[Vision2020] One more WalMart thing . . .

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

Jeff Harkins and Gary Crabtree asked a few days ago for examples of good businesses driven
out 
by bad.  Joe Campbell attempted to supply them with just such an example in the demise of 
KayBee Toys.  The problem here, however, is not with Joe's answer but with Harkins' and 
Crabtree's question, which is a classic example of petititio elenchi, i.e., begging the
question.  

The underlying assumption in Harkins/Crabtree's reasoning is that the "good" or "superior"

business is always the one that survives.  But that reasoning depends on how you define 
superior.  KayBee Toys, which offered a demonstrably superior selection of goods than
WalMart, 
went out of business.  Is WalMart therefore the better store?  Define better.  WalMart
offers five 
aisles of cheap, plastic, Chinese-made toys, none of which I'd care to purchase.  Like
Joe, I prefer 
to buy my kids' toys at Hodgins Drugs.  Why?  Quality and selection.  It's also possible
at Hodgins 
to buy the occasional union-made toy.  Flip the toy and read the box.  If it's made in a
country 
noted for its poor labor practices, tell your kids, "Sorry, but I suspect that someone
your age 
manufactured this doll in an overseas sweatshop."  Move on to the next item.  

(There, Dale -- more evidence for your blog that I'm a communist.)

In Harkins/Crabtree's view, it would seem that cheaper is always better.  Perhaps
convenience 
also plays some role (KayBee Toys didn't sell toothpaste or underwear) but weren't we also

talking about expansion of choice?  How does WalMart (or a WalMart Supercenter) represent
a 
genuine expansion of choice?  What WalMart offers is an inferior selection of toys, most
of poor 
quality, but it offers them at cheap prices and conveniently locates them between the
furnace 
filters and the dog food.  My expanded choice seems to be mere convenience and the chance
to 
buy something crappy and disposable for my kids.  It's the bargain that isn't a bargain --
it's 
penny-wise and pound-foolish.

We have a WalMart already.  We need WalMart Supercenters in both Moscow and Pullman why?  
Because Winco, Rosauers, Safeway, the Co-Op, Dissmore's, the Pullman Safeway, Tri-State, 
Hodgins, Les Schwab, Bruneel, Sears, Deranleau's, Bookpeople, Hastings, Gottschalk's, the
Bon, 
Ross Dress for Less, RiteAid, JoAnn's, HyperSpud, Paradise Creek Bicycles, Paradise Ridge 
Records, Goodwill, Shopko, the Internet, and Moscow's existing WalMart aren't offering us 
enough choice?  Or because they're not offering us enough cheap crap?
 
Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com


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