a response to Natalie Amos’ letter. He said that even with a determination that no external changes will be made to the Nob Hill building to trigger a Design Review, it could still take several months for Wal-Mart to make the necessary interior renovations before the Neighborhood Market could be opened.
“The inside of the building is pretty well stripped out,” Dolan said. “There’s a lot of work to do before opening a grocery store can move in again, but it could happen this summer if the permits are given, definitely this year.”
Wow. First the Niners lose than I find out Walmart is taking over Pleasanton. Anymore bad news?
This whole Walmart vs the city thing ticks me off. There, I said it.
It is ridiculous how the city council does everything they can think of to stop Walmart from doing anything. I don’t believe for a minute that this grocery store by Walmart will be a smooth process. They will pick apart the plans trying to find anything they can to force a design review. Then, tear that apart.
Make it as hard as they can and maybe they will just go away.
I hope Walmart wins this one and the store opens and it is a great success! And the city of Pleasanton bosses AND Safeway just have to deal with it.
WHEW….I feel better for saying all that! LOL
Makes no difference to me or way or another. I’ll never shop there anyways.
Won’t surprise me if they start selling “Made in China” food.
We do not have a grocery store that is full size on this side of Pleasanton. We need one! I’m glad another chain is interested in filling this need. Yes,there will be more traffic and noise for those who live behind the location. Those people had the Nob Hill for years, and should expect more of the same from whomever moved in!
thank you Julie, I certainly agree with you.
Jim, what have you got against diversity? You don’t like Chinese food, don’t buy it. The city could use the revenue, so unless you’re opening a business in that now vacant space, spare us the useless criticisms.
I think it is great the Walmart is coming. I go to a Walmart Superstore any time I can. Grogery department is just as good as any other. This shopping center needs a store to help keep it alive.
Since Nob Hill left due to sales and store size it is nice Walmart is trying to use the space.
Funny “made in china” post like walmart is the only store that sells good from here! Guess that is a good reason to love America for it’s freedom of speech and choice.
For all the negative response to Walmart it will be busy, create jobs and bring revenue to Pleasanton and other businesses in the center.
Pleasanton has done such a great job with limiting growth now it is a shortcut for commuting and to get to a Dublin/Livermore for shopping.
It is unfortunate we have a mayor that is bored with her job and she needs to impose her liberal, pro-labor viewpopint into local government. This is the same mayor who has presided over the largest unfunded pension liability in Pleasanton history. If the folks that ran Walmart ran our city government we wouldn’t have a $150mm unfunded pension liability – which no one wants to deal with. You have a building that has been unoccupied for the past 2 years and financially sound business that wants to take it over. They seem to have completely bent over and accepted all the conditions of the city. Who in their right mind would obstruct business in this difficult economy? The city would gain tax receipts and other benefits – not to mention the local businesses in that strip mall would benefit. Wake us city council and do your job.
I’m sorry I rather have a Walmart grocery store instead of 70+ acres developed for low income housing!!! We need a new city council in there who actually cares for this city!
I applaud our City Council for resisting Wal-Mart’s persistent attempts to put a second location in Pleasanton. There may be benefits to a store in the Nob Hill location, but Wal-Mart has consistently shown that it does more harm than good to its “neighborhood.” Here is an article that describes the damage Wal-Mart inflicts on our food system, both locally and nationally:
http://grist.org/food/2011-12-30-eaters-beware-walmart-is-taking-over-our-food-system/
City Council members and residents: let’s keep looking for better grocery (or retail) options for the Nob Hill space. Whole Foods? Andronico’s? Lunardi’s? Trader Joe’s? Anything but Wal-Mart!
…level headed..your last sentence, ‘wake up city council and do your job’ sums it up!
And to those that are complaining about the ‘more traffic’…a Walmart grocery is not going to create any more traffic than Nob Hill did. I don’t recall hearing complaints about it then!
And to Marie…couldn’t have said it better myself!
I just hope Walmart doesn’t get fed up with this ridiculous city council and say screw you, and pursue space in Dublin. Even tho that is probably what the city of hoping for. Make it really really hard for them and maybe they will go away.
Let Walmart go in with their grocery and I’ll decide where I want to shop.
Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and the rest don’t want the Nob Hill space or they would have made their bid for it long ago. It’s been empty for 2 years.
To those of you that think living in Pleasanton puts you a class above Walmart shoppers, well, there are some of us who can afford to live here but need more affordable shopping. We are not all ‘upper income’
Oh dear me, Pleasanton with TWO Walmart facilities….the earth will end!
Well said Julie!!!!! You go girl.
For someone who moved in after the Nob Hill left….. where is this going to be located? This article should list an address.
To BEWARE OF WALMART: How will a WalMart Market Center be any different to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s – who have both turned down the space? There are 3 Safeways in Pleasanton and they are by and large the same. This store will not be the same as the WalMart we have. Keep that in mind. Will this Market Center kill off businesses from the other retailers/restaurants in that center? Only if they serve prepared foods, I guess. Wait a second – all the stores you mentioned ALSO have prepared foods? So, what’s your beef?
please…just trying looking on the sunny side of life…it appears to be a cool gathering place for “illegals” to hang out and look for odd jobs…
Aren’t we all getting sick as h*ll of the Hippy Mayor? She has constantly been against Wal-mart coming into Pleasanton, because she is a pimp for the unions. So, let’s not repeat this fiasco by putting another left-wing loon in to replace her. Cook-Callio is a left-wing loon and her voting record has been virtually a copy of the Hippy Mayor’s. So don’t vote Cook-Callio in as our next Mayor.
Beware,
Perhaps you could point out the friendly neighborhood green grocer or bodega over in this part of town that will go out of business because Walmart moved in? Fresh ‘N’ Easy?
Actually Cook-Callio is to the left of our current mayor, believe it or not. She is also a member of a public employee union and was encouraged to be in office by the unions so that they can protect their excessive benefits. Prior to her being in office in Pleasanton, she did nothing in this city. No commissions, committees, or volunteering as she spent all her time in Fremont and also working in the offices of several democrat office holders.
Maybe the neighbors here could pull a Jerry Brown and sue someone if no grocery store opens at the Nob Hill location on the basis that having to drive to Safeway for groceries increases GHG emissions. LOL!
If Hosterman were really pro-union, she would not have opposed Keystone XL. LIUNA and others are real upset that Obama killed their Keystone XL jobs.
I’m not a Wal-Mart fan, but what would you geniuses rather have there? Or you would rather look at an empty building?
Fresh ‘N’ Easy could have probably moved in there. It seems like maybe they already had their plans in motion to move into the Rosewood site. People would have liked TJ’s but I think their store format is too small for the larger space Nob Hill took up. Someone has mentioned Mi Pueblo in the past.
The fact still remains that the space has sat empty for almost 2 years with no other interested party stepping up to occupy it.
“I’m not a Wal-Mart fan, but what would you geniuses rather have there? Or you would rather look at an empty building?”
Brilliant! That’s the argument used by some pre-Civil War planation owners! Without slaves, the fields would be empty. And farmers, too. Without illegal immigrants, the crops would rot on the vines. Where is Leslie Knope when we need her? Public park anyone?
This is horrible! The great city of Pleasanton will force me to shop there and I will not be able to go anywhere else! I blame the unions!
Oh, wait. That won’t happen at all. I can vote with my dollars.
This would be good, it will be a awakening for Safeway, they will soon realize that their cucumbers are not worth a $1.50 each, Wallmart will probably have them 12 for 3.99
Competition is good, Unions are killing the free market.
Jim, don’t be hypocritical. If you don’t like things “made in China,” nobody forces you to buy. But, you don’t have right to prevent others from buying. Diversity makes Pleasanton a great place to live.
Competition is good. Just ask the Walmart workers! Just ask the Chinese sweatshop laborers! Just kidding! Anything that saves me a few pennies is okay by me. Hey, since we’re all for diversity, how about putting a brothel up next door? I love this gathering of great minds!
Diversity is a good word Joe… if community is about shared values and those people who want others to lead them blind… that is their right. For Wal-Mart to say that they have our back… is not practical. Many would welcome an opportunity to study/understand how a CUP presented in the early 80’s applys and how it may affect community now, 30+ years later.
Zadie, you make too much sense. Just don’t expect certain people around here to ever be able to see things this way. It’s all about their wallet.
CUP? What does that mean? Can we cut out the abbreviations?
Conditional Use Permit… I hate people doing that too, Jargon.
I think Walmart jumped at the chance to have the Nob Hill location at the corner of Stoneridge and Santa Rita because once Stoneridge goes through, between Hopyard and El Charro it will be packed with hundreds of thousands of cars hopping off the freeway to travel through Pleasanton twice a day. Isn’t that what Thorn and Cooke-Kallio wanted?
Stoneridge will be the most busy freeway in all of Pleasanton. Maybe the Conditional Use Permit should be modified to have a set of extra gas pumps at the Nob Hill parking lot so people can refill their gas tanks as they go through Pleasanton and head to the Altamont.
Julie stated: “It is ridiculous how the city council does everything they can think of to stop Walmart from doing anything. I don’t believe for a minute that this grocery store by Walmart will be a smooth process. They will pick apart the plans trying to find anything they can to force a design review. Then, tear that apart.
Make it as hard as they can and maybe they will just go away.”
Right on! Now, take the name Walmart and say, replace it with San Jose Sharks. Yes, the current city council (actually two of the five are the real poison darts) are doing everything they can to thwart “reasonable advancement” to include, but not be limited to, more local entertainment and solid tax base.
Yep, the two are part of a small group of Ptown thorns who are in bed with a member or two in city management. Been this way for quite some time now. Too bad the new residents and sleeping older residents don’t see this. All it takes is voting the real deal stoppers out…all two of them.
& will Walmart allow camping in their grocery store parking lot too? Like I said before – the small town qualities that attracted us here to begin with are disappearing into the Dublin like mentality of any thing goes, just pay up and bring us more processed food,Chinese imports, billboard size signs!
Geez people. It’s only a grocery store. Get a grip. If it goes in and you want to shop there, do so. If you don’t want to then go somewhere else.
If things happening in Pleasanton don’t suit you anymore then move on. There are many realtors in this town that I’m sure would be more than happy to sell your house for you.
Then you can move to Utopia or wherever you think it’s a perfect town!
Cities grow and things change, that’s just the way it is.
Some like it and some don’t.
Welcome to the real world!!
Local entertainment? I don’t get the connection with a grocery store. Surely shopping for food items is not what you consider entertainment, is it?
Local entertainment means Neo and all the other dance clubs that bring everyone from the Bay Area and beyond supporting our *solid tax base*? But I don’t understand how more tax revenue (what is with these people always talking about raising revenue via taxes?) should include putting our police officers from Dublin and Pleasanton at risk by having to break up fights and being in the middle of shooting incidents.
And putting in a public park is just, well, way too extreme. How can anyone make a buck off a public park, except public park union commie leeches?
I welcome a Walmart Grocery & Pharmacy store into my backyard. It will be a block away and extremely convenient for my shopping needs. No more wasting gas or walking to go to high priced pharmacy and grocery stores. I might even apply for a job there since they hire people my age. It would be a win-win for me.
Zadie, I don’t understand. You made a comment about who cares about Chinese kids anyway and child labor in China and protecting Chinese kids. What does this have to do with food products in a grocery store?
Though Cooke-Kallio, Thorn and Hosterman did not protect local Chinese children and did not require a license to operate an after school program also at Stoneridge and Santa Rita (which was in the very same room as a dubious *university* which was actually a human trafficking criminal organization), most people in the community do.
Since the local government officials and police failed to dismantle this criminal organization, DHS-ICE had to step in from the Federal government and spent two years in an extensive undercover operation at the corner of Stoneridge and Santa Rita and at the school administrative offices of Pleasanton Unified. There is now a 35 count criminal fraud indictment that has not gone to trial.
But the bottom line is that by Walmart having a grocery store at that very same corner, they aren’t doing anything illegal. So why stop it?
I save a buck or two on my grocery bill, and it’s convenient, so it’s a win-win for me too. Screw everybody else. If the Chinese child laborers don’t want to work, they can starve for all I care. As long as I win I’m happy.
“Walmart sees underserved neighborhoods as a way to edge its camel’s nose under the tent and then do what it’s done in the rest of the country: open dozens of stores situated to take market share from local grocers…”
Beware Of Walmart, that article was a great link. I hope everyone posting here read it before hitting the submit button, but it appears many did not. Highly recommend it, folks. Malmart is not a good corporate citizen.
Bowler,
Since you read the article, perhaps you can answer which neighborhood green grocers and bodegas in Pleasanton are going to go out of business as a result of Walmart opening a neighborhood market at the old Nob Hill site?
I just read the article and you cut off the end of the sentence which said ‘and unionized supermarkets.’
Here is the full sentence “Walmart sees underserved neighborhoods as a way to edge its camel’s nose under the tent and then do what it’s done in the rest of the country: open dozens of stores situated to take market share from local grocers AND UNIONIZED SUPERMARKETS.”
So I have the same question as Stacey. And first of all, if the Safeway at the corner of Valley and Bernal in the middle of town closes, it is because the Safeway just opened a bigger safeway at the corner of Valley and Bernal at the south end of town. So it won’t be Walmart’s fault if the midtown Safeway closes. It will be Safeway’s fault.
And if Gene’s closes which is a true local grovery store, because it is near South Pleasanton, it will close because of the new mega Safeway at the south end of the town (that most of the city council not only approved, but seemed to be fighting for best camera position in photo ops at the grand opening that were shown in this paper).
So then this is just about Union vs Non Union isn’t it.
Funny when it comes to buying cheep I read comments like “diversity”, “choices” and “no empty space”.When it comes to housing, boy do those words sure disappear from the comments.
Hypocrites!
You do realize that those MINIMUM WAGE workers are probably not going to come from too terribly far away! Maybe you guys who want cheep goods and no affordable local housing should come up with a plan that involves bussing in and out the “undesirables” daily.
I saw the impact felt more immediately by smaller, local food outlets like Main Street Meat and Fish, Valley Health Mill and our local farmers markets, rather than which Safeway will close.
As for Gene’s, it may be driven out by multiple sources of downward pressure, but its proximity to those larger stores will not be as important a factor as the pricing practices of their larger competitors, I believe. I shop there several times per week because it is on my way home from the office, not because I live on that side of town.
The union v. non union remark is less relevant, I believe, than Jargon would like to make it appear. Raley’s, which bought Nob Hill and closed our Santa Rita location, is non union inside the stores, but uses union truckers, warehouses, packers, suppliers, growers, etc. Walmart does none of those things, which may be one reason why they have been the ongoing target of worker’s claims. Their track record as an employer is quite poor.
1) Valley Health Mill has been around forever. Can’t say for certain that it won’t close, but it is so highly specialized. I don’t really see how Valley Health Mill and Walmart Neighborhood Market can compare. Their customer demographics are quite different from each other. Somehow I doubt that Walmart is going to be selling $9/gal. raw milk.
2) Local farmers market: I thought of this one too, but I question that it will really lose business to Walmart. It has been around for awhile, even expanded from summer-only to all-year. (Throw in the new farmers market over at Stoneridge on Sundays?) It is downtown, which means many of us who don’t live nearby have to drive and spew GHG to get there. And it is only on Saturdays, so no fresh local veggies on Tuesdays.
3) Gene’s is a possibility because it operates in roughly the same market as the Walmart Neighborhood Market. Gene’s has survived because they’ve done a great job at differentiating themselves in that market by focusing on their meat department. If they hadn’t, they’d have closed long ago. You can’t get what Gene’s sells at Safeway.
4) Main St. Meat and Fish: I wish well for those guys and wonder how it’s going for them. I wonder if they get the local farmers market crowd at all. That business model has been under attack for decades by supermarkets like Safeway, even before Walmart was founded. I don’t see how Walmart opening at Nob Hill would cause its demise.
5) There _is_ a bodega off Spring St. downtown, well beyond walking distance for anyone living near Nob Hill (with the Nob Hill location well beyond walking distance for the customers the bodega serves).
Note to beware, Stacey, and those who sarcastically invoke “Chinese child laborers” are missing the point. Wal-Mart’s grocery arm is creating huge food supply problems right here in the US.
The article makes the point better than I can here, but I’ll offer a few quotes:
“[Walmart’s] expansion is making our food system more concentrated and industrialized than ever before… And the more dominant Walmart becomes, the fewer opportunities there will be for farmers markets, food co-ops, neighborhood grocery stores, and a host of other enterprises that are beginning to fashion a better food system – one organized not to enrich corporate middlemen, but to the benefit of producers and eaters.”
“Grocery prices have been rising faster than inflation and, while there are multiple factors driving up consumer costs, some economic research points to concentration in both food manufacturing and retailing as a leading culprit.”
“Walmart has actually helped drive overall food prices up.”
“Walmart has also been linked to rising obesity. “An additional supercenter per 100,000 residents increases … the obesity rate by 2.3 percentage points,” a recent study concluded… The bottom line for poor families is that processed food is cheaper than fresh vegetables — and that’s especially true if you shop at Walmart. The retailer beats its competitors on prices for packaged foods, but not produce.”
http://grist.org/food/2011-12-30-eaters-beware-walmart-is-taking-over-our-food-system/
Yada yada yada. Just because Walmart is driving up food costs and selling poor quality produce doesn’t mean it isn’t also great at doing other things too, like exploiting child labor in developing countries. All in all, I shop there just because the company makes lefties angry. I also like seeing 60+ year olds on their hands and knees stocking shelves for minimum wage and no benefits.
I never “invoked” Chinese child laborers.
Beware of Wal-Mart is glossing over the fact that corporations like Safeway and Raleys are also concentrating and industrializing our food supply. Those are not “neighborhood grocery stores” by any stretch. They are supermarkets that have gotten bigger and bigger over the years. Nob Hill, when it had opened, was huge compared to Safeway, until Safeway built the new building at Santa Rita and Valley and made Nob Hill seem small.
I think the current conversation additionally glosses over another fact of life here in the Tri-Valley; our population is growing. As the population increases, there’s a greater need for more stores selling daily essentials. One of the points raised in the article assumes that the population stays the same so there won’t be enough business to keep the bodegas open.
I never missed the point that Safeway and Raley’s, unlike Walmart, do not rely upon Chinese child laborers. I’m simply not that thick or wedded to the idea that Walmart is somehow a person that won’t harm local businesses.
Sorry to hear that you miss points frequently, Raul, just like you miss all the “Made in China” stuff they sell at Safeway or Raleys. Nah, none of that could be made by Chinese slave labor. How’s that new iPhone you got?
Don’t use an iPhone, Stacey. You might try reading up a little on Walmart labor practices as a way to mitigate your facile quips. (Big egos that are at the same time very weak egos. Sigh.)
You’re right! I don’t have or use an iPhone!
I am not a fan of Walmart but have stepped foot alot in that stop lately since nobody else carries whay I was looking for. Glad to here this is actually going in-maybe I can get a job there since no body else wants me all because my credit sucks. I would be happy to work there. Some of us has crappy credit since we got laid off and lost our houses-not my fault!
I wonder how many people who are so opposed to this store actually live in this neighborhood where this store is going to be? I live here and I will shop here, mostly for convenience – just like you all shop at the stores that are convenient for you. I shopped there when it was Nob Hill and I will shop there when it is a Walmart grocery store. If you don’t like it, don’t shop there. Just like any of the other grocery choices in town, I have the freedom to choose.
Whole Foods would be far superior. A small(er) town like Pleasanton should be in the business of supporting local farms and products, not those of another country (e.g.: China). Wal-Mart will continue to strip cities of their history and roots, with no regard for employee concerns while offering insufficient benefits and subpar working conditions (not to mention products and this is suppose to be a grocery store!). Watch out for the crime rates and litter as well. Look what has already happened to the Target at the Fallon Gateway. It’s all greed and the city will continue to look at all their companies that way. The standard has been lost.
Where are these local farms and products that you speak of in Pleasanton or in Alameda County for that matter? I don’t see any agricultural crops grown in Pleasanton and the dairies closed several decades ago.
Also in CA, migrant workers work in near poverty harvesting those crops. Why aren’t the CA farms hiring people with a living wage and why do they continue to have subpar working conditions and insufficient benefits for these workers?
So why should the consumer support regional farms that do that? Aren’t they greedy too?
Finally a for lease sign going down at that retail location. Good luck finding ALL your groceries made in AMERICA!! WOW maybe we can get the city ti start road repair with additional tax $$
There are better choices than Walmart. Walmart will bring property values down. I would not want to live near a Walmart and the local Walmart in my neighborhood carries food–but very low quality and not much in savings–pennies, not dollars and the other items are very low quality. A good documentary to view regarding Walmart – “The High Cost of Low Price – Walmart”. I always felt it was wrong to shop at Walmart, personal choice because of the companies policies. I am not sure if there is complete truth to the movie but it has very strong supporting facts.
I didnt even read the rest of you all’s replys after I read JULIEs and totally agree with her!
Applaud Julie, a resident of the Pleasanton Meadows neighborhood, on Jan 23, 2012 at 7:07 am
You blame Walmart for property values down? Com’n, did you know the high density housing projects in Pleasanton? If not, do some research.
Whole Foods is far superior??? At what, taking your whole paycheck?
I want a grocery store in this location. Walmart will be great for me. I prefer non-union, TBH. It is in my backyard, so it’s convenient, too. It won’t be any noisier than the corner gas stastion.
Thank God a grocery store is going the old Nob Hill. I live nearby and it’s been a real pain in the behind to grocery shop since Nob Hill closed. Mayor Hosterman better not block this transaction.
Regarding the union issue – unions are horrible, it’s because other grogers have to use the union that is causing them to not be able to compete with non-union companies. I think they all should be non-union.
Yes, unions are what brought this country down. My dad was a union steelworker and was able to purchase a home and car and did pretty well for his family. That shouldn’t have happened. More people should be performing stoop labor today for a minimum wage. And no benefits! Let them pay out of their own pockets.
I live in my owner occupied townhome next to that new proposed Wal Mart. I am against Wal Mart moving in at that location, because then I will have to deal with seeing a crap load of lazy people leaving shopping carts all over the townhome community!
Wal Mart already has the Rosewood site, that should be good enough!
Lets bring in an organic grocery chain or something at that location, ahead of another slimy Wal Mart store. Ugh
How much child labor will be used to produce goods sold at a Walmart supermarket? Answer: The same amount used to produce goods at Safeway, Gene’s and Luckys.
I challenge anyone complaining about Walmart selling Chinese products produced with child labor to spend one month purchasing only products NOT made with child labor. Good luck. Face it, the world is filled with governments that encourage or even enforce a slave work force, and we can do little to stop it short of trade wars.
The same people that complain about child labor also complain about American Imperialism and the Americanization of the world. I, for one, think that the American culture is good for the rest of the world. Perhaps if China was more like the U.S., they wouldn’t have children working in their factories. But they aren’t, and they do.
So buy with a conscience, but stop acting like Walmart is the problem. I dare you to find a place for lower income people (likely living in high-density housing) to shop that provides as much value as Walmart.
Pretty obvious that Steve isn’t much of a reader. This is reflected in his inability to argue a point.
Looking Forward to the New Walmart Neighborhood Market!
We are delighted that Walmart will soon be opening this store. We do much of our shopping in Dublin and Livermore because Pleasanton provides so little that meets our needs.
For the record, as of this January 24 date, Fresh and Easy in TGIF Rosewood is barely hanging on. I belong to Fitness in that center and always stop in Fresh & Easy and talk with employees….it’s not what THEY had expected..so do NOT falsely blame Wal Mart, F & E likely is not going to make it withOUT WalMart ! ! ! So the usual union bashers of WalMart can save their breath when they start trashing WM.
I think we have too many food stores to support, so have no opinion. I do shop TJs and would have liked them to relocate there for better parking, which couldn’t be any worse than Pimlico. TJs is my fav.
I just wish we could get a Chipolte in ptown, prefer Stanley & Valley where the little Mexican food corner shop behind McDs closed again…..Chipolte would have them standing out the door. One of the tiniest closet Chipoltes in Target center Dublin is impossible to get in…huge business per sq ft….They should move in Stanley & valley pronto….so I wouldn’t have to drive to Dublin, which I do.
I started shopping at Walmart after I saw the community work that Walmart did during the Katrina crisis. I also notice that they hire many individuals for many of their positions who would have difficulty finding employment with most employers (English language difficulties, deaf, disabled, etc.) They aren’t perfect, but find a Fortune 500 company that is. For those that think “low income” people are the main shoppers at the Pleasanton Walmart, check out the parking lot…it’s full of expensive SUVs, foreign luxury cars, etc. Kudos for Walmart to allow people to park their vehicles there while having housing problems in this economy.
Jargon states: “Local entertainment? I don’t get the connection with a grocery store. Surely shopping for food items is not what you consider entertainment, is it?
Local entertainment means Neo and all the other dance clubs that bring everyone from the Bay Area and beyond supporting our *solid tax base*? But I don’t understand how more tax revenue (what is with these people always talking about raising revenue via taxes?) should include putting our police officers from Dublin and Pleasanton at risk by having to break up fights and being in the middle of shooting incidents.”
It’s simple. If you have been following what’s going on in Ptown for the last 6 yrs, you would know that the Sharks wanted to create a four (4!) rink opportunity for Ptowners and neighboring communities. Think: taxes! And….opportunity!
Like Walmart, certain people on the currant city council and Ptown office holders played the political game that basically killed a great opportunity. The Sharks wanted to be part of Pleasanton! How awesome would that have been? Too many stupid, ignorant people are now in charge of what’s to happen to Ptown. Too bad. The few won. Glad I am out of there.
It’s laughable that I keep seeing posts about stores that should be moving there like Whole Foods or other higher end stores. HELLO??!!! THEY DON’T WANT TO MIVE THERE DO ITS NOT LIKE THIS IS EVRN AN OPTION. Do some of you really think we have the power to decide this as if a cosby like Whole Foods will open there because we think we should? I mean c’mon…..you don’t really think it works that way, do you?
I live around the corner from this vacant store and I am thrilled something is opening there. We should welcome Walmart since its obvious no other company, local or not, will touch that space. And by the way, the vacant building brings down property values, not the other way around.
To the neighbor who doesn’t want shopping carts by ger townhouse because she lives by the store, here’s a thought, think if things like those BEFORE buying or renting a home right by a grocery store building.
I love fresh and easy, but it’s not a US company so certainly the “local” argument is useless.
Hey on the upside if a walmart does move in there there will be plenty of parking for those motorhomes,pickup trucks with the camper shells, and the misc. Taxi cabs that seem to park on all the side streets around town on the days they aren’t parked at the other walmarts!
Another community inside scoop, as you know the Sharks was foisted on the city by Pat Kernan, wheeler and dealer and thankfully ex-school board member. And if you read the newspaper article about it, it strongly implies that it is the Sharks that disappeared…the Sharks wanted a completely free ride — free land and no responsibilities. It says “The city could never quite get the Sharks to the table in committing to a ground lease that would also require long-term operating guarantees and money up-front.”
And I won’t even get into the mini-ice rink fiasco on First Street.
‘Walmart will bring property values down”? Cite your source for that claim.
Are you really thick enough to beleive that a vacant space will be better? Or that housing prices will be lowered already, due to the influx of low income occupants about to descend on our once nice town?
Or naive enough to think like Zadie who envisions another People’s Park like Berserkely, but has done nothing to make sure a park is built.
You folks are way out there on the fringe, but keep tilting at those windmills if it makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something….
By the way, the article everyone keeps quoting, from ‘Grist’ is pretty laughable and hardly newsworthy or impartial. Grist–as defined on their website: ‘At Grist, we’re making lemonade out of looming climate apocalypse.’ LOL. That’s some serious journalism!