In the past, locals in an area targeted for retail assault by Wal-Mart have been able to get a headstart on the battle by keeping tabs on land purchases and zoning change requests. How very weasely of them!
But Wallyworld has learned a new trick, instead of buying the land, they lease it and let the landowner file the paperwork for them. It keeps them under the radar a bit longer and makes it that much harder to fight them.
Residents’ frustration over Wal-Mart’s hushed move-in was compounded by the city’s atypical approval process of Wal-Mart’s site plan. By granting the developer an “administrative” site permit instead of a “conditional use” permit—which RG4N says is required by city law because of Wal-Mart’s outdoor garden center—the city-council wasn’t required to hold a public hearing.Wal-Mart will also stoop to lying to town councils about their personal culpablity (i.e. they are told that they will have to provide their own legal defense on their own dime, something that's pretty much never happened before).
Wal-Mart is the disease and information and the dissemination of their misdeeds and exploits is the cure.
Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, weasel, circumvention