[Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect

Thu Nov 17 14:41:08 PST 2005

I beleive if you check it out that you will find that the reason Ernst left was because the corp offices did not make a payment to the bankrupcy court it keep it here. Yes, it was successful and I miss it still but I do not think Wal-Mart had anything to do with it. I have friends working at Wal-Mart that are very happy with their jobs both here and in Spokane. Are there problems?...with that many employees they couldn't help but have them. But, there are complainers and real problems and I have to wonder how much is because they read some poorly written article and decided to be unhappy. (I have worked with someone who did just that!) I don't think any of this is going to help us keep a bigger Wal-Mart out of Moscow. If we don't work with them they can just build out on the highway and Whitman county will get all the taxes. Surely there is a way for us to make this work without all the roadblocks. They are in business to make money and work hard at it and are doing it very well and it is a capitalist system we work under. I don't believe Costco is nearly as big as Wal-Mart so they wouldn't have all the problems. 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 11:17 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect

  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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