Ya got trouble right here in our little town, with a capital T, that rhymes with P and that stands for, uh, P-Walmart!
That's right, our little itsy bitsy town is dealing with a huge controversy right now about whether or not to let Wal-mart build a megastore here. There's already been one public hearing, and since the meeting's venue wasn't large enough, they are holding another hearing at the end of this month. I might lose a few friends for posting this, but I'll be daring and say that I support the new Wal-mart. I don't love Wal-mart, but I do love low prices and convenience. Call me crazy.
Or should I say, call me a communist? Here are some of the actual comments posted on our local newspaper's website:
"Buy Walmart and you will support the future invasion of the United States. YOU ARE UNAMERICAN, DISLOYAL AND TREASONOUS!"
I don't get it. People will invade while we are busy shopping? Shopping causes invasions? Invaders will shop? Elaborate please.
"It's UnAmerican to knowingly buy products made in a communist country. Does [this town] support communism? If so, support WalMart."
Is it just me, or is mentioning communism in an argument quickly becoming the new Godwin's Law?
"Most people working for Walmart receive other assistance like MEDI-CAL, food stamps and subsidized housing to make ends meet. "
This is a problem because....?
Finally, here is my favorite comment -
"If I wanted high crime, burglaries, heavy vehicle emission pollution, HEAR MY NEIGHBORS HAVING SEX and all of the negatives of a big city, I would have chosen to remain in Los Angeles."
While this might sound crazy, I have also found this to be true. We only had the unfortunate experience of hearing our neighbors have sex when we lived in close proximity to a Wal-mart. The abominable town? Provo, Utah.
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9 comments:
I know I am not living there currently, but I don't like many of Walmart's business practices. Plus, I think it will have a major fiscal impact on other business in town. I don't shop at Walmart here either, so take that as you will. :)
You're right about the low prices and the convenience but there's a trade-off. Wal-Mart produces a wealth effect - the loss of wealth. Just walk through any community downtown with its empty or boarded-up stores, to see the workings of the Wal-Mart effect. There's been a lot of studies done on what impact Wal-Mart has on small towns and it's all bad. So I guess if you're planning to move away from Tehachapi in a year or two, you won't be around long enough to see Tehachapi turn into a ghost town. All the family owned business will have closed. But at least you will have low prices and convenience.
We are having the same thing here in Ventura. I don't get it, and I would shop there.
Charles is right on. Throughout small town Arizona(and most of small town America), the scene is the same over and over again. Dozens of boarded up small business and one big Wal-Mart open for business. Owners of the former thriving small shops now work for minimum wage at Wallyworld. Convenience and low prices are okay, but not at the cost of quality of life for entire small communities.
Boarded up small business is not because of Walmart, it is because they are inefficient in their business practices, and for now, Walmart is more so. If they weren't no one would shop there. Funny how capitalism raises up business like Walmart and Microsoft because they make they offer the best product and prices, the other businesses go out because they are not as good. Chuck, I know you bought your latest mini-14 at walmart, why? Because it was close, and the best price at the time. Walmart doesn't bring bad people in, it just attracts the people who like to pay less for stuff. When China's cost of living catches up with the rest of the world, they won't have the lower cost of production they now enjoy, this has already happened in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan during the last 5 decades. China's next. Germany is one the more expensive places in the world to produce goods, yet it is one of the largest exporting countries in the world...why because they make good products that people will pay for. Walmart and China love are not exclusive, walmart and cheap goods are.
The beauty of living in a free country is we all have a choice of what business to "support" by voting with our Dollars, currently, as the worlds largest store franchise and largest employer they are winning. If you don't like Wally-world, vote with your dollars somewhere else, and the next big company will grow to take wally-world's place (and be just as bad with all of their evil business practices)
Hoo-rah for capitalism and freedom of choice.
I could go on and on about my reasons for boycotting walmart two years ago, but I won't. Instead I will just say that they have been the happiest two consumer years of my life. My monthly grocery bill has remained the same, we eat the same (if not better), and I feel better about my life. So I will continue to boycott.
But I respect you and wish you luck with your battle.
Provo = Babylon. I've always known it.
Good luck! My sister works for Wal-Mart and is very happy with the company. Of course, she's a highly educated Pharmacist rather than a low-wage worker. I'm not anti-Walmart.
Sidenote: in my pre-kid life, I was a City Planner specializing in Commercial Development. Luckily, I left to be a Mommy before the big WalMart fight came to our City (we already had a few, people just wanted a park instead of a commercial center).
BWAHAHAHAHA!! I love your comments on people's comments. (Is it okay to say that I've missed you tremendously? I know you've been busy, and I'm not trying to give you a guilt complex for not blogging. But I miss you all the same).
And we had that exact same argument here in Snowflake--the small grocery stores were fighting against the Wal-mart coming in. The grocery stores won. We all lost.
I shop at Wal-mart, and I'm grateful for their low prices (although I've noticed that their grocery prices are actually higher than our local stores lately), but I do have to say that I don't like the fact that they build huge buildings and then abandon them a couple of years later to just build Super-Walmarts less than a block away. It makes the previous area gross because no one can use that big of a building, and no one goes to any of the outlying buildings that go up with Wal-mart (fast-food restaurants, etc), so the entire area ends up being abandoned and run-down.
Other than that, I have to completely agree with Erik.
Walmart India is a known corporate terrorist that has reached to the top by kicking, and hurting all the people connected to their warped system. However, we should realise the fact that the people behind this corporate beast have been manipulating humanity for a long time.
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