Looking for a safe haven from big box sprawl?
Just as there are red states and blue states, there are Asphalt
states where sprawl abounds, and Green States where it does not.
Within the borders of the United States, its hard to find a place
that has not already been degraded from saturation by big box
stores. But, according to Wal-Mart's own company date, there are
some places that have seen less sprawl-marts than others.
According to the retailer, a total of 199 Wal-Mart stores were
opened within the past year. Of that amount, 163 (82%) were
superstores---either new construction/relocations, or simple
expansions. Wal-Mart opened only 7 discount stores last year,
because this prototype store, which contains only a limited food
grocery selection, is being rapidly phased out in deference to the
larger, and more profitable, supercenters.
A total of 19 Sam's Clubs were opened in the last 12 months, and
16 of the smaller Neighborhood Markets.
The following 10 states escaped any new Wal-Mart stores in the
past year: Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, South Dakota, Indiana,
Vermont, Maine, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. It's not that
Wal-Mart bypassed these states, but their proposed stores in these
states are under siege by neighborhood groups. In Vermont, for
example, at least three superstores have been proposed, but each
is under fire from citizen groups.
There are another 5 states that had only one Wal-Mart store open
last year: Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Mississippi, and New Jersey.
Seven states had only two new Wal-Marts: Washington, Oregon, Utah,
North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas and Alaska. Six states had three
Wal-Marts: Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Six states had 4 stores added:
Nevada, Colorado, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Maryland, and New York.
Five states had 5 new stores: Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia,
Florida, and North Carolina. Two states had 6 stores built:
Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Two states had 8 stores added: Arizona
and Ohio. South Carolina had 9 new stores.
In terms of the "Asphalt States," or the high-end states to avoid,
there were six states that accounted for 38% of the total Wal-Mart
store growth last year. Michigan had 11 new stores, while
California and Texas had 12 stores each. Minnesota and Alabama had
13 new stores. The state with the highest number of new Wal-Marts
was Illinois, at 15.
These figures indicate that almost half the states in America (24
states) had 4 or less new Wal-Mart stores added this past year. In
total, a new Wal-Mart store was opened every 44 hours somewhere in
America. But the main engine of growth, supercenters, came in at
"only" 163 stores. Wal-Mart says they now have "more than 2,300
supercenters" in America, and "more than 1,000 discount stores."
That means there is a Wal-Mart discount or superstore for roughly
every 92,000 Americans.
The saturation varies widely from state to state, but the
production of new Wal-Mart stores is clearly slowing down---and
not just because planners in Bentonville have applied the brakes.
Citizen opposition to new stores last year killed 46 Wal-Marts
outright. Over the next several years, Wal-Mart is expected to be
on a glide path downwards as far as production of new store square
footage.
Because the company overbuilt, its sales continue to rise---but
not at the pace it would have if the company was not cannibalizing
its own stores. This cannibalization is illustrated in the
company's comparable store sales increase for the month of
October, 2007 of .4%. For the past 39 weeks, the retailer's same
store sales increased by only 1.4%, compared to 2.3% for the same
period last year---40% lower than last year.
It's hard to blame sales figures like that on bad weather, oil
prices, or falling consumer confidence. Wal-Mart is hitting the
emergency brake, and the citizen's movement against the giant
retailer is starting to pay real dividends. Every store removed
from the production line means one more community removed from the
retailer's Asphalt List.