Brinkley overcomes Wal-Mart closure: city defies trend as departure brings new developments.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BRINKLEY MAYOR BARBARA Skouras said the closing of the city s only Wal-Mart store on May 30, combined with the efforts of a colorful former congressman, has turned out to be a blessing for the Monroe County Monroe County is the name of seventeen counties in the United States, named after President James Monroe:
Receipts from the city's 2 percent sales and use tax Sales and use tax refers to:
prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration. That bucked the trend among cities that have lost Wal-Mart stores. What's more, local stores have added new merchandise lines and two retail chains have announced plans to fill the vacuum. Dollar General Corp. of Goodlettsville, Tenn., which already has a location in Brinkley, now is building a bigger, 9,000-SF store. And Fred's Inc. of Memphis, a discount retailer, has announced that it will be coming. Ironically, the departure of Wal-Mart--pioneer of the $4 prescription drug prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug, plan--means Brinkley residents can enjoy that particular bargain for the first time. The Wal-Mart that closed didn't have a pharmacy pharmacy, art of compounding and dispensing drugs and medication. The term is also applied to an establishment used for such purposes. Until modern times medication was prepared and dispensed by the physician himself. In the 18th cent. , but Fred's has already bought two pharmacies This article is a list of major pharmacies (also known as chemists and drugstores) by country. Australia Pharmacies in Australia are mostly independently-owned by pharmacists, often operated as franchises of retail brands offered by the three major in town and is now offering the some $4 prescriptions. That development alone might keep seniors shopping in town instead of traveling 25 miles to Forrest City Forrest City, city (1990 pop. 13,364), seat of St. Francis co., E central Ark., at the foot of Crowley's Ridge; inc. 1871. It is a rail and trade center in an agricultural (cotton, rice, vegetables, peaches) area. There is also diversified manufacturing. , Skouras said. "Our city council was more worried than I was" about the loss of Wal-Mart, Skouras said. Wal-Mart purchases accounted for $175,000 of the approximately $1.3 million the city sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. generated in 2008, Skouras said. (A business' sales tax figure isn't publicly available, and Wal-Mart didn't return a call seeking comment, but Skouras said Wal-Mart officials told her how much the retailer collected.) Skouras said she wasn't too concerned because the city had former U.S. Rep. Tommy Robinson Tommy Robinson may be:
the skin-covered object which runs on a monorail on a Greyhound racing track and which the dogs are schooled to chase. The lure must be kept 30 to 40 ft ahead of the leading dog so that the field is stretched out. new businesses to town. 'No Effect at All' Wal-Mart leaving "had no effect on Brinkley at all," Skouras said. When Wal-Mart stores have left other small towns, however, city officials said they've seen sales tax revenue drop. Wal-Mart closed its Hearne, Texas Hearne is a city in Robertson County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,690 at the 2000 census. Hearne was subject to heavy flooding on 13 May 2004 when 17 inches of rain fell in an hour. General aviation service is provided by Hearne Municipal Airport. , store in the early 1990s, and it took the city years to return to the sales tax levels it saw during Wal-Mart's tenure, according to Mayor Ruben Gomez. In Springdale, the loss of a Wal-Mart Sam's Club Sam's Club is a membership-only warehouse club owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. History The first Sam's Club opened in April 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma in the United States.[1] Sam's Club is named after Sam Walton. to adjoining Fayetteville in 2007 may have cost the city between $500,000 and $1 million in annual sales tax revenue, Mayor Doug Sprouse said. Dumas Mayor Marion Gill said that the departure of his town's Wal-Mart store at the end of 2005 probably hurt the city financially, even though a Fred's store moved into Wal-Mart's old space. But he's not sure how big the hit was. "I'm sure a lot of people trade out of town now," Gill said last week. "They go to Wal-Mart in Monticello or Pine Bluff Pine Bluff, city (1990 pop. 57,140), seat of Jefferson co., S central Ark., on the Arkansas River; inc. 1839. It is a port and trade center for an agricultural area and has industries producing metal, wood, and paper products; machinery; electrical equipment; and , [which] both have a Supercenter." In 2005, according to DF&A data, Dumas' sales and use taxes were $2.27 million. In 2006, the number dropped to $2 million. It's difficult to say for sure, however, what happens to the tax revenue when a big retailer moves out of a small town, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas strives to be known as a "nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world." The school recently completed its "Campaign for the 21st Century," in which the university raised more than $1 billion for the school, used at Fayetteville. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think it matters whether the retailer, like the Wal-Mart, has moved to the next town--in which case the residents can still make their purchases, but the sales tax revenues go elsewhere--or whether [the retailer] just leaves and there's no replacement," she said. If the retailer closes, then consumers end up spending their money on what's available, Deck said. She said each situation is different. In Springdale, the city collected $25.5 million in sales and use taxes in 2006, the city's last full year with a Sam's Club. In 2008, the figure was $21.5 million. Deck said Springdale had other issues besides losing its Sam's Club that might contribute to the drop in sales tax revenue. The housing boom ended during that period, and some portion of the sales tax was paid on supplies sold to contractors. TR to the Rescue When Tommy Robinson, the former Arkansas congressman, learned that Wal-Mart was closing its Brinkley store after 35 years, he fired off a "scathing" letter to Wal-Mart officials telling them that they were killers of small towns. "First, when they come into a town, they shut down our small business community," said Robinson. "Then when they leave, they kill us twice." Robinson didn't move to Brinkley until 1989; in the 1980s, he was Pulaski County Pulaski County is the name of several counties in the United States:
Robinson, who had a contract with the city to work on economic development, said he was surprised to learn that the Wal-Mart was closing because he thought it was doing good business. Skouras said Wal-Mart officials told her that to stay in the city, the retailer would have to build another store, which it didn't want to do. Under its lease agreement, which Wal-Mart signed in the 1970s, the retailer couldn't have a pharmacy or sell tires or grocery items at that location, Skouras said. Robinson said he met with Fred's and Dollar General officials to pitch the benefits of the city. "They're seizing an opportunity," Robinson said. "And from our prospective, we're seizing one too. We're replacing lost sales tax revenue." Skouras said she didn't know when Fred's and Dollar General were expected to start construction, but it should be soon. Neither retailer responded to requests for information. But Fred's recently bought Medi Mart Pharmacy and Low's Pharmacy in Brinkley, said Patsy Arnett, executive director of Brinkley's Advertising & Promotion Commission. (Low's Pharmacy's bridal registry A bridal registry is a system designed by department stores for the purpose of allowing an engaged couple to manage the purchase of gifts for their wedding. From what is available at the store, the couple creates a list of items that they would like to receive, then the list is grew into Brinkley's most famous retailer, Low's Bridal & Formal.) Now branded as Fred's, the pharmacies offer some $4 prescription drugs, which Fred's and numerous other pharmacy chains began offering to match the phenomenally successful program Wal-Mart introduced in 2006. "These changes are looking to be beneficial to our community," Arnett said. The 66 employees who worked at the Brinkley Wal-Mart were offered jobs at nearby Wal-Mart Supercenters, Skouras said. She expects some of those workers to return to Brinkley when the new Fred's and Dollar General stores open. Other merchants also agreed to start selling more items. Kroger of Cincinnati now sells Hallmark cards Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri, is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. Approximately 50% of greeting cards sent in the United States every year are manufactured by Hallmark. in its Brinkley store, Skouras said. "Furniture stores are now carrying televisions," she said. "Our merchants are making more money than when Wal-Mart was here." Closing Shop When Wal-Mart announced in December 1990 that its Hearne, Texas, store was closing after 10 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time community felt betrayed, news accounts said. Wal-Mart already had been blamed 5 for driving the smaller businesses out of the town of about 5,600 people. But with the 1990 announcement, the s retailer again attracted criticism. "If they had made this decision the first year they were in operation, we'd still have a vital downtown," a 1990 article in The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times quoted Dave Cunningham, president of the Hearne Area Chamber of Commerce, as saying. Ruben Gomez, the city's mayor, said last week that sales tax revenue for the city tanked after Wal-Mart left. Gomez, who wasn't the mayor in 1990, said it took years before the city returned to the level of revenue it had when Wal-Mart was in town. The gaps in retail service have since been filled in too, said Hearne Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kent Brunette. "The marketplace tried to respond to the vacuum that Wal-Mart left," he said. Marion Gill had just become mayor of Dumas in October 2005 when he learned that Wal-Mart was closing its store. "They were leasing the building, and they didn't want to renew the lease," he said. "We tried to stop it by pleading Asking a court to grant relief. The formal presentation of claims and defenses by parties to a lawsuit. The specific papers by which the allegations of parties to a lawsuit are presented in proper form; specifically the complaint of a plaintiff and the answer of a defendant plus any with Wal-Mart.... We met with them personally." But the lobbying effort didn't work, and the company closed the store. A Fred's store filled about half the space Wal-Mart vacated, Gill said, then a 2007 tornado tornado, dark, funnel-shaped cloud containing violently rotating air that develops below a heavy cumulonimbus cloud mass and extends toward the earth. The funnel twists about, rises and falls, and where it reaches the earth causes great destruction. destroyed that storefront. Fred's rebuilt, but the new store is even smaller, he said. Gill said it's difficult to measure the impact on the city's sales tax revenue because tax rates have changed since Wal-Mart closed in 2005. "I have no way of telling that our sales are down or up from that," Gill said. Still, he said, "People say, 'We wish we had a Wal-Mart.'" By Mark Friedman mfriedman@abpg.com |
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