September 2013

WM shorts contractors (w/use of local SF business) and wants copies of your voter registration cards (H/T – GP)

l3wis September 7, 2013 60Comments

Now we have Walmart’s local attorney Patrick Knecht applying for the list of registered Sioux Falls Voters from our dear friend SOS Jason Gant. Will they get it? Did they get it? At this point we do not know. What is the point? We will learn. They actually asked for the signatures of all the voters so they could compare your signatures. Nice. Our ALEC SOS is being asked to supply our information to the ALEC supporter, Walmart. Again, nice…

While doin’ a Google the other night, I saw a phrase I’d forgotten about, Mao-Mart as in the article Mao-Mart and Slavery. Always. I’d always meant to follow the threads and discover what it was.  Well I finally did it. Oh boy… If you are a small contractor or supplier being asked to assist Walmart build their new store(s) there is one piece of advice for you: Get paid upfront BEFORE the build. Walmart spokesperson Delia Garcia has been real busy fielding answers to bad publicity generated by their construction practices.

Have you heard about them?

· How about not paying for documented change orders? Contractor says Walmart job nearly broke him

· The squeeze play Walmart and their General Contractors just don’t pay for work performed: Save money, live better? People building Wal-Mart say they just want to get paid 

·  The business bankruptcies they have caused when they do not pay their contractors:  Chicago Walmart comes up short

There are many more articles, all telling versions of the same story: Walmart does not pay their construction bills. Just read them yourself and make your own decision. They are not a good neighbor, Mr. Sam died and the managers running the business think subcontractors are suckers.

In the course of reading one of the stories about the nonpayment issues, Delia Garcia was defending the poor Walmart contractor pay performance. Delia Garcia, where have I heard that name before? Hmmm? Oh yea, she is the same one who constantly reminds Sioux Falls residents, Walmart is there to save the day. Then as I continued to read a Montana article, a name very familiar to Sioux Falls came up, Henry Carlson Company, of South Dakota. What?? Not Henry, tell me it’s not true?  What is he accused of?

In Montana, Tom Sliter of Sliter’s Ace Lumber and Building Supply, in Somers, filed a lien against Wal-Mart in March 2010.

Sliter says his company provided $24,000 in cement, lumber and cleaning supplies for Wal-Mart’s new Hutton Ranch Plaza Supercenter in Kalispell. The project’s general contractor, the Henry Carlson Company, of South Dakota, withheld payment for months, Sliter says.

Sliter was one of 12 suppliers and subcontractors to file a lien on Wal-Mart’s Hutton Ranch Plaza property in 2010, according to the Flathead County Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

Sliter says he was forced to haggle with the Henry Carlson Company over who should pay for brooms, lumber and an $1,800 finance charge, among other things. Sliter says he thought about suing but worried he’d be outgunned. He settled for $19,000. “It’s kind of like being bullied,” he says. “I really resent it.”

Even Henry Carlson Co. is doing this to suppliers and contractors?

Now you may read something into each of these reports to match your feelings, pro or against Walmart. Who cares. You know each of us has personal feelings about Walmart as a retail store. Their business practices are another matter. They continue to use Mr. Sam’s folksy story to give the public warm fuzzies while destroying the very fabric of our communities. Each of these contractors, in the dozens of stories on line, are average Americans trying to build successful lives by working hard and hopefully smart, to make it. The deck is stacked against the small businessperson by Walmart’s very business plan.

And then there is this, Walmart goes into a community never negotiating. There are reports of Walmart reps telling a group of Sioux Falls residents they never negotiate with communities or residents, NEVER. If Walmart wants to do something, by gawd don’t get in the way. So back to my night of playing the Google Machine. Oh my, an Argus Leader article popped up:

Walmart zoning vote defended

Board member’s construction company has done work for retailer

Apr. 6, 2013

A planning commission member who voted to approve a rezoning petition that paves the way for a new Walmart in Sioux Falls said he had no reason not to vote on the issue, even though his company has done work for Walmart in the past.

Meredith Larson, the vice president of preconstruction services for Henry Carlson Co., has been on the commission for 10 years. He was one of four commissioners this week to vote in favor of the rezoning on a 4-2 vote.

Henry Carlson has done millions of dollars of work for Walmart here and in the region over the past several years. But, Larson said, all of that work was earned through a competitive bidding process. And any work that Walmart awards in building two new stores in Sioux Falls —including the controversial store at 85th Street and Minnesota Avenue —also would be awarded through a competitive process.

“We have to bid the work,” he said. “We have to bid it just like any other contract. The only way we get work from Walmart is to be the low bidder.”

So Mr. Larson is the VP of preconstruction services for Henry Carlson Co. Interesting how small a town this is. Let’s pass the rezoning petition because we have nothing to hurt by destroying a neighborhood. Building anything anywhere is progress. Heck we could probably find some subcontractors to help us, as long as they aren’t in a hurry to get paid…. Oh by the way, where is the Sioux Falls Ethics Commission on this interesting vote? Oh my bad, we don’t have one…

And this is what Sioux Falls sheeple want?

There is more, so think about it. Is this what we the people, our happy-clappy mayor and city council want in Sioux Falls? No wonder South Dakota won a top spot on the most corrupt standings again.  We’re number 2!  We’re number 2!