I'm no fan of Wal-Mart, at all, but couldn't you say that the highway system is what killed small-town downtowns?

People "voted with their autos" when they took the interstate to the next county to find a WalMart.

But don't worry, WalMarts, KMarts, Targets, etc. are showing up downtown too, now.

Labor and maintenance, the two controllable expenses. Once the store is built, very little money goes into either one. That's why you'll often see newer stores that close, especially when corporations can get huge local tax incentives and community concessions to open yet another, newer, larger store close by. Why put the money into cleaning and maintenance then? Answer: they don't.

Regarding the previous post, but isn't it puzzling how 20-20 year old formerly state-of-the-art athletic facilities are getting the wrecking ball. NO Superdome next, I hear. Same idea as Wlmart bldgs.

For the sake's argument is valid , too. In the upper South, Route 95's creation destroyed thousands of small businesses, hamburger joints and motels all along Route 301.

The Us Highways went right through old towns, look at Mobile Ala. US 90 was the main street, full of businesses, cafateria, Jack Tar Hotel. Intersate built everything went out of business and now there are big business right off interstate. Same thing every where, things change, Dime Store is gone Dollar Store is opening. Things always change as people change. If Wal Mart was doing a bad job it wouldn't be the nations number one retailer, so all this talk is wasted air. America shops and a few complain about how we shop.

Americans shop Wal-Mart because they love the low prices. As long as the prices are low, they couldn't care less about anything else. IMO, Wal-Mart is a cheesy, dirty, crowded, over-rated chain.

I live in Boise and food is so expensive I can only afford Walmart's cheap food prices. Albertsons are on every corner, but they cost twice as much as walmart...for the same thing.

Sometimes Walmart is a blessing!

After reading all the pros and cons I'm glad we resisted a Wal-Mart in downtown Honolulu. Costco is our low-price destination: they have great quality, and they have built their big boxes outside of the central urban core. To bring this around to travel again, although we all are looking for the best value, we should also value the small businesses that are the heart of our communities. So we do our part to buy Hawaii and try to keep what's uniquely local going.

Ironically, K-Mart will be building on the Keeaumoku super block instead of Wal-Mart, but I think K-Mart will be the lesser of two evils. A park would have been much better.