Citizens Reject Biased Wal-Mart Proceedings

Members of a citizens group that has been working for more than two years to keep Wal-Mart from building a 160,000-square foot store in a farmfield two miles outside St. Albans city today rejected – in writing – the St. Albans Town Development Review Board proceedings in the matter, saying the process has been rife with conflict of interest.
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Judge Finds Wal-Mart Hearings Biased

A recent Environmental Court ruling affirmed citizens’ claims that the Town of St. Albans’ hearings on a proposed 160,000-square-foot Wal-Mart were biased and contaminated by conflict of interest. Members of Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth filed a motion objecting to the fact that one member of the St. Albans Town Development Review Board (DRB) wore a hat to a hearing that included the inscription “St. Albans Needs Wal-Mart. NWCRG members also raised objections to the fact that another DRB member signed a pro-Wal-Mart petition.
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Mercantiles: A Promising Alternative to Big Boxes

Community-owned retail stores, like this 'mercantile' in Powell, Wyoming, are a promising solution communities are embracing to provide consumers access to quality, affordable products without sacrificing their local economy or character.
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Higher Standards for Big Box Campaign

In the summer of 2005, VNRC joined forces with the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign and the Vermont Workers’ Center in a partnership aimed at holding Wal-Mart and other big boxes accountable to the people and places where they locate. The “Higher Standards for Big Box Campaign” is a focused effort to merge the social justice, labor and environmental interests of each organization.
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Wal-Mart Update January 2005

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St. Albans Citizens Fight Back

Wal-Mart is knocking on the door in St. Albans again. This time Wal-Mart plans to build a massive super-center -- a project that would be completely out of scale with the size and character of the St. Albans community. But as they did a decade earlier, local citizens and businesses are concerned about the impacts on the local economy and the environment and are gearing up to push back.
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St. Albans Citizens Group Responds to Local Wal-Mart Approval

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Wal-Mart Endangers Vermont

Wal-Mart is back. Not content with its four stores in Bennington, Berlin, Rutland and Williston, Wal-Mart has set its sights on more than half a dozen new “big boxes” in Bennington, St. Albans, Derby, Morrisville, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, and Middlebury. As opposed to the more Vermont-scale stores they built in the 1990s, however, the retailers' bold plans are no longer Vermont scale.
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7 More Walmarts?

For every 1 poverty level job Wal-Mart provides, 3 livable wage jobs are lost in the community. Wal-Marts average pay to a clerk is $8 per hour with inadequate if any coverage of healthcare. The State of Vermont Joint Fiscal Office says a livable wage is $11.49 per hour and 82% of health benefits.
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Wal-Mart Bumper Stickers and T-Shirts

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