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Via Richard Layman, we now have an idea of the proposed Walmart on Georgia Avenue would look like: No better or worse than most supermarkets, though the 801 New Jersey one fits better in an urban context. (UPDATE, 9:50 p.m. – In all fairness, the Brightwoodian posted this a month ago.)
Layman also has some thoughts about the relative desirability of various commercial submarkets in the city. While generally on-point—and reflected by retail rents per square foot—I think it might not hold true for a store like Walmart, which has a different hierarchy of needs. Its main competitive advantage is cost, so income levels in the surrounding level aren’t as important. Transit is also not as much of a factor, since it doesn’t depend on foot traffic and customers tend to buy in bulk, which is difficult to handle on the metro (not that people wouldn’t, or shouldn’t). It’s possible that Walmart might consider downtown to be a desirable location for one of its “urban format” stores, but then they run into the problem of higher-income, better-educated residents who aren’t typically their target demographic. For all those reasons, upper Georgia Avenue is a perfect place for a Walmart, as far as Walmart is concerned.