Jack Brown on Using a Redevelopment Agency/City

Dear Gramps Please Add:

But it's OK for the Grand Terrace, RDA to subsidize land for Stater Bros. Just not Wal-Mart! Right Jack, right.And, don't forget RDA subsidize land for Jacobsen.

Jack Brown Does a Turn Around:

In Grand Terrace, Jack Brown has been party to the use of the threat of Eminent Domain by his “Developer” Doug Jacobsen in the acquisition of the property on Barton Road where he says he will build a NEW Mega Stater Brothers “if the City wants it”.

Doug Jacobsen, Jack Brown’s Agent in this situation has had some of the parcels purchased with RDA Funds, thus providing a credit line not available to any other competition.

Jack Brown will be in a better economic stand because of this and his expanded business will be in direct “Competition” with existing businesses. He plans a Drug Store, Bank, and Full Deli in the store. These enhancements in the Mega Store will take customers from existing businesses, who are required to compete without any advantages of the City Participating in Financing their businesses in even the smallest way.

How many Redevelopment Advantages did Jack Brown Take advantage of when he relocated his warehouses onto the Former Air Force Base?

Now it seems when Jack Brown is Faced with Wal-Mart and Tesco he all of the sudden doesn’t like the game he’s been playing for years.

This is an example of the tyranny that local government exercises in cohorts with political contributors and big business. Jack is finding out he isn’t the biggest kid on the block and now he is whining that he is being subjected to the treatment he has been dishing out for decades.

The rub is that it is not just Jack, and it is in truth a Property Rights Issue, a Free Market Issue, and this too will come to pass, Remember the Redevelopment Debt in Grand Terrace has been authorized to increase from 15 Million to 65 Million… This is to who’s advantage? Debt and Financing of Business drove us into the last Great Depression




Face of retail changing?
2 Wal-Marts could affect cities' grocery business
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/29/2007 10:00:05 PM PDT


Two proposed Wal-Mart Supercenters that could one day do business in Highland and Redlands might change the way East Valley dwellers buy groceries.

Edward Fox, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business who studies retail issues, said Supercenters - which sell groceries and retail goods - have a knack for drawing customers away from existing supermarkets.

"Supermarkets are going to go down a lot. I've seen examples of (sales declines) as high as 15 to 20 percent," Fox said.

Such drastic percentages, Fox said, tend to be observed when Wal-Mart sets up a new Supercenter directly across the street from a grocery store. He said that when one comes to town, the trend is for shoppers to stock up on groceries at the new big store while going to supermarkets only when they need to buy a smaller supply of food.

"You lose your customers' trips. You lose your customers' loyalty," Fox said.

In Redlands and Highland, both Wal-Marts are in the early stages of the development process, and the environmental studies that both cities must review before making a decision have yet to be completed.

If Wal-Mart is successful in building new Supercenters in both cities, it would be like the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain establishing commercial bridgeheads on both sides of the Santa Ana River. In Redlands, the company has proposed building a Supercenter on the north side of town, near the crossing of San Bernardino Avenue and Tennessee Street.

In Highland, the Wal-Mart would be built in the southern part of the city on Greenspot Road between the 30/210 Freeway and Boulder Avenue.

When news of Wal-Mart's purchase of Highland land broke in 2006, Mayor Ross Jones predicted the retailer wouldn't build a Supercenter in both cities.

More recently, Jones said Wal-Mart representatives seem intent on building new stores on both sides of the river.

"With what they communicate to us, they are going forward with both cities," Jones said.

The potential impact of Supercenters on the supermarket business loomed over the 2003-04 grocery workers' strike. Wal-Mart employees are not unionized, allowing the chain to discount food prices while paying lower wages than many competitors.

East of Redlands and Highland, a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Beaumont in March 2006. David Dillon, that city's economic development director, said he has not observed evidence that it has caused other businesses to decline.

Dillon said the new Wal-Mart is part of an influx of commerce into the rapidly growing city.

"All of the retailers are seeing growth," Dillon said, although he added that a big-box store could have a different effect in a different city.

"I don't know if it would be the same in Redlands, where you have an established community that's not growing as fast," he said.

Stater Bros. Markets operates stores in Redlands and opened for business in Highland last year. Stater Bros. chairman Jack Brown said competition, whether from Wal-Mart or another company, is part of American business and it's up to individual customers to decide where to spend their money.

However, Brown was adamant in his view that local governments should not seek to entice Wal-Mart into their communities by offering the chain any economic incentives "to bribe Wal-Mart."

Tom Reingrober, owner of Gerrard's Market - a medium-size Redlands grocery store that sells a number of specialty foods - had the same opinion as Brown: If Wal-Mart wants to sell food in Redlands, they should pay the same tax rate as their competitors.

Jeff Shaw, Redlands' community development director, and John Jacquess, who has the same job in Highland, both said Wal-Mart executives have not requested any financial incentives.

"My expectation is that we would not support such a request," Shaw wrote in an e-mail.

Wal-Mart's advertisements often focus on the chain's ability to offer goods at discounted prices.

"Our company was founded on trying to help families save money so they could live better," Wal-Mart spokesman John Mendez said.

Grocers competing against Supercenters won't be able to win patronage by trying to offer lower prices, said Richard George, a professor of food marketing at St. Joseph's University.

George said Wal-Mart's business model gives the company the ability to sell food for marginal profits while making money on sales of other retail products like clothing and DVDs. People running grocery stores don't have that option.

"You're not going to beat them on price," George said. "They're not a really great customer service company. They're a great distribution company."

Competitive pressure from Wal-Mart forces grocers to do their job better, George said, making his case that the way to win against a Supercenter is to attract customers with better customer service and a wider variety of food products.

andrew.edwards@sbsun.com

(909) 335-9520

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