Went over Patton Drive today.  They are adding slats to the fence, however, the slats are NOTHING like what homeowners have for their fences.  These are very narrow slats, such that it still makes it see-through enough that homeowners will still have to look at the trash dumpsters, the cardboard, pallets, etc.  

But I'd like to know what cheap nitwit fence person Walmart got to do the job.  Why is it taking so many weeks to put this fence up?  I don't even think they have all the chicken wire put up down on the end where the auto service is.  

And I notice quite a bit of trash has blown on to the homeowners lawns.  Do you think Walmart will send someone to clean up?  

I drove behind Walmart. And although the fence is clearly not a state of the art fence, I have to admit that it looks neat and clean. FOR NOW! Just wait until those pesky vandals start taking those slats out to climb the stupid fence. I'm hoping that won't happen, cause it actually looks pretty good. And I love no seeing those dead bushes! Let's face it, anything would have been an improvement over that other fence.

It's crap....they can do better but refuse too.....pompus assess.....

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

No overnight RV parking at two Wal-Marts
Wilton, Halfmoon stores bar vehicles
BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter

   Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has a corporate policy of allowing recreational vehicles to stay overnight in their parking lots.
   But don’t try to park overnight at the Wal-Mart Supercenters on Old Gick Road in Wilton or Route 9 in Halfmoon. Overnight parking is not allowed on the grounds of these sprawling discount stores. RV enthusiasts say the list of Wal-Marts that don’t allow overnight stays is growing.
   “As a general rule it’s something we do allow,” said Kory Lundberg, a Wal-Mart spokesman at the company’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. However, whether to allow those spacious, bus-like motor homes to park overnight is up to local store managers and subject to local ordinances that might prohibit overnight parking, he said.
   At the Wilton Wal-Mart, “no overnight parking” signs are posted in the parking lot.
   Robert Roeckle, the town’s assistant building inspector, said Thursday the town does not have a law or ordinance prohibiting overnight parking in private retail store parking lots.
   “In the summer, I have seen maybe one or two out there,” Roeckle said. “They might be there for a night.”
   But Roeckle said it’s hard even for the store to enforce the no overnight parking because the Wilton Wal-Mart is open around the clock.
   “Because it’s open 24 hours, it’s hard to tell” if the RV is overnighting, Roeckle said.
   In the town of Halfmoon, things are different.
   Steve Watts, the town’s building and development administrator, said that when the town Planning Board approved Wal-Mart’s site plans back in 2000, one of the conditions for approval was that they could not allow RVs to park near the store overnight. The Halfmoon Wal-Mart opened in 2001.
   “We’ve had really good compliance with the store managers,” Watts said. “They chase them out, they ask the [RV] people to leave.”
   Internet Web sites that cater to owners of recreational vehicles note that while many Wal-Marts allow the overnight RV parking, a growing number do not.
   “Hundreds of stores throughout the United States do not allow RVers to stay overnight in their parking lots and the list of locations is growing every week,” says a story on http://www.freecampgrounds.com.
   To help RV owners select the right Wal-Mart during their trip, the Free Camp Grounds folks sells a directory that lists more than 350 stores in the United States that do not permit overnight stays in an RV.
   This directory can be used in combination with their “Wal-Mart Locator,” which lists every store and driving directions to each one.
   Ali Gonzalez of Wheelers RV Resort and Campground Guide said it is well-known by RVers that most Wal-Mart stores allow the campers to stay overnight in their parking lots.
   “They enjoy it,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a quick spot for them to spend the night.”
   RV owners say Wal-Mart parking lots have better lighting and are considered safer than highway rest stops, she said. The downside, she said, is that the hundreds of small “Mom and Pop” campgrounds across the United States lose business when RVs spend the night at a Wal-Mart.
SMALL CAMPGROUNDS
   Gonzalez said 90 percent of the RV campgrounds are small, owner-operator businesses. Such campgrounds offers the RV owner electrical hookup, water hookup, sewer hookup and other amenities not found in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
   An overnight stay in a RV campground costs between $15 and $30 per night, she said. The Wheelers campground guide is available at http://www.wheelersguides.com.
   Wal-Mart spokesman Lundberg would not provide a list of stores that do not allow overnight parking in the Capital Region or New York state.
   “We value each of our customers and allowing overnight parking can enhance the one-stop shopping convenience for RVers, where permissible,” Lundberg said.
   He said store managers decide to prohibit overnight RV parking because they may have had problems with some sloppy RV folks who leave trash or cause other problems.
   The local Wal-Mart store managers are not allowed to talk to reporters and always refer the press to the company’s Arkansas headquarters.
   Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer with $345 billion in sales for the 2007 fiscal year, according to Wal-Mart’s corporate fact sheet.
   Wal-Mart Stores Inc. includes Wal-Mart Supercenters (like those in Wilton and Halfmoon), discount stores, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Club warehouses.
   The company operates 4,000 facilities in the United States and another 2,800 stores of various kinds in 14 countries, according to the fact sheet.

BRUCE SQUIERS/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Signs at the Wilton Wal-Mart store warn against overnight parking for drivers of trucks and RVs.

Quoted from bumblethru

I drove behind Walmart. And although the fence is clearly not a state of the art fence, I have to admit that it looks neat and clean. FOR NOW! Just wait until those pesky vandals start taking those slats out to climb the stupid fence. I'm hoping that won't happen, cause it actually looks pretty good. And I love no seeing those dead bushes! Let's face it, anything would have been an improvement over that other fence.

It looks better than the old, but those slats are crap. They don't hide anything, Adding the slats did not stop the ugly view. I have written statement from the town that the remodel mandated a solid fence. Obviously Walmart does not know what the term solid fence means. So Walmart imposes an ugly scenery on the residents, forces the people to look at trash all day.

Quoted from mikechristine1

I have written statement from the town that the remodel mandated a solid fence. Obviously Walmart does not know what the term solid fence means.

Then perhaps the town should be handling this. If the town mandated it, then it should be the town's responsibility to inforce it. That is of course unless the town considers this a 'solid fence'. I say, contact the town for answers.

That is not a solid fence...it is opaque...... >...there are college graduates running this chain???...well, my neighborhood is not a frathouse.....

Quoted Text

...there are college graduates running this chain???...well, my neighborhood is not a frathouse.....

What do college grads have to do with this if I may ask?

You would think with all that edumacation they would know the difference between solid and opaque.....

I think that they are just putting a fence up that was supplied by Wal-Mart. And it may be a fence that the town does consider as solid and has met their approval.

I can't imagine how this could meet anyone's approval, as the residents on Patton drive are now forced to view trash dumpsters, wet cardboard, shopping carts, pallets, and goodness knows what else.

I agree and I have to agree with Bumble. The only accurate answer would be from the town.

OK, Walmart replaced the fence.  And the town apparently required a solid fence.  My oh my, isn't this an absolutely beautiful fence.  It does so much for the residents on Patton Dr.  It gives them such a georgeous scene to look at while sitting in their living rooms, on a porch if they have one, in their front yard (for instance, while enjoying a warm evening watching the sky at sunsets, or watching the lighting off in the distance).

Oh yes, it enhances life so very much.  

For this, the residents are entitled to have their tax bills cut in half if not more


Hey Chris the Walmart store manager!  Can't you do better than this?   This is repulsive to the residents

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And another view.  I think the management team of this store should buy houses across the street and live in them

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http://www.dailygazette.com

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Wal-Mart plans on slower sales growth
BY MARCUS KABEL The Associated Press

   Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will cut back on spending to build new stores and tighten cost controls as sales growth slows over the next three years, Chief Financial Offi cer Tom Schoewe told investors and analysts at a conference Tuesday.
   Schoewe trimmed plans for capital expenditures for the second time this year, to about $15 billion from a June forecast of $15.5 billion. The original projection was $17 billion.
   Analysts welcomed the move to focus on keeping more of the cash Wal-Mart generates rather than spending furiously on new stores.
   Increased free cash flow, or the money left over after a company pays its expenses including capital expenditures, could make Wal-Mart shares more attractive by funding higher dividends, new technologies or acquisitions, analysts said.
   “Strong free cash flow is the key to corporate flexibility and potential growth. The highest quality companies, in my opinion, are able to self-finance their future growth from their free cash flow,” said Patricia Edwards, managing director and retail analyst at Wentworth, Hauser and Violich in Seattle, which manages about $12 billion in assets and holds about 35,700 Wal-Mart shares.
   Wal-Mart, which is finding fewer places to build new stores and faces tougher competition from other retailers, said sales will continue to slow after years of strong double-digit growth. Schoewe said sales growth will fall to 9 percent this fiscal year from nearly 12 percent the year before and then be between 5 and 8 percent the next two years. Wal-Mart’s fiscal year runs through January. Wal-Mart is also faced with tougher economic challenges as its shoppers struggle with higher food and gas prices and a widening credit crunch.
   “No doubt that our work has been made more difficult by the current economic environment,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores.
   Schoewe said Wal-Mart is focused on using the tremendous cash flow generated by its U.S. and international stores more efficiently, including building fewer giant Supercenter stores and managing corporate costs better.

  
  
  

http://www.dailygazette.com

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Wal-Mart begins to make big turnaround
BY MARCUS KABEL The Associated Press

   BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A year after its worst holiday sales season ever, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may rebound to have a good season after finding the right mix of merchandise and marketing to complement its return to a focus on low prices.
   A whiff of this already showed up when the nation’s largest retailer posted third-quarter earnings Tuesday of $2.86 billion, an 8 percent rise that beat Wall Street expectations.
   The company earned 70 cents per share, up from 62 cents per share in the same period a year ago. The 70 cents includes an after-tax gain equal to 1 cent per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast earnings of 67 cents per share on revenue of $91.67 billion.
   Wal-Mart had revenue of $91.95 billion in the period ending Oct. 31, up 8.8 percent from $84.47 billion a year ago.
   Wal-Mart shares spiked $2.65, or 6.1 percent, to close at $45.97 on Tuesday.
   Retail experts say Wal-Mart’s flagship U.S. stores may be in the midst of a turnaround after two years of a zigzag course between upscale and discount goods that has slowed sales growth.
   Third-quarter sales at stores open at least a year, not counting fuel, were up 1.5 percent in the company’s U.S. stores, same as a year ago. The company expects samestore sales for the fourth quarter to rise no more than 2 percent.
   Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said an uncertain economy will send more shoppers to discounters for holiday purchases.
   At the same time, Niemira said Wal-Mart is working to address past problems.
   “I actually think they may perform remarkably well this holiday season,” Niemira said.
   Last November, Wal-Mart reported its first negative monthly same-store sales in a decade as a push into higher-end fashion and home decor sold poorly and muddied its low-price image. For the period November through January, which includes most sales from gift cards redeemed after the holidays, same-store sales growth slowed to 1.3 percent last year from 7.2 percent in 2001-02.
   But Craig R. Johnson, president of consultancy Customer Growth Partners, said Wal-Mart has started a turnaround that is based in part on attractive prices on name-brand items in electronics and toys, two key holiday categories.