Hundreds turned out for the town hall meeting on the abrupt Stonecrest Sam’s Club closing hosted tonight (Jan. 16) by State Rep. Vernon Jones. Many said Wal-Mart, the parent company for Sam’s Club, did not provide detailed answers on why the store suddenly closed Jan. 11. Glen Wilkins said performance, the future growth of Sam’s Clubs and the impact of other clubs in the area is what officials based their decision on to close the club. However, one employees said the Stonecrest store was earning over $100,000 a day.
DeKalb Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson blasted Wal-Mart executives in handling the store’s closing and she said the only way to impact Wal-Mart stores was to hit them in the wallet, urging constituents to stop spending with the companies.
Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary asked how is it that the Stonecrest store was closed as a fairly new store when there are older stores in the area that were left untouched. Fast forward to the 15:10 mark to listen to Mayor Jason Lary’s reaction to the Stonecrest Sam’s Club closing.
State Rep. Doreen Carter said (10:00) Wilkins “danced around the questions” and she said we need to “shut down” Wal-Mart stores.
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1 Comment
The impact of the closing of Sam’s Club will have a detrimental impact on future mid to high end development in Stonecrest. Prospective retailers will look to this as a sign the area is suffering in some form. It is troubling Sam’s personnel refused my question/request for them to share with Rep. Jones the criteria used for the closing of this store. As many stated this store was always busy and the parking lot near capacity with county tags from Walton, Newton and Rockdale as well as DeKalb. This store was also the only store off I-20 before Augusta. It is foolishness to direct people to Jonesboro and Mountain Industrial as it is probably easier to get to Augusta than those two stores because of traffic.
During the campaign, Mayor Lary stated he had businesses waiting to come to Stonecrest as soon as it became a city. I believe now is the time for those businesses to move in before we have a redlining problem.