Dear readers,
On June 16, a major confrontation in our community will come to an end with the "opening" of our College Station Walmart, ending a battle that has raged for years.
As in many communities, Walmart had big plans for a lot near the Greens Prairie/SH6 intersection. And, like many communities, the citizens of College Station said NO, to more traffic and congestion. The battle finally came down to rezoning, and after a town-hall meeting at the local high school, Walmart and their real estate developers lost.
College Station happens to be half of our twin cities, Bryan / College Station. Although we are our own Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), nothing is more than ten minutes from anything else here. There is a Walmart Super Center in Bryan, and College Station residents seemed perfectly happy driving to that store, rather than have one of their own.
So, what did Walmart do? They expanded the store they had, by almost 1/3. Battle over. Everyone wins.
Walmart has done much in the last year to bring their reputation around. Ending this battle can't hurt.
Blue skies,
Sam White
Search.SamWhiteRealty.com
979-589-4487
Thanks for the post.
By Walmart updating that is how they stay on top.
All this time I'd been under the impression that Wal-Mart had wanted out at Green's Prairie, not Rock Prairie. Now I understand the contention. Rock Prairie & 6 has enough traffic as it is.
Preston, You are correct! I had my Prairies confused this morning. It was Greens Prairie, but I think that after everyone realized that Rock Prairie was the intersection from hell, we knew we didn't want another one of those. Between Walmart and the red light cameras, College Station city government is sometimes too entertaining.
Thanks for commenting!
Interestingly, the Albertsons closed in summer 2008, yet Wal-Mart still was considering moving. Odd.
I'm wondering how everyone wins. Wouldn't an expanded Wal-Mart store bring in more shoppers, which still would result in more traffic and congestion?
The City of San Diego is trying to ban Wal-Mart supercenters, so the only thing that happens is that Wal-Mart locates just outside of the city limits in the suburb cities, resulting in the smaller cities getting all the sales taxes. The City of San Diego, which is $2 billion in debt, loses. Sometimes people and governments cut off their noses to spite their faces.
Sirs: I want to take time to compliment two men who work in our produce section. Since this Walmart is closer to our home this will be the one for us to grocery shop.
There is a Robert, a tall black gentleman and a younger Hispanic man who work in your produce section. Our first visit the bins were empty of cantalopes and my husband asked Robert if there were anymore available. He was congenial and stopped what he was doing and was more than eager to go and get more to put out.
The Hispanic man, just last weekend asked us if we needed help when looking for some bananas that were not very ripe - as my husband takes a banana to work Mon. thru Friday, thus wanting not really, really ripe ones. He was courteous enough to go way to the back and bring more bananas out and let us choose what we needed. He too, I believe worked in the produce section. And this when we were looking in the ice cream section & couldn't find what we wanted, upon asking the same young man - he went to the back and got us the 2 flavors that were apparently sold out - and got us more.
Now this is the kind of service that is outstanding to us - as many "younger" workers would just tell us no that is all we have. THESE MEN WERE ACTUALLY KIND ENOUGH TO RESPOND TO OUR REQUEST.
WE ARE VERY GLAD YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE NOW AS IT IS MUCH MORE CONVENIENT FOR US. WE DID VISIT THE HEB THAT OPENED IN THAT AREA BUT WE PREFER THIS WALMART'S LAYOUT AND THE SERVICE OF THOSE TWO MEN. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK . WE CERTAINLY COMPLIMENT YOU FOR EXPANDING THE STORE TO OFFER MORE SERVICES TO US. WE WILL BE SHOPPING AT YOUR WALMART. AND WE DO NOT MISS HAVING TO GO ALL THE WAY TO BRYAN ANYMORE TO THAT WALMART. WE SINCERELY THANK YOU. BARBARA & WESLEY SCHROEDER, 2391 FM 2819, ANDERSON, TEXAS 77830