[Vision2020] Winco Vs. Super Walmart

[Andreas Schou]

On 4/22/07, Jason Hoetger <jason_in_china at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> Mark,
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> If everything will remain "status quo", if dollars just get shifted about to
> the more efficient retailer, why not allow a Super Walmart in? I guess I'm
> failing to understand where all the controversy is: if your speculation is
> true and Winco goes out of business, essentially nothing would change—not
> even water use, which might conceivably go down, since we would be minus
> both Winco and regular Walmart. So why is the Moscow Supercenter
> controversial at all?

Jason --

That "efficiency" has only the most abstract benefits to the
community. It benefits, in approximately this order: (a) The WalMart
Board of Directors, (b) WalMart shareholders, (c) Bentonville,
Arkansas, and (d) the People's Republic of China. Lower prices are
only a distant fifth. In fact, WalMart's own studies indicate -- even
given lower prices -- that the establishment of a local SuperCenter
has a small net negative effect on the local economies.

At the moment, Muscovites benefit from certain local market
inefficiencies. High wages benefit service workers. Local
administration and management recirculates those higher salaries into
the local economy. Balanced bargaining power between suppliers and
retailers benefits local manufacturers and prevents the monopsonic
profit-siphon that creates WalMart's profit margin.

What motive *would* Moscow have to invite in WalMart?

-- ACS