Environmentalist criticises damage of oversized stores

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Mega-retailers such as The Warehouse are devastating local communities and the Resource Management Act is of little help, says the former manager of the Tindall Foundation.

Warren Snow helped to establish the foundation for Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall in 1995 and managed it until leaving, disillusioned, in 2000.

The Aucklander now runs an environmental planning group, Envision NZ, which works with communities on sustainable development strategies.

Addressing the Green Party annual conference at Lake Karapiro yesterday, he criticised big business and big retail chains for their impact on suburbs and small towns.

While chain stores had their place, he said, they were getting so large they were dwarfing existing retailers and reducing consumer choice.

Communities should be determining the mix of retailing, he said. But the RMA was proving of little use in the fight against mega-developments.

He cited the example of The Warehouse's plan for a store in South Dunedin. The city council declined it on the grounds that it was just too big, but the decision was overturned on appeal.

The Warehouse told the Business Herald this year that the appeal delayed the project so much it cost $35 million in lost turnover.

Mr Snow said he personally liked Mr Tindall, but big developments built by firms such as his had seen many local main street shops close and shopping patterns change.

Small towns had been left with second-rate and struggling retailers while people drove to the outskirts to big retail centres.

Mr Snow doubted arguments that big chains employed many local people. He said local retailers had been shown to have triple the economic impact of big chains, which sucked off the community and gave nothing back.

"When you reduce shopping to the absolute lowest price you're stripping the glue from local transactions."

He said while bodies like the Business Council for Sustainable Development, which Mr Tindall chairs, were seen to be promoting environmental issues, big business was fundamentally unsustainable.

The council promotes company reporting on social, environmental and financial measures in a concept called "triple bottom line". But Mr Snow doubted its value.