Watching Walmart: The world's largest retailer has officially applied for a building permit to begin work on the first of its stores in the District. The Walmart on Georgia Avenue was the first one the company put in paperwork for. Why now? Perhaps because applying for a permit before Dec. 31 means the District's Green [...]

Looks like folks who are in favor of more grocery choices and competition in Skyland are going to get it. District lawyers say the plot of land Walmart is planning to use for the Ward 7 store is not restricted by Safeway's covenant with the city to prevent competition:
City officials, including Deputy Mayor Victor L. [...]

The Post reports that the coming Skyland Walmart in Ward 7 may be stymied by a city pledge to Safeway that competitors can't sell groceries in certain parts of the area. Presumably, that includes the Skyland strip mall across the street from Safeway, where the Walmart is to be located. Mayor Vince Gray is apparently [...]

Lydia DePillis says the Walmart community benefits agreement is nothing to write home about:
So, it finally happened: Yesterday, Walmart and the mayor's office announced the community benefits agreement—except termed a "community partnership initiative"—that Vince Gray had long promised as a way of creating the impression that he was actually trying to get the retailer to commit to [...]

Always Low Prices On Guns: It turned out Walmart didn't need much of a hard sell to get D.C. government officials to welcome them to town; the only argument the city's really putting up so far is about whether they'll deign to give us four stores, or five, not about whether they'll do things like, [...]

In this week's cover story, Lydia DePillis examines the big fight Walmart didn't encounter in wooing D.C.
For a photo gallery from a Walmart in Alexandria, click here.

Fully Responsible: D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is finally showing signs of realizing that ordering two high-end SUVs in the middle of a budget crunch might not be the key to everlasting gratitude among his constituents. He's e-mailing District residents who complain about the Lincoln Navigators to take "full responsibility" for the lease deal. Of [...]

Thundersnow!: The D.C. snow hole is, officially, kaput. A storm rolling through the region this evening is forecast to deliver between 4-8 inches of snow in the city, and more in the suburbs, with snow piling up 1-2 inches per hour at times. Thunder and lightning may accompany the snow, which apparently means the end [...]

Shepherd Park's listserv has actually had a healthy debate on Walmart potentially moving into the old dealership lot at Missouri and Georgia. But one resident sticks out—she claims that she may have gotten polled by Walmart. It's pretty interesting, and not unusual considering the company has already set up its own propaganda website. The resident [...]

News broke late last night that Walmart is—as rumors have long had it—heading to D.C. But if you've been reading Washington City Paper like you should be, you were already up on the basic gist of the story. In July, Lydia DePillis looked at how District officials and advocates were trying to convince the retail [...]

Morning, all (I've given up the Mike Riggs drawl; you can find it over on his Arts Desk roundups). Are you still in a food coma? Well, get up! Get over it! It's Black Friday!
Today is the day when people get trampled to death at retail outlets in America in the rush to save money [...]

This past weekend, I visited a Wal-Mart in Tappahannock, Va. Or maybe I went to a Walmart. Signage inside and outside the store spelled the chain's name all closed up, with the "m" lowercased. But many of the products I looked at also stated they were distributed by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This is the kind [...]

Those of you who care surely already know, but those who don't might want to avoid certain retail locations once the sun goes down tonight.
Twilight, that suckalicious sparkling-vampire movie starring Robert Pattinson (eeeee!) and Kristen Stewart (Bella!), is out on DVD tomorrow. But it's not any ol' DVD release: It's a two-disc Special Edition DVD, [...]

After learning that someone had posted the transcript from last weekend's prostitution sting on City Desk and the Sexist, I had to ask myself: What the fuck is our problem? Aren't we the alternative weekly in town? Aren't finger-wagging and gotcha blog items the purview of the nannying prudes at the Post and the Examiner, [...]