Mount Pleasant Walmart Market Study More Trick Than Treat

Walmart officials have basically just thumbed their noses at the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission.

The retail giant wants to build a Neighborhood Market just west of the intersection of Highways 31 and 20, on the site of the old Little Saints day care center. Neighborhood Markets are grocery stores with about 40,000 square feet of space. The average Supercenter comes in at about 180,000 square feet and combines grocery, convenience and dry goods.

After being directed by the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission on July 20 to provide an independent, third-party study, Walmart officials instead returned a packet that contained everything but what the village was expecting. Further, the conclusion of their four-page summary says that the benefits of having a Walmart in that location - jobs, increased taxes, infrastructure improvements - outweigh any possible negative impact on competitors in the area.

"Any adverse impacts are likely to accrue to firms that are already in decline," Walmart writes. "There is no basis for Village officials to oppose a Walmart Market at the Site for anti-competitive reasons."

Patch is waiting for a return call from Walmart attorney Debbie Tomczyk about the packet.

At the , members approved a motion by Trustee Jerry Garski that to be sure a smaller Walmart in that location wouldn't adversely effect other grocers in the area, the company needed to provide an independent, third-party market study before the matter could move forward. The request was made, too, because Walmart officials refused to release the details of an internal study they say shows similar nearby businesses would be unaffected.

Sentry, Piggly Wiggly and Gordon Foods operate stores on the other three corners of that same intersection.

Also in the summary are several bullet points that outline Walmart's $10 million investment toward improving the parcel:

• Approximately $180,000 in property taxes;

• Adding 60-100 jobs; 60 percent of which will be full time; and

• Infrastructure improvements to the north-south road leading into the CNH facility and a lighted intersection at roughly 13th Street and Highway 31 at the east entrance to CNH.

The summary also states that using Walmart as a scapegoat for the failure of stores in the same area "ignores other realities that cause stores to fail." They point to the top grocers in the Metro-Milwaukee area - Pick-n-Save, Piggly Wiggly, Walmart, Aldi - and say that with a 5.9 percent market share, down from 15 percent, Sentry is a "firm in decline."

To bolster their position, the packet also includes at least two white papers that state having a Walmart in the area can improve competitor businesses by lowering prices overall and improving quality.

But Ron Meyer, planning director for Mount Pleasant, said the village's concern is for the tax base. If Walmart moves in and businesses close, what is the village supposed to do with those empty spaces?

"This packet does not seem to adequately address those concerns," he said.

Walmart had a minimum of 60 days or whenever the study was completed. Brennan Kane, deputy director of planning, had expected representatives from Walmart to contact the village after the 1.45-acre outlot on the property was rezoned at the . The company, he said, was waiting for the rezone approval before moving forward.

"They need to work with us on the parameters of the study so I expect we'll hear from them in the next few days," Kane said after that meeting.

But Walmart never contacted the village about the study, Meyer confirmed, despite several attempts from village staff to stay in contact.

Garski is not surprised.

"If they won't supply the study, the issue will go back before the Plan Commission and we'll deal with it there," he said. "But I have to wonder what they're hiding."

Ralph Malicki, manager of the Piggly Wiggly on Washington Avenue, said he is very concerned about this turn of events.

"I wonder where this is going and the process going forward," he said.