That Walmart Thing In St. Albans Again

[Henry]

Heard an Old Storekeeper say once, "Yup! Competition is good, but none is better."

R. L. Vallee put a clinker in Costco selling gas and here in St. Albans also made sure that Walmart won't be able to sell gas either if they ever do build one there.  Interesting that just about every I89 Exit has a Maplefields (R L Vallee) though.

I am so fed up with the big deal about a Walmart - I may go to Walmarts once or twice a year and that is it and I do think it would be great if St. Albans had a bigger choice in shopping, but I am almost 76 years old and honestly don't think I will see a Walmart in St. Albans in my lifetime.

If you do want to read some more about it, just click on the following link:

http://www.samessenger.com/NewsView.asp?ID=5391

[Mike Raburn]

Henry,

Who delivers and sells the gas to the ST. Albans area vendors?
Are there multiple re-sellers or is one company the dominate?

Remind me to tell you the story of how I closed down a Safeway store from selling gas over an almost month long period.
They were not pleased but they were at fault.

[Cat]

We need bigger stores up this way. I would love to have a Walmart that close.

[fletchtb]

It sure would be nice to have a Wal-Mart in St. Albans!

[NorthFairfaxBoy]

I can hop in the truck right now and be 8 Walmarts within 20 miles.  All are the Supercenters.  There are opponents to them here as well, but the powers that be don't let every little public interest group dictate whether or not one should be built.

[YouAnnMos]

but I am almost 76 years old and honestly don't think I will see a Walmart in St. Albans in my lifetime.


Wal-Mart or no Wal-Mart we all hope that you are around for a long time Henry.  The service you provide with this forum, the opportunity you provide us all to express our views, seek help, give advice and hear the local news is invaluable.  Thanks again for all that you do to keep this forum running.   

[Cat]

I can hop in the truck right now and be 8 Walmarts within 20 miles.  All are the Supercenters.  There are opponents to them here as well, but the powers that be don't let every little public interest group dictate whether or not one should be built.

I completely agree!

[mirjo]

I can hop in the truck right now and be 8 Walmarts within 20 miles.  All are the Supercenters.

Seriously? A little Wal Mart overkill wouldn't you say? As for the special interests...that tag could land on both sides don't ya think? Unless I am taking you literally when you don't mean it that way (although, 8 Wal-Marts within a 20 mile radius of anywhere would not surprise me), I think is completely unnecessary and it really begs the question of who is the special interest?  I'm not a fan of Wal Mart for this pervasiveness. While I totally understand the need for a discount department store in St. Albans, I am disappointed that the only option is Wal Mart and that it has taken this long! I don't understand why a comparable store was not brought into the old Ames location or where Woolworth's used to be. In all of the WM hoopla you never hear why that never happened. I'm surprised TJ Maxx and Peebles are still there as neither store is anything at all what St. Albans needs.

If Wal Mart could would have  moved itself into one of the open spaces (with some renovations of course) instead of insisting on its own huge size, the store likely could have been here years ago in an existing structure, we'd all still be supporting the Chinese economy, but shopping happily close to home and all these years of fighting would not have had to happen (I really don't know for sure, but assume this would be the case). It seems that Wal Mart is a bigger, scarier special interest

[cassyt]

would be nice to have a walmart in st.albans but milton would be a good place to right behind sears that land goes way back would be great.

[Kathleen]

I live on Route 7 in Milton and am already having problems getting out of my driveway at certain times of the day.

I agree that having a department store such as Walmart or even Target in Franklin County would be great, but let's not even think about Milton for that right now.  We are in the process of having an ice rink built along with a hotel and a new restaurant. Let's see how that goes before putting such ideas into the heads of the powers that be.

[cassyt]

wow a hotel and new restaurant now a walmart great but I like Milton dinner

[David Shea]

A number of years ago a little know company wanted to locate to St. Albans.  The people of St. Albans were concerned about the negative impacts that this company would create for their community. That little know company decided to locate elsewhere.

The location that they chose was Essex Junction and the company was IBM.  End of story. 

Just think about the shift in economics between Franklin county and Chittenden County had the Leaders of St. Albans taken a chance on the " little know company"

[trussell]

Excellent point, David!