[Vision2020] Wal-Mart

[Reynolds, James]

I believe it is you who misses the point fair lady. Of course you had job oportunity galore back at NC State. The students don't here. There are not enough part-time jobs here for students.
 
I believe that both Les Schwab and Bruneel would do better than Wally world in the tire business. The socks were a symbol for common items that can be purchsed anywhere. I would just as soon pay as little as possible for such items and that is what competition gives me....low prices. You seem to want Moscow protected from competition. How is that going to help anyone living paycheck to paycheck?
 
The reason so many of our manufactoring jobs have left the Country is because Billy and then W set up very poor trade agreements that left us disadvantaged. It has nothing to do with Wal-mart coming to town or not.
 
Another selling point for Wal-mart is that you can get most of these common items at one stop. I personally like the idea of not having to drive around looking for things. My time is very valuable to me that is why I am chatting with you. I need to convince you that Wally-World is good so I don't have to shop as much and I could get my items as cheaply as possible. It will still be my neighbors and friends working there.

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From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com on behalf of Joan Opyr
Sent: Mon 12/5/2005 4:02 PM
To: Vision2020 Moscow
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wal-Mart


I'd respond to your entire email, James, citing facts and figures and economic impact studies, but to be honest, I'm stuck on just the one line: 

"If someone wants to believe that Moscow has a small-town atmosphere that is fine but really it is only small because it is not large." 

I am five foot six only because I am not six foot nine. 
I eat food only because I don't eat cardboard. 
I have a border collie only because I don't have a pony. 
I love Steve McQueen only because . . . well, just because. 

I managed to work my way through NC State University from 1984 until 1991 -- through first a BA and then an MA -- without having to work for Wal-Mart. Perhaps I was just lucky. I had friends who worked for Wal-Mart, but I worked at a gas station, at Raleigh's local newspaper, as an English tutor, driving a School Book Fairs truck and trailer, cleaning carpets, teaching, and technical writing. Many of these jobs I worked simultaneously. Not easy, but then, I didn't mind. I would have shoveled pig manure in order to get my degrees; school was important to me. In fact, I did shovel pig manure, but I didn't get paid; it was to help out my Uncle Rich, who ran a pig farm. A smelly business, but he loved it, God rest his soul. 

(Oh, and did I mention that I know how to plumb? Not so hard, really -- the three essential principles of plumbing are hot on the left, cold on the right, and shit flows downhill.) 

No, Moscow must not stagnate. Neither, however, should we sell ourselves short. Study after study after study (studies not paid for by Wal-Mart or its subsidiaries) have shown that the net economic effect of a Wal-Mart is negative. Wal-Mart doesn't bring money into a community; it sucks it out. I don't think this is comparable to the decline in logging, the ongoing disappearance of the small family farm, or the slow, painful death of extractive industry. We cannot "aw, shucks" our way through this one. We as a nation are going to Wal-Mart our way into Third World status. The question is does Moscow -- one little town that is not big -- want to go down without a fight? 

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment 
www.joanopyr.com 

PS: I see that Ford Motor Company is following GM's lead. Today, they announced a massive series of factory closures. Good-bye, manufacturing jobs; hello low-wage, low-benefit service industry work. But for how long? I have yet to speak to a customer call center in the past 18 months that was located inside the United States. I find this frustrating, annoying, and sad. Most of us are only one decent, benefits-paying job away from living a second-class life. If you have health care, picture yourself without it. If you've got retirement benefits, kiss those good-bye. Now, take your living wage job and imagine that you work 40 hours per week at minimum wage. Where can you afford to live in Moscow? Can you pay your rent? Your mortgage? Your car payment? Your gas, heat, electric and phone? It takes only one Boeing lay-off to knock and upwardly mobile engineer on his ass. Or, to bring this closer to home, a few more cuts at the University of Idaho . . . 

PPS: I don't know of any business in Moscow that just sells socks. I do know of several optometrists, though. What effect would a Wal-Mart Supercenter with an optometry office within have on all of these particular small businesses? What effect would a Wal-Mart Tire Center have on Bruneel and Les Schwab? How would Wal-Mart oil changes compete with the locally-owned Jiffy Lube franchise? Think, for God's sake! Think! 

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