When Is a Deal Not a Deal?

After due consideration but with little warning, Walmart decided to pull the plug on a deal to build two stores in Washington’s most needy areas in Anacostia.

Apparently, the two stores were merely smaller parts of a bigger pullback by Walmart, which plans to shut 269 stores worldwide, creating the loss of thousands of jobs.

But the announcement to not go ahead with its Anacostia plans at two sites — Capitol Gateway Marketplace and the mixed-used Skyland Town Center — shocked city officials, who thought they had a sure-thing handshake deal with Walmart, not to mention the residents who live in the areas where the stores would have come. They were left without the prospects of jobs — low-paying, but still — or the new stores in which to shop.

People complained. “I’m blood mad,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. We’re guessing that’s pretty mad. Councilman David Gross, quoted in the Huffington Post, said that “if you make a deal with Walmart, expect to get stung.”

Former Mayor Vincent Gray, whose hands were the ones that were shaken on the deal, said the city “got shafted” — but also criticized the current administration for not staying on top of things.

There was talk that Walmart did not like the prospect of paying the higher minimum wages in the city, and also that the three other D.C. Walmarts aren’t doing as well as they expected.

The deal, if it had come to fruition, could have made the residents east of the river feel a little more part of the positive changes afoot — more jobs, more buildings, renovations, townhouses, restaurants — which were all signs of the new prosperity in the city, but also resulted in consequences like rising real estate prices, deeper poverty among the poor and intractable homelessness.

City officials are left with empty hands again and probably a feeling of having thrown good money away, having already invested $90 million into the Skyland project.

What to do? It’s not clear if Walmart can be held accountable, either financially or any other way, or if other major retail stores are willing to make a move into the two prospective areas east of the river.

Maybe we could hire presidential prospect Donald Trump to give the city a quick little PowerPoint talk on the art of making a deal.

It’s probably a good bet that when you’re making a handshake deal to check and see if the other hand isn’t crossing its fingers.