Tagged : Walmart RSS Feed

Over the summer, I wrote about the living wage bill passed by the DC Council. The Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA) increases the DC minimum wage from $8.25 to $12.50 for certain large retailers in the city. 

But DC Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed the bill today. In a letter to the DC Council, Gray wrote, “If I were to sign this bill into law, it would do nothing but hinder our ability to create jobs, drive away retailers, and set us back on the path to prosperity for all.”

It was feared that Walmart would cancel plans for new stores in the city if the LRAA went into effect. Two Walmart stores are slated to open later this year or early in 2014:  one at 5968 Georgia Avenue in Northwest and the other at 99 H Street in Northwest. A third Walmart at…

A new Walmart is coming to the Chinatown area on H Street near the intersection with New Jersey Avenue NW in Ward 6.  It will be next to Gonzaga High School and across from the Government Printing Office.  The Walmart coming to Chinatown will be one of the first Walmart stores in the country to have apartments in the complex, making it the most urban of the new Walmart stores coming to DC.

The new development will include a 4-story 85,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter encased in large glass windows.  This is about half the size of an average Walmart, but within that Supercenter, shoppers will find 40,000 square feet of grocery and pharmacy areas.  Surrounding the Walmart coming to the Chinatown area will be a mixed-use building containing retail at…

The Brightwood Walmart is coming to Georgia Avenue, NW in Ward 4 near Missouri Avenue.  It will be the first Walmart to open in the District.  The development project began in September 2011, but has been plagued by delays from various opponents.

The new Brightwood Walmart development sits on the site of the former Curtis Chevrolet dealership. After demolition began, residents sought protected status for the site from the Historic Preservation Board.  But development continued after the application was denied.

In February, Occupy DC and Respect DC teamed up to stage a demonstration at the Brightwood Walmart construction site.  The protest prevented some crews from entering the construction site that day, but did not end the project.

Even after the…