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Mount Pleasant supercenter to reflect Wal-Mart’s new look
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
If you think Mount Pleasant’s forthcoming Wal-Mart Supercenter will be the typical blue-and-gray Wal-Mart box, think again.
That look is history, according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Stewart, a Mount Pleasant resident.
“It’s in the rearview mirror,” Stewart said of Wal-Mart’s old look. The retail giant is moving ahead in the design department and creating stores that blend with the community’s architecture.
In Mount Pleasant, the 185,000-square-foot Supercenter slated for The Market at Oakland will assume the area’s architectural character. “Charleston green” paint will be one of the touches used to give the Supercenter a Lowcountry look. Earth colors and varied rooflines are other design possibilities.
Architectural renderings go before Mount Pleasant’s design review board
Feb. 22. After builders settle on an approved design, it will take about 10 months to construct the Supercenter, according to Glen Wilkins, Wal-Mart’s community affairs manager for the Southeast.
Wilkins would not disclose the Supercenter’s construction costs.
The 75-acre Market at Oakland, under construction since November 2004, will consist of commercial, office and retail development. The Wal-Mart Supercenter comprises the largest chunk of the 415,000 square feet allotted for retail.
The Wal-Mart store in the Wando Crossing shopping plaza a few miles south of the forthcoming Supercenter will remain open, Wilkins said. Wal-Mart is considering ways to enhance that store and does not believe it will compete with the Supercenter.
Economic impact
Wal-Mart critics nationwide claim the retail giant causes a host of economic woes within communities.
“The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets,” a report issued by economists at the Public Policy Institute of California, accuses Wal-Mart of driving down wages in labor markets, putting smaller retail stores out of business and hiring only some of the retail workers it displaced, thus raising a labor market’s unemployment rate.
Stewart and Wilkins pointed out that the average hourly Wal-Mart wage in South Carolina is $10.30, which does not include bonuses, benefits or overtime, and that the Mount Pleasant Supercenter will provide between 350 and 400 jobs.
The company begins accepting job applications about two to three months before a store’s grand opening, Wilkins said. More than 4,000 people applied for the 450 jobs at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in North Charleston, which opened in May.
Additionally, all employees, including part-time workers, are eligible for health care coverage for as little as $11 a month.
As for the impact on smaller retail stores, Wal-Mart sells general merchandise and does not drive specialized merchandisers out of business, Wilkins claimed. He added that Wal-Mart refers shoppers seeking special items to local stores where those items can be found.
That Wal-Mart will be one of more than 20 retailers at The Market at Oakland indicates that these other stores do not regard Wal-Mart as a threat, Stewart noted.
In 2004, Wal-Mart spent more than $1.3 billion for merchandise and services from South Carolina suppliers. The company supports more than 35,830 supplier jobs in the state.
The board of directors of the Charleston National Community Association, whose subdivision is one of several in The Market at Oakland’s vicinity, has taken a “neutral position” regarding the forthcoming Wal-Mart Supercenter, according to board President Karen Hazard.
“Some residents are opposed, some are indifferent and some are pleased,” Hazard said.
“While we are disappointed in the decision to build a Wal-Mart, our subdivision had supported the commercial rezoning of Oakland Plantation.”
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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