Now let's review a key issue facing the town and the candidates
position. Ramesh Advani has no plan to get Stop and Shop to move
forward and build a supermarket. His position is that we should trust
Stop and Shop and that he is somehow assured of Stop and Shop's good
intentions from private meetings he has attended with Stop and Shop.
Excuse me Ramesh, but Stop and Shop has absolutely no intention on
building a supermarket in Norfolk. They want to restrict local
competition so they can keep their prices higher than would otherwise be
the case at their four stores in Franklin, Wrentham, Foxboro and
Walpole, all within 5 miles on Norfolk. Why would they build a fifth
store just to cannibalize their existing business? Dutch Ahold, Stop &
Shop's parent, has a poor corporate track record regarding business
ethics and is not to be trusted. Unlike Advani's do-nothing plan, Mike
Kulesza has outlined a smart and aggressive plan as follows
1) First Flush out Stop's and Shop's intentions by setting a
deadline (based on new time-based permits) for completing construction of
the supermarket
2) If Stop and Shop contests the new permitting process, then
engage the Attorney General of Massachusetts to pursue an investigation
and;
3) Simultaneously form a Community Development Corporation
for the purpose of seizing the land by eminent domain.
Ramesh Advani in his letter in the Norfolk Boomerang suggests that he
can't discuss in public the strategies that the Town is carrying out
toward Stop and Shop because this will compromise the Town's ability to
get the best possible solution. Mr. Advani states the town has had
"private meetings" and these things have moved along. Excuse me Ramesh,
but you are not a C.E.O. running a private corporation. You have an
obligation has a publicly elected official to fully disclose what you
are doing in private meetings with Stop and Shop to get them to move
forward build our much needed supermarket. I don't know how you can say
things are moving along when nothing has happened on this site for
years.
Ramesh further states "it would be extremely irresponsible for me to
suggest that land banking activity is going on. I have not been able to
confirm any of the information that Mr. Kulesza has provided." I ask
Ramesh to explain why Stop and Shop is proposing to build the
supermarket only after the other retail tenants are signed up and that
the supermarket is only going to be 50,000 square feet. This plan is
contrary to how every other retail development is built. The large
anchor tenant (supermarket) builds first and then the supporting cast of
retail tenants follow. Also, Stop and Shop only builds large superstores,
not small 50,000 square foot buildings. I would ask Ramesh to carefully
read this report regarding Ahold's anti-competitive corporate behavior.
(UConn PDF). This
report states
"Ahold/Stop & Shop's latest attempt to erect barriers to entry in the northeast United States involves its acquisition of shopping centers and other sites suitable for supermarkets not for the purpose of operating a supermarket, but so that a competing supermarket cannot operate on the site. For example, as noted above, Starwood Ceruzzi acquired a Big V store in Poughkeepsie, New York across the street from a Stop & Shop, and rather than lease the store to a Stop & Shop competitor, the site has remained without a tenant for over one year, In fact, I understand from Wakefern that Stop & Shop has acquired no fewer than ten shopping centers in the northeast, and that only one of these centers has a supermarket tenant. Moreover, Starwood Ceruzzi, which in the past has developed supermarkets for Stop & Shop and acquired supermarkets and then sold these stores to Stop & Shop, has purchased fourteen shopping centers. Not one of these fourteen centers has a supermarket tenant. This anti-competitive "land-banking" strategy is consistent with the conduct of Ahold/Stop & Shop described above-to erect and maintain barriers to entry and thereby acquire and maintain a dominant position in the regions where ShopRite competes. The impact of this conduct on reducing competition cannot be understated: as recognized by Thomas Infusino, Wakefern's Chairman, when he testified at trial as to entry barriers (Big V Supermarkets, Inc. v. Wakefern Food Corp.): ..."