WASHINGTON - After building stores in all 50 states and in 26 other countries, the world’s largest retailer is finally moving into the nation’s capital.
A red-brick Wal-Mart Supercenter is rising on H Street in downtown Washington, less than a mile from the U.S. Capitol and a couple of blocks from Union Station.
A second store is going up on Georgia Avenue in northwest Washington, roughly 5 miles north of the White House.
The Bentonville retailer hopes to open both stores by the end of the year.
Two other stores are in the planning stages, and another, at Fort Totten Square, is scheduled to open in 2015.
On Monday, Wal-Mart will officially open two hiring centers in Washington where job-seekers can fill out applications. The H Street and Georgia Avenue stores will each employ about 300 people.
“We can’t wait to get started,” said Steven V. Restivo, Wal-Mart’s senior director of communications.
Although they’re nearing completion, the future of the Washington Wal-Marts was uncertain for much of the summer. The District of Columbia Council voted in July to pass the Large Retailer Accountability Act, which would require Wal-Mart to pay its workers a “living wage” of at least $12.50 an hour. That measure applied only to businesses with annual sales above $1 billion and affected only stores with at least 75,000 square feet.
Washington Mayor Vincent C. Gray called the measure a “job-killer.” He vetoed it on Sept. 12 after Wal-Mart warned that the bill could close the new stores before they even open. Last week, the council failed to override Gray’s veto.
At city hall, the day after the legislation died, mayoral spokesman Pedro Ribeiro sat at a table beside a cardboard box nearly full of letters from union advocates who oppose Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers.
Don’t be misled by the size of the stack, Ribeiro suggested.
“Only the top few letters are from D.C. residents. The majority of these letters are from folks across the country, which, while important, really doesn’t matter much to us,” he said.
“The mayor is elected to represent the views of District residents. Not people from Missouri and anywhere else.”
Another box in Ribeiro’s office held petitions signed by thousands of people, most of them Washington residents who supported the mayor’s veto, the spokesman said.
“For us, it’s never been specifically about Wal-Mart. It’s been about increasing the opportunity for folks to be able to shop in their communities and work in their communities.”
Gray wants people to shop in the city, not the suburbs.
Wal-Mart estimates that Washingtonians already spend $40 million per year at its stores in neighboring Virginia and Maryland. Overall, D.C. residents spend $1 billion per year at retail outlets across the Potomac River and beyond the Beltway, city officials estimate.
Washington hasn’t always been a magnet for giant retailers. Its population dropped from 802,178 in 1950 to 572,059 in 2000. Tourists flocked to its gleaming museums and monuments, oblivious to the unemployment, crime and decay in other parts of the capital.
The city is booming now. Cranes dot the skyline. High-rises are going up, and the population is growing again. These days, the city is adding roughly 1,100 residents each month. The Census Bureau said last week that median household incomes are soaring in Washington - up 23.3 percent between 2000 and 2012. But the city’s poverty rate was 18.2 percent. The poverty rate nationally is 15.0 percent and in Arkansas it’s 19.8 percent.
The Rev. Graylan Hagler, a preacher and activist who helped push for the Large Retailer Accountability Act, says poor people are suffering while the city expands.
He says supporters of higher wages won’t forget Gray’s veto.
“We have 60 cranes in operation on any given day building luxury condos and luxury office buildings and homes. Rents have increased so drastically, it has created an equation where it’s virtually impossible for working families to remain in the District of Columbia,” he said.
Hagler, who helped spearhead the higher-wage campaign, said his initial goal wasn’t to derail Wal-Mart’s plans. “I didn’t necessarily have any problem, at the time, with them coming in. I just felt they needed to pay a fair share to their employees in the area,” he said. “The fact is that they should pay their employees more. … The reality is that we should not be driving wages into the basement.”
It’s uncertain what wages Wal-Mart will pay to its new employees. Restivo, the Wal-Mart spokesman, said the wages have not been set. The minimum wage in the District of Columbia is $8.25 per hour.
While Wal-Mart scouts for hundreds of new employees, construction crews are hurrying to finish the buildings.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. Last week, construction workers in hard hats and neon-yellow vests worked near the entrance. Inside, the floors were covered with dust, and a new escalator was wrapped in plastic.
Across the street, several Washingtonians said they’ll welcome Wal-Mart.
“I’m glad it’s coming. Close. Convenient. You’ll get some shopping done,” said 48-year-old Andrea Ervin, a Government Printing Office employee. “I hope they open before the holidays.”
Ervin said the jobs are good news, too. Her daughter, Shawnita, is unemployed and looking for work.
Restivo said the company’s prices will be competitive and its stores will strengthen neighborhoods.
“We looked for places where we thought customers were under served, especially from a fresh-food perspective, but we also looked at neighborhoods which we thought were badly served: places where they either didn’t have the most affordable options or didn’t have the most healthy choices, so we thought our stores would be part of the solution in that regard as well,” he said.
Two Wal-Mart stores will eventually open across the Anacostia River, far from the city’s landmarks.
“In some neighborhoods,especially east of the river, unemployment’s well in double digits, in some places as high as 20 percent,” Restivo said.
Building a Wal-Mart may spur further development, Restivo said. “Our stores serve as a magnet for growth and development, so our hope is by operating in these neighborhoods a few years down the road, we’re going to see additional businesses - small, medium and large - come in and do the exact same thing.”
Keith Crews, 56, says it won’t take years for him to benefit from the new H Street Wal-Mart. Standing at a bus stop across from the store, he said Wal-Mart already gets his business.
“I live around the corner, and I always go out to Maryland and go out to Wal-Mart on Branch Avenue,” he said. The trip takes 45 minutes, he added. The new Wal-Mart is “a good idea. I think it’s great. It’s more convenient, being in the neighborhood.”
Sam Thomas, a 38-yearold chef, said the new Wal-Mart is “probably good for the community,” adding: “The jobs are really a big deal. It’d keep the kids out of trouble. And even the older ones, too - keep them out of trouble.”
These are jobs that a lot of people qualify for, Thomas noted. “I don’t think you need a college degree to work at Wal-Mart, and a lot of people don’t have a college degree.”
Several residents say they hope Wal-Mart will give people a decent wage.
Robyn Attlebury, a 31-year old administrator at the University of the District Columbia, said Wal-Mart won’t get her business. “I shop at Safeway down the street. Everything I need, I’m sure will be there,” she said.
Attlebury also worries that Wal-Mart employees will be underpaid.
Asked if she could survive on D.C.’s minimum wage, she said “not with my student loans. Not if I had any family member to take care of.”
Retired construction worker Edward Scott, 59, said Wal-Mart should open its wallet. “They can afford it. All the minimum-wage jobs out here can afford it.”
Paying the bills in D.C. is difficult and prices are soaring these days, he said. “Rent.Electricity. Gas. Everything’s still going up each and every day.”
While residents debate the merits of living wages and Wal-Mart expansion, Arkansas politicians eagerly await the stores’ grand opening.
“Arkansas has significantly benefited from Wal-Mart’s long, proven history of creating jobs and growing economies, and I am thrilled it is expanding to Washington, D.C.,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican who represents Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District, which includes Wal-Mart’s headquarters. “This will be a welcomed reminder of home and a boon to the District of Columbia.”
Shoppers at the H Street Wal-Mart may also bump into U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Republican who represents Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District.
“I’m always looking for a low price on groceries and household goods,” he said. “Once Wal-Mart gets built, I’m sure I’ll be going there.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/22/2013