Got a letter in the mail today from Wal-Mart. They’re trying to build a new store on a smallish site in the middle of Dallas, a few blocks from Love Field — quite a shift from the acres of asphault they usually use. It’ll probably prove controversial, if they’re already lobbying nearby residents like me (actually, I’m not really nearby) and putting up web sites to defend it a year before it opens.

Comments

28 May | 21:24 | Roger

I have to wonder if that website is partly due to my brother. He lives in a small city within Houston' city limits called Hilshire Village. Wal-Mart tried to install one of their tributes to asphalt directly behind his house. The land was in the process of being acquired by a local group with plans to build a church and keep the hundreds of trees. Wal-Mart decided they preferred this particular portion of dirt and attempted to sweep the rug out from under the church deal. After my brother ruffled Wal-Mart's feathers for months and finally forced a city meeting, they decided to choose another location.

29 May | 10:11 | christy

Check out the books "How Wal-Mart is Destroying America" and "How Wal-Mart is Destroying the World" by Bill Quinn. Very insightful.

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Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)