[Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect

[Pat Kraut]

K-Mart was in trouble corporately and has had trouble changing with the competition nationally and very badly managed locally so it doesn't count. The same could be said for some of the other businesses listed. The Ernst corp was in bankruptcy and couldn't make the local store payment had nothing to do with Wal-Mart. Creighton's has been heading down the road for some time because of the high prices and too many people who can buy at that price go to the bigger cities because of selection and price. At the Palouse Empire Mall it is mostly teeny bopper clothes so most people I know go somewhere, anywhere else to get clothes. Some of the businesses you listed just had trouble with the management at the Mall Moscow had little to do with their leaving. 
Some things I know Wal-Mart cannot do for me are special order anything. I get the movies I want at Hastings and the books I want at Bookpeople...they will special order so they get some of my business. I know someone who likes Fiesta Ware and I get that at Tri-State because it is local and Macy's is not. But, at my income level I shop mostly at Winco and Wal-mart can't be helped at this point in my life. I am most assuredly not the only person I know in this city with the need to shop there. I really would recommend the book 'Who Moved My Cheese' to many on this site. Its a book about change and being able to work with it not get blocked into a wall of the same old stuff and loosing your business or city. 



----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:27 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect


  Jeff Harkins, in his list of businesses that have opened in Moscow since the arrival of Wal-Mart, makes the most common of logical errors, i.e., post hoc, ergo propter hoc, meaning because of ABC, XYZ happened. I'll give you another example of this logical fallacy: all of the businesses that Jeff cites have opened since Melynda and I moved to Moscow. Therefore, lesbians are good for business! If it weren't for sodomy, you straight folk wouldn't now be shopping at Winco, Staples, or the fabulous expanded Tri-State. Just for the record, Tri-State is *the* store of choice for lesbian fashionistas! That's where we all get of our guns, knives, and prom attire. 

  Here's a question: what Moscow businesses have closed since the existing Wal-Mart opened? K-Mart. Tidyman's. Ken's Stationery. The Beanery. Creighton's. The Main Street Deli. The Nobby. The Spudnik. Myklebust's. Karen's Ice Cream. The Army Navy Store. The Emporium. The JC Penney's. Ernst Hardware. The Chevron on the corner of Third and Jackson. Is Wal-Mart to blame for all or any of these? I don't know. And who -- apart from Jeff Harkins -- is willing to make a post hoc, ergo propter hoc argument regarding these closures? 

  I'd be willing to argue that Ernst is a direct casualty of Wal-Mart, but I'd use another rationale for my analysis: proximity. The study I forwarded to the list earlier suggests that proximity to a Wal-Mart has a direct effect in terms of both benefit and detriment. Restaurants near Wal-Marts often see an increase in business; hardware stores, on the other hand, go tits up.

  Jeff asserts that hard data should win this argument. Well, there's an old saying among accountants: figures lie, and liars figure. We don't need a Wal-Mart Supercenter period, but we sure as hell don't need one across from the Moscow Cemetery. What a disgusting, tacky, trashy prospect. 

  Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
  www.joanopyr.com



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