Despite its close proximity to downtown, East Austin is one of the underprivileged and under-developed areas in the City of Austin. Ethnic minorities and low-income persons in inner-city areas often lack access to big box retail due to these stores being disproportionately located outside of their neighborhoods. The aim of this study is to identify the current accessibility of big box retail for East Austin’s residents in order to confirm the potential impacts of big box retail growth on minority and lowincome populations. Using GIS-based network analysis, it is possible to measure whether the residents in East Austin have equal access to big box retail stores, as compare to other Austin areas. Although residents in East Austin have greater accessibility to other neighborhood-type retail like drug stores, small-format value stores, and supermarkets, they must travel farther to access community-type retail like home improvement stores,department stores, large-format value stores. Moreover, these populations have access to fewer cars, and must rely on public transit. Socio-economic characteristics of East Austin include a high percentage of individuals living below the poverty line, high disability rates, low to no vehicle ownership, and high percentages of female headed households. Finally, the study proposes new mixed-use, mixed-income development models as a way to improve retail access to minority and low-income population. / text

This study inquires as to whether Walmart’s sustainability campaign represents a sincere and holistic change throughout the company’s global supply chain or if it is simply a public relations campaign which caters to the growing target market of “next-generation” consumers and justifies further expansion into “emerging markets”. A critical analysis of Walmart’s sustainability discourse is presented, using transcribed texts of various corporate and publicitygeared publications. Frequently utilized terms and themes are identified throughout the big-box retailer’s sustainability campaign which convey a distinctly Neoliberal ethos—a political economy which lies at the heart of current practices of institutional unsustainability—and emphasize the role of the atomized individual—who may purchase protection from environmental risks via green products. Other themes, which are commonly associated with sustainability research, are glaringly absent: subsidiarity; human rights; steady-state economics; economic inequity; the precautionary principle. This research aims to shed light on the prospects for the sustainability of green overconsumption, which Walmart is leading the way in promoting, and for the continuation of the modern economistic zeitgeist into the twenty-first century.