[Spam] Re: [Vision2020] Shopping Center Plans Filed forPullman-Moscow Highway Site

[Donovan Arnold]

Jeff,
  
 Very good points no doubt.  Something else to consider as well; is it possible that the current  Wal-mart already does the volume in sales to support two Wal-Marts and  that is why they want to expand?
  
 That parking lot has many  cars. The aisles are crowded and the checkers very busy. It seems like  the stock boys cannot keep up with items leaving the shelves. Could  they see the operation of two super centers as still being profitable  even if the income remains the same? Might the current store be  operating at levels beyond its capacity to kept up? Based on my  observations, the answer may very well be yes.
  
 The creation  of two stores might be worth the trouble for the two basic reasons of  taxes and operations alone, much less the reasons of increased revenue.  I also do agree that a SUPERCENTER will increase traffic to the area  from surrounding areas, and even Lewiston, which only has a regular  Wal-mart and not a Supercenter. 
  
 Another point which you  touched on briefly, but I think should have been more greatly attended  to, was the idea of a global economy. We cannot protect local  businesses from a global economy on the Internet. And that the profits  of Wal-Mart go to PERSI. While Wal-Mart does take money out the  community, it also brings money and wealth into the community. 
  
  Take Care,
  
  _DJA
  
   
  
  
  
  
  

  
Jeff Harkins <jeffh at moscow.com> wrote:      Quite the contrary Andreas - 

  Whitman County has moved considerably ahead of Latah County in economic  terms - driven primarily by the higher levels of funding at WSU versus  UI and the growth of Schweitzer Engineering.  And, their ag sector  is larger than ours. This provides a catalyst for Walmart to view  Whitman as a separate market.  It would seem reasonable to me that  Walmart expects the Pullman store to draw business from Colfax,  Palouse, Uniontown, Albion and Johnson.  That would appear to be a  sufficient population base to support a supercenter in Pullman.

  In Latah, the Walmart Store draws from Moscow, Genessee, Potlatch,  Troy, Elk River, Bovill, Deary, Harvard and Princeton - a slightly  lower population base - and at the current time, from Pullman.   Could Moscow support its own Supercenter without Pullman  shoppers?  Seemingly yes, but that is the real question.   Walmart seems positioned to take the gamble that the two stores would  make it.  At the same time, the economic consequences to Pullman  having a store and Moscow not are also very real.  

 I  find it odd that in the convenient analysis of our local market - no  one seems to question the viability or appropriateness of having two  building centers owned by the same folks 9 miles apart.  But  Moscow Building Supply and Pullman Building Supply both seem to do well  - and the Moscow store has to compete with JJ Building Supply and  Spence Hardware.

 The fundamental issue for me is not on the  retail side - candidly, we have a very diverse consumer population here  on the Palouse and it requires a considerable range of product to  satiate their demands.  Who would have ever thought 5 years ago  that Moscow could support  more than one Espresso Stand?

  No - our real challenge is to provide for value-added export -  businesses and jobs that produce goods and services for sale to  customers outside of our economic zone.  If we can do that, we  will not only want more retail outlets, we will need them. Grow or die  - that is our choice.

  At 02:22 PM 1/9/2006, you  wrote:

    
   I  guess you would have to discuss the "two stores model"  with  Walmart corporate strategists to know why they think two stores is the  best way for them to proceed.  But it does seem rather clear that  they have identified two markets.  And there are significant  differences in the two markets (Moscow vs Pullman).  Pullman does  appear to have awakened to the realities of the need for growth and  economic development to support their infrastructure and planned  infrastructure.  

  
 You can't possibly  plead ignorance about the purpose of the two Wal-Mart SuperCenters,  Jeff. There's almost certainly an insufficient market for two  SuperCenters in the Moscow-Pullman area; comparable populations are  sufficiently served by one. This is a long-term investment. WalMart can  afford to eat losses from one or both stores -- losses insufficient to  trigger an antitrust suit -- for basically eternity. Local businesses  that compete with WalMart cannot. 

 What we are talking about  is not the healthy competition of a well-regulated market, and you know  this. This is attrition. As soon as local retail (and whatever national  competitors aren't able to keep up with WalMart's spend rate) is  entirely choked out, they can feel free to close one of the two  WalMarts -- but before they do, they can entice Moscow and Pullman into  a bidding war to keep this albatross hung around our neck. 

  -- ACS_____________________________________________________
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