[Vision2020] Palouse Monopoly Empire Mall; Gas/Food prices
debismith at moscow.com
debismith at moscow.com
Sun Apr 22 17:20:11 PDT 2007
Gosh, I'm in awe of Donovan! He has experience in every kind of work environment from
activism to zero employment, with stops at nursing, legal mavin, political comentator, and
college student....is there any job he hasn't performed? How old is this guy? 95?
Debi R-S
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "'Donovan Arnold'" <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>,
"'Paul Rumelhart'" <godshatter at yahoo.com>,
<vision2020 at moscow.com>
Date sent: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:16:11 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Palouse Monopoly Empire Mall; Gas/Food prices
>From
>http://www.inventorymanagementreview.org/2006/04/walmart_increas.html
"Most notably, Wal-Mart's JIT efforts are leaving their suppliers with
more inventory. If you think about this, it makes a lot of sense.
Wal-Mart does not want to hold inventory."
Wal-Mart does not maintain inventory, Its suppliers do.
Question, Arnold: Just where is this giant Wal-Mart warehouse located
to which you delivered goods?
Enough said.
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The
college students are not very active in local elections (thank
goodness!)."
- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
_____
From: Donovan Arnold [mailto:donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:09 PM
To: Tom Hansen; 'Paul Rumelhart'; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Palouse Monopoly Empire Mall; Gas/Food
prices
Tom,
Actually, having delivered goods to a giant Wal-Mart warehouse, I
believe I am a little better aware of their distribution system than
you are.
Wal-Mart contracts outside transportation companies, like Swift, JB
Hunt, Gordon, etc, to pick up and deliver goods to their major
distribution centers in places like Hermiston, OR or Salt Lake City,
UT. Once they get to the distribution centers Wal-Mart owned trucks,
governed at the speed limit of 65 MPH, with drivers making about
10-20% more than the average truck driver, pick up the merchandise and
deliver it to the individual stores.
Wal Mart has much more control over its transportation and
distribution system than most other companies. They can warehouse and
change routes and deliveries. They in fact do not rush their
merchandise, they know well in advance what they need and when they
need it. A Wal Mart truck is never in a hurry. In fact, they are
probably the second slowest truck on the road, behind Swift.
The markets that are most injured by rising gas prices are shippers
like Fed Ex that burn lots of fuel driving quickly. Also reefer vans,
that haul perishable items like groceries will be hurt. Food items
have a limited time frame and cannot change delivery times or routes
to make up for the increase in gas prices.
The JIT you are referring to is in reference to local trucks because
they don't waste space at stores for storage and maximize selling
space, so that Mark Solomon can have grease pens or Saundra Lund can
find that specialty item she complains about not finding. If Wal-Mart
stored stuff behind the counter, could you imagine how big the stores
would have to be?
Best,
Donovan
Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
Wal-Mart uses the "Just In Time" (JIT) inventory system. This system
eliminates warehousing of inventory. JIT requires extensive
coordination between Wal-Mart and its suppliers. Suppliers must be
able to ship required amounts of merchandise to specific locations at
the time the products are required.
Wal-Mart's "inventory" is either on the shelves in the store or on the
road in transit. As such, any increase in gasoline prices drastically
effects costs to Wal-Mart.
Guess who ultimately pays the difference in increased gas prices? It
ain't Wal-Mart.
Arnold goes on to state:
"With no other discount grocery stores in the area, like say a Super
Wal-Mart, Winco can raise its prices with no consequences, everybody
has to eat."
Since WinCo is, as Arnold suggests, a "discount" grocery store,
wouldn't it lose its "discount" status if it were to raise its prices
to (or above) those of Rosauers or Safeway?
Or is Arnold suggesting that Winco undercuts their competition
(Rosauers and Safeway) that they (WinCo) can charge whatever price
they want? HUH?!?!?
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The
college students are not very active in local elections (thank
goodness!)."
- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
_____
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 2:21 PM To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Palouse Monopoly Empire Mall; Gas/Food
prices
I could have sworn I bought food at a massive chain store the other
day in the other mall. Anyway, I don't think the Winco retail chain
is being overly hurt by UI and WSU student population declines. Maybe
this branch, but I'd like to see some figures first. I'm also
wondering if large supermarket chains, such as Winco, aren't just
raising prices all over in an attempt to cover losses in other places.
Anyway, there are alternatives to Winco. There must be, because I
rarely shop there (except to buy the occasional Pocky sticks) and I
need food to survive just like everybody else. I'd be interested to
find out if local stores, such as the Co-op, are having to raise their
prices more than the big-name stores. Presumably, this same rise in
prices due to gas prices will affect everything that is shipped by
truck - not just food. Walmart is basically built on the idea of
massive transportation of goods quickly. I'd imagine that the rise in
gas prices will affect it more than most stores.
As for the honey bee problem, I'm hoping that it will work itself out
the natural way. The 40% of bees that are left will breed resistance
to whatever it is that is killing them off, and the survivors will
flourish because there is now so little competition for them
individually.
Also, the Palouse Mall does not have a monopoly. There is nothing
that they are doing that would stop another developer from building
their own mall. If you want to protest the high prices they charge for
rental space, don't shop there. You'll find there are a number of
alternatives out there.
Paul
Donovan Arnold wrote:
Food prices are only going to go up even more for several reasons;
1) The massive extinction of honey bees has created a void in
pollination of 1/3 of the US food supply. 60% of honey bees have died,
with no cure or solution in the near future.
2) Increases in fuel prices increase the shipping costs of food.
3) Many crops were wiped out this year due in the freakish winter
storms. For example, oranges had a massive freeze.
4) The UI and WSU student populations have decreased, the main income
for Winco. With a reduced volume in sales, Winco has to raise prices
to cover losses in volume sales.
5) No competition. With no other discount grocery stores in the area,
like say a Super Wal-Mart, Winco can raise its prices with no
consequences, everybody has to eat.
6) The owners of the Palouse Empire Mall are raising their rents.
I think it is obvious, Moscow needs competition in the area to curve
rising prices. It also needs to do some sting operations on gas price
fixing which obviously is going on.
Maybe, many of you guys should call Pat Vaughn and ask him to reassess
the property value of the Palouse Empire Mall, which is monopoly.
Perhaps if the mall can make such huge increases in their leases, the
value of the only active retail mall on the Palouse is much higher
than what the County Assessor has it listed as.
If I had the time, and a personal interest at stake, like so many of
you do, I would contest the taxable value of the Palouse Empire Mall.
It is clear that it has a really high value since it is able to charge
so much for its lease spaces and has no real competition. Moscow is
probably losing $100,000s in tax revenue that could go to things like
finding a new space for the public bus to park on the west side of
town, and to give property tax breaks to locally owned businesses that
are having a hard time due to the fact no mall will let them conduct
business on their property. Just a thought to those litigious and want
what's best and for our community.
Best,
Donovan
Ellen Roskovich <mailto:gussie443 at hotmail.com>
<gussie443 at hotmail.com> wrote:
As the cost of gas continues to climb at the pumps, the price of food
starts to rise at the grocery stores. Has anyone else noticed this
recently?
Ellen Roskovich
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=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net <http://www.fsr.net/>
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================
=======================================================
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
http://www.fsr.net
mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================
_____
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=48245/*http:/autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
;_ylc=
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