[Vision2020] Wal-Mart cause and effect

[Joan Opyr]

Saundra wrote (in response to Jeff who was responding to me:

> Finally, Jeff wrote:
> "The myopic (and selfish) view she is trying to argue is that because 
> she
> doesn't want to shop at the store in Moscow, everyone else should be 
> denied
> the opportunity to shop there - the old "greatest good for the fewest
> number" shuffle.  This is very much like the old "less is more" 
> argument -
> in this case, less choice for you and more cost for you."
>
> Jeff, I think the same argument can hold the other direction as well.  
> If
> Wal-Mart puts a Supercenter here, I am very worried that our choices 
> will be
> fewer.  My understanding is that grocery stores operate with a very 
> narrow
> profit margin.  We've already lost Tidyman's, and I fear that a 
> Supercenter
> will drive Safeway and/or Rosauers out of Moscow.
>
> To me, that looks like fewer choices.

Thanks, Saundra.  I hadn't seen this argument from Jeff Harkins until I 
read your message.  Why not?  Because Apple has this great feature.  
Instead of a "bozo" filter, you set up "rules."  At present, Rule #4 is 
"move all messages from Jeff Harkins directly into the trash folder."  
(Donovan is Rule #2; Dale Courtney is Rule #3.  I think I might switch 
Dale and Donovan, though, as Dale is definitely more Number Two -- a 
great heaping pile of it.)  Anyhow, why, you might ask, is Jeff Harkins 
Rule #4?  Because I find his arguments self-serving and disingenuous.  
They are akin to the study Andrew Crapuchettes presented to the Moscow 
Chamber of Commerce demonstrating the economic benefits of adding a 
Wal-Mart Supercenter to the local retail mix -- a study, it turns out, 
that was bought and paid for by none other than Wal-Mart itself.  Now 
talk about myopic and selfish . . .

Let's stop for a moment and ask ourselves who, exactly, stands to 
benefit from a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the eastern edge of town, across 
from the Moscow Cemetery?  Jeff might argue that it's the consumers, 
those poor benighted souls to whom I selfishly want to deny access to 
cheap plastic shit.  He argues this because I admit that I hate the 
Wal-Mart Corporation, but I don't think he can argue with any degree of 
sincerity that I am "She who must be obeyed."  If only.  I'm afraid my 
ambition is not nearly so great.  Rather than crowning myself Queen of 
Hog Heaven and declaring, "None may shop at Wal-Mart on penalty of 
death," I  would happily settle for a quiet cup of tea and the rather 
modest title, "She who makes a more compelling argument than Jeff 
Bloody Harkins."

As for my alleged myopia, I will freely admit to being naturally 
nearsighted.  Born that way; can't help it.  Luckily, Bill and Dianne 
French are around to keep me seeing the world (and passing my driving 
tests) with 20/20 corrected vision.  So, why not put on the bifocals 
yourself, Jeff, and have a squint at the small print?  We have a 
Wal-Mart in Moscow already.  Anyone may shop there.  I have been known 
to shop there.  What will the addition of a Wal-Mart Supercenter mean 
for this town?  It won't mean greater choice: it will mean more foreign 
junk and less local choice.  It will mean the loss of several small 
Moscow retail businesses.  It will mean increased traffic on Highway 8, 
on Palouse River Drive, and across the Latah Trail pedestrian/bicycle 
path.  It will mean a few crap jobs for a few Moscow residents.  Will 
it be more than the current Wal-Mart employs?  Will it be less?  Who 
knows?  I, myself, think that there will be a net job loss as those 
small retail operations with a few employees go under in the face of 
the Wal-Mart juggernaut, but perhaps I'm wrong; perhaps there will be a 
small net gain.  However, because Wal-Mart is notoriously stingy with 
both pay and benefits, we as a community will see an increase in demand 
on public services.  Gritman spent more than $11 million last year on 
un-reimbursed community health care.  The introduction of more 
no-benefit jobs will mean that Moscow will wind up with more residents 
whose only access to health care is the Emergency Room at the public 
hospital.

So, again, who will benefit?  I suspect that there will be flipping 
great wads of cash for a few local developers, and someone's going to 
profit from the sale or lease of the land; there are also those who 
stand to benefit from the demise of downtown retail.  Gee, I wonder who 
those folks might be?  Shall we start by asking the Executive Director 
of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce, the man who pronounced downtown 
retail "dead" a few months back?  I've been wondering for ages why he 
did that.  Let's stop wondering.  Let's ask Paul Kimmel what the 
Democrats asked George Bush: what did you know and when did you know 
it?  Just how did you make that diagnosis?  How did you know that 
significant retail would "never return to downtown" Moscow?  Was it the 
case that you looked into Moscow's beating heart and espied the shadow 
of a Wal-Mart Supercenter?  You sneaky devil, you!  You're better than 
an MRI!

I don't think fighting Wal-Mart is myopic, Jeff Harkins -- it's 
quixotic, maybe, but with the aid of a good pair of contact lenses, I 
can see this situation pretty clearly.  Saundra is correct: what we 
have here is less choice masquerading as more choice.  We have a bait 
and switch.  We are part and parcel of the Wal-Mart corporate plan to 
have a big box store located every ten miles.  If we sell our souls for 
a small profit now, we can piss and moan later when we find that it's 
shop at Wal-Mart or not shop at all.  When our diverse, 
retail-oriented, thriving downtown is nothing more than a memory, we 
can console ourselves with a Wal-Mart steak on a Wal-Mart plate, washed 
down with a plastic glass full of Reckless Wal-Mart Red, Vintage 2005.

Ah, 2005.  What a fine year that was for sour grapes . . .

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

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