I used to work at the half-way house across from that strip mall back in 2007 even then the only thing missing was tunbleweeds. When the Farmer Jack left it was all over.
Bingo! The auto culture leads people to go shopping where it is most pleasant even if they have to go out of their way to do it. If a store in Mt Clemens tends to get "ghettoized", the shoppers in Mt Clemens will just go to the same store up on Gratiot and 23 Mile. Walmart knows that Detroit shoppers will go to a Walmart in the inner burbs, but shoppers in the inner burbs won't go to a Walmart in Detroit.
Here in Flroida, the Walmart closest to me [[about three miles) is very small and dirty [[the Port-au-Prince Walmart as it is affectionately known), but there are four [[soon to be five) Walmarts within a ten mile radius from me that i can patronize.
The JC Penney about a mile away cannot hold a candle to the JC Penney about 12 miles away.
Not being tied to public transit, I can exercise my freedom of choice.
Planning a truly integrated and successful transit system for SE Michigan will be complicated. It is not like New York where everybody wants to go downtown.
@Vic_Doucette, no Don Fracassi has been out of that store for many years. His son had it for awhile but they sold it.
Why does a post about Walmart [[A company killing the American dream) wanting to open a store in a Southfield [[a major player in the downfall of Detroit) get four pages of comments? I understand that most of those comments were regarding the lack of retail in Detroit, but I've only been reading this site for a few months and have seen that topic discussed numerous times on other threads.
Walmart have been sniffing around Australia, so far no plans, they would find it tough.
Costco opened in 09', have 3 stores here, and building more
In Australia its really a 2 horse race, Coles and Woolworths, they are a duopoly and screw so much money out of the population and are bastards to deal with, they are into every retail field
Cheers
I got this telephone message today:
"Rainbow Force this Monday January twenty first for prayer vigil for the stop gun violence in honor of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Day. The vigil will be held at the corner of Twelve Mile and Southfield at the former site of Saint Bede's Church and the proposed side of the future Walmart. Stand with us against gun violence and to oppose business practices of Walmart which is the number one seller of guns in America. The vigil will be at five pm and will be outside. So please dress accordingly."
So you're saying that part of the DetroitYes mission is keep tabs on Walmart? Don't quote me on this but I highly doubt that the Walmart that opened in Canton two years ago got it's own thread; much less a four page one. And going by your idea of Detroit, Canton is as much "a part of Detroit" as Southfield.
I'm not knocking anybody on this site but there are A LOT better things happening in and around Detroit than the POSSIBILITY of a new Walmart.
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...-Redevelopment
The same applies here. Celebrate REAL progress, not Walmarts global takeover.
Apparently people are interested in what goes on outside of the city limits. If there is so much going on in Detroit, then start a thread about it.
I also guess I can't post here since I live outside the city limits in one of those evil suburbs that ruined Detroit by offering safe streets and working lights.
You sure do get defensive don't you buddy? I understand that this site is about the entire metro area [[Windsor included), so discussion of upcoming development is expected. I simply don't understand the four pages worth about a fucking Walmart.
Don't hurt yourself jumping to conclusions assuming that my beef with Southfield is about safe streets and working street lights [[typical suburban talking point). I was referring to the Southfield Town Center which was constructed with every intent to steer companies away from Detroits business district. The results of which left a desolate, mostly empty downtown Detroit through the 90's up until the recent revival of the past few years.
I have no problem with the suburbs, I was raised in Westland. Though over the years I've noticed that a lot of you eastsiders are some uptight, finger pointing, holier than thou, all around nasty people.
AD, when Town Center was built, businesses were already flowing out of Detroit. Southfield was interested in capturing some of the overflow. Troy also grew steadily for the same reason. Detroit's problem was that businesses were leaving. The solution at the time was to build the Renaissance Center, a fortress that did not encourage downtown development.
Gee. I thought my opposition to WalMart was obvious. I thought the others who didn't like the idea of a huge shopping plaza at an intersection that was already very busy and dangerous were obvious. Maybe we needed to explain ourselves better. Or maybe you need to read ALL the words.
Opposition to any Walmart located anywhere is a normal knee-jerk political reaction. Many of the people dreaming up opposition to a Walmart in Southfield [[traffic, near schools, wetlands on site, habitat of the seven-toed orange frog, light pollution, etc) would be creaming in their pants at the idea of Costco wanting to build on the same site.
The problem in Fla is the immigration from other countries tends to congregate in a certain section ,that section after awhile begins to resemble where they came from in all aspects,so your choice is either learn another language,or deal with living in a situation that most would not .
Try going into a CVS where nobody speaks English and see how long it is before you choose a different location,I relocated because it became tiring emailing corporations and asking them to post notices on the front door referring to who their customer should be.Kinda hard to support local in those conditions.I agree with your post ,just a little explanation as to why things are as they are.
Costco on the same site, NO we would not want that for the same reason, traffic is already an issue at that corner. Until they come up with a way to deal with the traffic, the site needs to stay relatively low usage. A School, A church, both of which have expressed interest, would be better. Let one or both in, and meantime, work on the traffic situation so a more profitable use can be addressed in the future.