Anytime a company is as successful as WalMart has been, it will draw criticism. Just like Microsoft. I support both companies in this capitalist society.
There's an episode of South Park that basically shows the town rebelling against a large 'evil' department store obviously meant to represent WalMart type stores. Their goal is to defend the local dept store that is being driven out of business by a larger store with better prices and a wider offering of goods. They succeed in getting rid of the WalMart clone. The result is that the local dept store continues to grow and grow until it reaches the exact same mega-store level of the WalMart clone they so detested. So by driving out one 'evil', another one took it's place. It's a pretty funny episode.
Location: Ohio - Home of Grant, Sherman & Sheridan
Posts: 1,141
Well, they bullied their way into this town
The good people of the local county seat voted to keep WalMart out, as did the local zoning board - twice. But the corporation and the developers from Cincinnati had a whole a lot more money than this town and so now we have a WalMart.
The KMart that we already had is hanging on by its fingernails, and at least two locally owned stores have folded so far.
We don't give them any more business than we have to - only go there if KMart or another place doesn't have what we need. They are bullies, they don't pay squat and just keep feeding the trade deficit. - Roberta
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"Anglers are born honest,
but they get over it." - Ed Zern
I’ve followed several different fights to keep Wal-Mart or other big stores out of a community, but when all said and done everyone of them build and open the store. Then the community comes in and buys what they are selling, the vote that really counts, for one reason or another.
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may your livewells stay full, and your rods stay bent.
They can't move in unless the local goverment allows it. Then again, the local gov can't ban them on principal alone either. You can get into all kinds of fun zoning games like they did here. Most politicians don't mind the increased tax revenue, and neither do the citizens, even though they probably don't realize that new park or widened road might have been paid for with tax from the WalMart.
There have been several of these anti-Walmart rallies here. In the end, when the doors opened, the folks that protested the loudest were the ones lining up to take advantage of wider selection of goods at lower prices. It's the height of capitalism. That's all. Sure, it sucks for the little guy, but think, it probably sucked for Sam Walton if one of his little stores got run under when big ole K-Mart came to town back in the day.
Now, imminent domain, that's a whole other ball of poo.
Location: Ohio - Home of Grant, Sherman & Sheridan
Posts: 1,141
Wrong!
>>They can't move in unless the local goverment allows it. <<
When the corporate monster goes after small towns like ours, they beat them down with lawsuits and lawyers. Our county seat ran out of money to fight back. The reason they didn't want them here in the first place was loss of farmland, loss of local businesses and increased traffic.
BTW, why are you so fond of WalMart? Work for corporate? I wonder how many guys on this forum would be willing to work for minimum wage and no benefits. - Roberta
__________________
"Anglers are born honest,
but they get over it." - Ed Zern
I live in a small town myself but in that town within 15 minutes of each other we have a Wal-Mart, K-Mart and a Target store. Funny thing is Wal-Mart is the one that always gets attacked but the last time I was in K-Mart and Target and even Belk's for that matter the things I bought all came from China. I say if Wal-mart is guilty then the rest are too. Wal-Mart and K-mart still allow the Salvation Army to Ring The Bell at Christmas but not at Target. I think we can look and find some things wrong with each of these but as long as we, the consumer, buy the things made in China and other places other than the USA we only have ourselves to blame. I don't work for Wal-mart or K-mart, I work for a large tire company that sells every major brand of tire made and very few are made in the USA anymore. I think Wal-Mart is just an easy target for everyone because there are so many of them and it seems to be the popular thing to do. Where I live there used to be a lot of furniture manufactures and textile mills, guess what? They have moved their production offshore and closed most of the plants around here. A new Wal-Mart is opening up close to us and they are going to provide over 300 full time jobs to an economy that desperately needs them.(A little irony here?) Let me be the first to say that I don't have the answer, but I think it is goes a lot deeper than just Wal-Mart.
Then the leaders and judges in your community failed you. They CAN stop anything they want to IF they want to. Thank them for it at the next election. The problem is, most politicians aren't going to turn down millions in tax revenue, regardless of what line they feed their constituents.
No, I don't work for WalMart and I don't work in the retail industry. I just try to point out that they haven't done anything wrong, they are simply using this capitalist system the way it's designed. Should Lowe's, Home Depot, Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Food Lion, Sears, etc also be considered 'evil'? After all, they probably drove some small mom and pop operation out of business at some point.
I choose not to work for minimum wage and no benefits. Others can certainly do the same. These large stores do typically bring in a good number of entry level jobs. Sure, some of the jobs are minimum wage or close to it, but it's a job for people that might not have one otherwise. Even better, without that job, the unemployed might be on government assistance, which comes out of our wallets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roberta
When the corporate monster goes after small towns like ours, they beat them down with lawsuits and lawyers. Our county seat ran out of money to fight back. The reason they didn't want them here in the first place was loss of farmland, loss of local businesses and increased traffic.
BTW, why are you so fond of WalMart? Work for corporate? I wonder how many guys on this forum would be willing to work for minimum wage and no benefits. - Roberta
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