Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, is telling D.C. Council members that it’s planning to open a series of grocery-focused stores in Washington that will pay workers a wage comparable with grocery chains in the area. Wal-Mart has explored opening a store in the District in the past. But the latest round of plans floated to council members in recent days are more concrete, leading Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander and Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells to announce the store’s imminent arrival via Twitter late Tuesday night.
The plans, council sources told The Washington Examiner, call for up to six grocery stores that cover up to 60,000 square feet. That’s less than half the size of the Super Wal-Marts that dot the nation’s suburbs.
Wal-Mart did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
Wells said Wal-Mart has indicated it will pay workers a living wage.
But so far, the big box store giant hasn’t asked the District for any concessions such as tax breaks or zoning changes, leaving city officials with little leverage to make sure it follows through on its promise.
“We can just hope that they ask for something,” said at-large Councilman Michael A. Brown. “If they ask for anything, the demands will be great.”
Brown said he’d want the city to require Wal-Mart to hire D.C. residents, pay them a living wage and find ways to protect the city’s smaller businesses.
“If we get 10 jobs at Wal-Mart and then lose 10 because it shuts down a mom and pop store, then it’s a wash,” he said.
No plans have yet to be signed, but they might be as soon as next week, sources said.
Possible sites include the corner of New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road Northeast and the Capitol Gateway development on East Capitol Street Northeast, not too far from the Maryland border.
The smaller, grocery-store focused stores that council members said Wal-Mart is planning to build in D.C. fit squarely into the company’s blueprint for opening stores in urban areas nationwide. Last month, a Wal-Mart executive told the Wall Street Journal that the company is planning to open stores modeled after the bodegas it has opened in Latin America. The strategy is reportedly meant to recapture some of Wal-Mart’s blue-collar customers who fled its aisles when the company began targeting middle-class customers at the start of the recession.
