(Thanks for collecting most of this research due to our friends in Atlanta fighting the imposition of a Walmart in their community – see Good Growth Dekalb )

Walmart’s Supply Chain of Greed

National Employment Law Project, June 2012

NELP’s new report examines how Walmart’s outsourcing practices are driving down wages and working conditions for U.S. warehouse workers.

The Economic Impact of a Walmart Store in the Skyway Neighborhood of South Seattle

C.S. Fowler Consulting LLC for Puget Sound Sage, April 2012

“Recent analyses conducted in support of Walmart store development plans in the Pacific Northwest are irreparably flawed by their failure to address offsetting losses in employment and employment income that
would be the result of new store development in the saturated retail environments for which these projects are proposed.

Overall, [...] we are able to demonstrate that Walmart would be expected to have a net negative impact on any local community where its average wage is less than the average wage paid by existing retail competitors. Based on these findings and broader impacts not covered in this analysis but reported by credible sources elsewhere we conclude that there is no basis for treating Walmart’s arrival in a neighborhood as anything but a net loss in terms of the public good.”

Food for Thought: A Case Study of Walmart’s Impact on Harlem’s Healthy Food Retail Landscape

Office of the Manhattan Borough President, November 2011

“Based on the experience of retailers in Chicago’s West Side, within the first year of a Walmart moving into the vacant lot at West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, anywhere from 30 to 41 fresh food retailers could go out of business, taking with them between approximately 110,300 and 126,300 square feet of fresh food retail space.”

Walmart’s Economic Footprint

Hunter College Center for Community Planning & Development and New York City Public Advocate, January 2010

“The overwhelming weight of the independent research on the impact of Wal-Mart stores on local and national economies – including jobs, taxes, wages, benefits, manufacturing and existing retail businesses – shows that Wal-Mart depresses area wages and labor benefits contributing to the current decline of good middle class jobs, pushes out more retail jobs than it creates, and results in more retail vacancies. There is no indication that smaller “urban” Wal-Mart stores scattered throughout a dense city in any way diminish these negative trends. Rather, such developments may actually result in more widespread economic disruption.

“… we conclude that the entry of even a single Wal-Mart store in New York City could have a snowball effect and result in a negative long-term cumulative impact on the city’s economy and continued decline of the middle class. A single small Wal-Mart, or a single superstore, could mean the demise of existing food retailers, end local retail, and hurt working families.”

The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses: An Evaluation of One Chicago Neighborhood’s Experience

Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola College Chicago, December 2009

“A key finding of the survey is that the probability of going out of business during the study period was significantly higher for establishments close to the Wal-Mart location. This probability fell off at a rate of 6 percent per mile in all directions from the Wal-Mart store. The relationship to distance was particularly strong for establishments in electronics, toys, office supplies, general merchandise, hardware, home furnishings, and
drugs.

“Our analyses of data on taxable sales in Wal-Mart’s home and adjacent
zip codes are consistent with the hypothesis that Wal-Mart’s sales displace a significant amount of sales from its home zip code. Sales in zip code 60639 remained flat despite Wal-Mart’s opening.”

The NWIMBY Effect (No Walmart in My Backyard: Big Box Stores and Residential Property Values

Colorado College Working Paper, October 2009

“Our study finds that proximity to one or more big box stores delays home sales and diminishes home property values in that area. Proximity to a big box store also amplifies the previously observed relationship between square footage and time on market. That is, properties with relatively large square footage located near a big box store remain on the market significantly longer than their smaller counterparts located farther from big box sites.”

The Effects of Walmart on Local Labor Markets

Economists David Neumark of University of California – Irvine, Junfu Zhang of Clark University and Stephen Ciccarella of Cornell University, Journal of Urban Economics, July 2007

“On average, Wal-Mart store openings reduce retail employment by about 2.7 percent, implying that each Wal-Mart employee replaces about 1.4 employees in the rest of the retail sector. Driven in part by the employment declines, retail earnings at the county level also decline as a result of Wal-Mart entry, by about 1.5 percent.”