WINONA – The City of Winona was awarded a $15,000 grant for economic development from the Walmart Corporation this week.
Tice White, director of public affairs for Walmart in Mississippi, traveled Monday to Winona from Jackson to hand-deliver a check to Mayor Jerry Flowers and Sue Stidham, Winona Main Street director.
According to Flowers, shortly after the Winona Walmart was closed by the corporate office, he read about a town on the east coast receiving a sizable grant from Walmart Corporation for economic development following its Walmart store being closed.
“I called [Tice White] and asked where [our grant] was,” Flower said.
The closing of the Winona Walmart store at the end of January was met by outrage and disbelief from Montgomery County residents. Many citizens blamed local elected officials for the closure, but White said the decision to close Walmart came from the corporate office due to changes in business trends.
“This was a decision that was made by Walmart to follow consumer trends,” White said. “The city, county, and economic development office did everything they could to keep us here, but we are trying to right size our portfolio and continue being aggressive in our online presence.”
White also said that in the past, Flowers had been trying to get Walmart “to move to the next level” in Winona to grow the store. However, White said there were never any plans to build a Walmart Supercenter in Winona.
“They were being proactive, but we are very deliberate of where we build stores now,” White said.
As consumers become more tech savvy, they are shopping online more and more.
“If you don’t change with the consumer, you will be out of business,” White said.
White said the current retail environment for Walmart and other large retailers is tough right now because many of these companies are moving away from brick and mortar businesses and growing their online business.
“We are trying to do what we can do to stay relevant,” White said.
White said of the 85 employees laid off by Walmart when the Winona store closed, 30 of those have found positions at the Grenada store.
Flowers said the loss of jobs for those 85 employees and sales tax revenue hurts the city the most. Flowers said sales tax revenue is down $20,000 since Walmart closed its doors.
