[StBernard] Wal-Mart

[Westley Annis]

"I would bet that prior to Katrina, the super Wal-Mart and the first regular
Wal-Mart drew customers in from both those areas.  It was convenient and
safe for both of those areas' customers to come to SBP. --JL"

Jer Responds:

Allow me to mention a few related bits of info:

About 6 months or so after Katrina info circulated about negotiations
between the Meraux's, perhaps the parish government and Wal-Mart. Rumor has
it that Wal-Mart wanted to "scale down" to the smaller model of Wal-Mart in
lieu of the SuperCenter. We can only suppose that Wal-Mart wanted to scale
in terms of the populace left in da parish. It was rejected and its now more
than 3 yrs. later- No Wal-Mart.

Fast-forward to now where Wal-Mart has been the past year introducing the
"Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market" (as sort of counter-Market to the
Sav-A-Center/Winn-Dixie). We can't say whether there's a possibility of
putting the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market here instead of a full-scale
SuperCenter (since it committed to New Orleans East to serve both the East
and St. Bernard.

Perhaps soon, we'll get more info about whether there will be a store, or a
grocery store to challenge the Winn-Dixie on Parish Rd. 

--or if it believes St. Bernard is as worthy to Wal-Mart as it is to St.
Bernardians.

We'll see.

--jer--