On Friday, Jan. 15, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. delivered news that would affect thousands of people worldwide.
Wal-Mart released a list which included 154 store locations in the United States; these closings would leave 10,000 U.S. workers without a job.
One of the locations included in the list was Redwater, Texas, thus causing the closing of these stores to hit home for citizens of Texarkana’s surrounding areas.
The closing of the Redwater Neighborhood Wal-Mart caused concern and disapproval from many citizens. This closing would not only leave workers without a place of employment, but it would also result in the town of Redwater being left without a grocery store altogether.
The Wal Mart store in Redwater opened in the early days of Jan. 2015, creating an intense competition for local grocery store, Delaughter’s, causing its closing shortly after the arrival of this giant retailer; and a year later Wal-Mart announced the closing of their location in Redwater, announcing the store will close on Jan. 28.
Soon after the news were delivered, a citizen of Redwater quickly got to work, starting a petition that has obtained more than 1,950 signatures in a short amount of time.
The petition was started by Aaron Carlile who commented on the closure of this neighborhood shopping center saying, “The community of Redwater and Maud are outraged that Wal-Mart brought a Neighborhood Market to our area, putting an established grocery store out of business, made promises of helping the community grow and improve only to announce a closing date of January 28, 2016, after being open for only a years time.”
The petition requests the community of Redwater/Maud to be heard by Wal-Mart, furthering addressing a couple of people in particular; Wal-Mart CEO, C. Douglas Macmillan and Greg Foran, President and CEO of Walmart U.S.
Carlile added that “due to this choice by Wal-Mart, employees will be without jobs or forced to travel for employment opportunities, our community will suffer and be negatively impacted by the poor planning and actions of this huge retailer.”
The petition can be found at: https://www.change.org/p/wal-mart-ceo-mike-duke-have-the-community-of-redwater-maud-be-heard-by-wal-mart-2
