[Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect

[Joan Opyr]

On 16 Nov 2005, at 22:12, Pat Kraut wrote:

> 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.
>   


Actually, Pat is mistaken about our local Ernst.  The national 
corporation was in trouble, true, but Moscow's Ernst was turning a 
profit.  I recall talking to a friend who worked there in management at 
the time the place was in the process of liquidating its stock; they 
were doing quite well before Wal-Mart arrived on the scene.

I want to be clear that I do *not* criticize people for shopping at 
Wal-Mart.  Hell, I buy toilet paper there.  Why?  Because Scott Tissue 
is dirt cheap at Wal-Mart; Scott Tissue is not a repeat-use product; 
and I'm not a millionaire.  I can't afford to flush money down the 
toilet.  But I hate Wal-Mart.  I hate the way they treat their 
employees.  I hate that they import 80% of their goods from China.  I 
hate that much of what is sold there is shoddy, awful, plastic crap.  
But I'm not the shopping police.  There are some things I don't/won't 
buy at Wal-Mart, but then I'm lucky enough not to have to shop there.  
I recognize that this is a socio-economic privilege.  I don't have to 
buy anything at Wal-Mart that I want to last longer than a one-way trip 
through my septic system.  Good thing, too, because stuff from Wal-Mart 
isn't built to last.  I don't shop at Wal-Mart for clothes, shoes, 
appliances, or tools.  Why?  Because in my experience, you're lucky if 
a Wal-Mart shirt lasts through the first washing.  I buy most of my 
clothes from the Goodwill.  Not because I have to but because I want 
to.  I'm a cheap ass; let someone else take the "new" off those jeans 
and 95% off the original department store price.

The reason I don't want a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this town is that 1) 
I believe it will drive a whole heap of local retail stores out of 
business; 2) there will be a net increase in unemployment that will not 
be offset by Wal-Mart's hiring; 3) siting a Supercenter across from the 
cemetery is a rotten idea; and 4) Moscow needs good jobs with good 
benefits, not shitty jobs with zero benefits.

On a completely unrelated note, I absolutely despise the book, "Who 
Moved My Cheese?"  The premise of this book is that the average worker 
is basically worth about the same as an old bit of rubbery Velveeta.  
Why care about your job?  In the new economy, your job -- and you -- 
are disposable.  "Who Moved My Cheese?" advises you to just get used to 
this; that's the way it is, and you can't do anything about it.  Why 
fight the system?  Well, I say you should fight the system because it 
stinks.  Costco doesn't treat its employees as disposable objects, and, 
somehow, Costco still manages to make a profit.  Costco also enjoys 
high employee productivity and low employee turnover.

FYI, there's an amusing parody out there called "Who Stole My Cheese?"  
I bought a copy at The Strand in New York  (ah, The Strand -- 18 miles 
of bookstore shelves) but unfortunately, I left it somewhere in Kings 
Cross Station while in the midst of a gallbladder attack.  Damn 
gallbladder!  Out, out, I say!

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

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