[Vision2020] Costco Preferred Over Wal-Mart

[g. crabtree]

Why don't we all impose an enormous strain on our imaginations and presume 
that everything Mr. Reed presented in his letter is correct. I'll give you 
all a moment to bring that imposing struggle under control. Now the question 
that needs to be asked is so what? The fact of the matter is that Wal-Mart 
has expressed a desire to build in the area and Costco hasn't. Now lets say 
that Costco was interested in expanding into the Moscow/Pullman area and 
that they did indeed provide a workplace that was twice as wonderful as 
Wal-Mart. Since the management of WM can't round up employees at gun point 
it would seem that they would have to be competitive to attract warm bodies 
or, they would employ the lesser skilled members of the workforce that 
Costco rejected. Either way there would be greater employment opportunities 
in the area, not to mention increased economic vitality. How, exactly does 
that translate into a bad thing?

Perplexed,
gc
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Joan Opyr" <joanopyr at moscow.com>; "'Moscow Vision 2020'" 
<vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:23 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Costco Preferred Over Wal-Mart


> >From today's (August 29, 2006) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a special
> thanks to T.V. Reed of Pullman.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> Costco preferred over Wal-Mart
>
> Two of the handful of fanatical Wal-Mart advocates in town have recently
> written that Costco would never come to Pullman because our per capita
> income is lower than places like Clarkston where the store has located. 
> But
> anyone with basic economic understanding knows the per capita income for
> Pullman (and Moscow) is skewed downward by the presence of so many 
> students
> whose actual spending power, thanks to parents, is far beyond what income
> would indicate.
>
> The median income for folks 25 and over in Pullman is $50,416. That figure
> represents more than 9,000 people - more than the entire population of
> Clarkston with its per capita income of $29,100. There is no reason why
> Costco and many other stores won't find this area attractive. Attempts to
> convince us that only Wal-Mart would be interested in Pullman are 
> misleading
> and denigrate our considerable attractiveness as a community.
>
> What Costco has proven definitively is that Wal-Mart's elitist model of 
> low
> wages, meager, expensive benefits, and vicious anti-union activity is not
> necessary to big-box success. One local Wal-Mart booster traveled to
> Arkansas to get the "facts" about the corporation, and was apparently 
> wowed
> to talk to big boss Lee Scott himself who told him what a wonderful 
> company
> he runs.
>
> As any competent journalist or researcher for government, business or
> academia knows, you never take at face value the self-reporting of the
> research subject. Digging for the facts beneath Wal-Mart's claims and
> comparing them to rival Costco reveals a clear, objective contrast. Costco
> has twice as many employees enjoying health benefits, and the company pays
> for 90 percent of those benefits as opposed to 60 percent for Wal-Mart.
> Starting salaries at Costco average $3-$6 per hour higher than at 
> Wal-Mart.
> Not surprisingly, Wal-Mart has twice the employee turnover rate of Costco.
>
> These differences belie Wal-Mart's claims, and prove their elitist model,
> where wealth supposedly trickles down from the Waltons (five of America's 
> 10
> richest individuals), can be replaced by one where workers are paid fairly
> and let their money trickle up into the economy.
>
> T.V. Reed, Pullman
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of brain static rattling 
> around
> in your head, I'd read your blog."
>
> - Bill Maher
>
>
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