reminded me of this, and always thought this sign was hilarious... they should make a sign with an evil walmart with sharp teeth, and laser sight killing hippies.
I recongnize your point, but a casino, strip bar and sex boutique are not offering consumer goods serviced by Mom and Pop small business. The Walmart is not selling anything that is not already being sold. They are merely providing products already deemed appropriate by the community. They are just selling them them at a more affordable price in competition.
Casinos are illegal. Last time I checked, a retail store is a perfectly legal enterprise. Strip clubs and other SOBs are regulated through deed restriction and zoning. No such regulations exist for retail stores. Oh yeah...and the store is not going in the middle of the neighborhood. It is going on a plot of land that has been vacant for years. Melodrama is not always a good thing.
If wages start dropping after a Wal-mart pops up, then it could be argued that it has a detrimental impact on the community, like a casino bringing in revenues for the town but also bringing along other pesky externalities. That would be the city's justification to your point.... I don't think denying a Walmart there will rob customers of anything as long as they can drive. There is a shadier element for not putting on up there because of the clientele it attracts But it's good for showing what the government already can do in principle.
I still don't understand the walmart hate. I never hear about middle class people not wanting a walmart. Its always the uppity people for some reason. In league city, people clawed and cried about the walmart off 646 and guess what? Those same people shop in there all the time. There is a target right across the street and its like a museum on sunday. I guess i should be uppity by what i make every year, but thats not me. Back in the day, my parents bought me stuff from the department stores and it didn't matter. TG&Y, K-mart,sears and so forth. Know where most of those companies are now? Gone? Why? Because they didn't have vision. Just like we don't have sutherlands or mccoys hardly anymore because they fell behind the time and allowed lowes and home depot to take over. Bottomline is, if you don't like walmart, don't go. In some cities, you can't even tell they're walmarts because of the color codes like in sugarland and north dallas. They employ alot of people, give tons upon tons of food to the food bank, and generally good for the economy. Its not their fault people drop $100 everytime they go in. Personally, if I'm going to buy just groceries, i go to HEB, but if i need other stuff, i don't want to have to go to 50 places to buy what i can get at 1 store.
You cant have Walmarts everywhere and keep the American economy competitive. Sometimes, you do have to choose, regardless of what politicians tell you.
Just educate your community about what you feel are the disadvantages of having a walmart. Presentations, flyers, etc. If walmart doesn't make money, they'll go away.
I have heard this justification a lot, but I don't think I have ever heard of a walmart shutting down... The closest thing that comes to mind were those gigantonormous Auchan (sp?) stores of the Sam Houston Tollway and the South Loop
With all due respect, don't be rediculous. No one is denying anyone the right to shop at a Walmart. Regarding the Walmart we stopped from being built in Southwest Austin, there already was a Walmart right down the freeway, not more than 5 miles away. Walmart wanted to build a gigantic "superstore" in a new location within easy bicycle riding distance from the existing store, which was rediculous. It was suggested to them that they expand on the store they already had. They said the site wasn't big enough. After the protests resulted in them changing their minds, guess what... they expanded that store they had claimed couldn't be expanded. People tend to forget a salient fact. Walmart lies. All the time. Stop closing your eyes and start worrying about the culture that surrounds you, the kind of town and city you wish to live in. The type of service you enjoy. The level of commitment behind a sale. The volume of traffic you have in your neighborhood. Whether keeping what makes your community different from every other community, instead of being a "cookie cutter" carbon copy of superstore/strip mall America is where you want to live. If jobs, good paying jobs in America, matter. Free your mind. Leeb, everyone out here is middle class. The "uppity people" live in Westlake, Tarrytown, and DaDakota's street. Honestly, I would find your comment insulting, but I'm laughing too hard. :grin: Thought I'd toss this into the mix, because I remember how Walmart would always claim to "Buy America." For years they did that, even after they weren't. Enjoy! For the gentle reader: That was then, this is now. "The Buy America Program" is both a committment and a partnership" (Wal-Mart, Inc. promotional material, 1994) Just how much does Wal-Mart, Inc. value its committments and partnerships? At least 70 percent of items sold in Wal-Mart stores have a Chinese component. According to Ted Fishman, author of the newly published China, Inc., “…there’s a Chinese component in virtually every aisle you walk there in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart is the conduit for all of the output of the Chinese economy directly into American lives.” Fishman also notes, “…70 percent of the things sold in Wal-Mart stores have a Chinese component to them.” And a stock analyst for Gladstone Capital notes that figure is even higher, saying, “They have about 70 percent of their products coming from China, not including the food products.” The “Buy American” program has virtually vanished, as “its shelves bear little trace of the ‘Buy American’ philosophy of its founder,” notes the Washington Post. [CNN, 2/16/05; NPR, 2/12/05; Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 3/27/05; Gladstone Capital Quarterly Shareholders Call, 2/10/05; Washington Post, 10/29/03] Wal-Mart is China’s Eighth Largest Trading Partner. One company, ahead of Russia and Germany! Figures vary about how much Wal-Mart purchases from China, and Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott has evaded fully answering that question, but is it widely estimated by scholars and journalists that Wal-Mart is China’s eighth largest trading partner. [Scott Interview, ABC “Good Morning America,” 1/13/05; PBS Frontline, 2004; CBS, 12/14/03; New York Times, 4/17/04; US News & World Report, 9/15/03] $20 billion saved, billions more lost Wal-Mart's relentless drive to deliver low prices now directly saves American consumers $20 billion a year by one estimate -- and probably several times that sum once the indirect effect on competitors is factored in. To win Wal-Mart's business, suppliers have been forced to close U.S. factories and source overseas, with millions of American jobs lost in the process. Wal-Mart alone accounts for 10 percent of all imports from China. Economist Suggests Over A Million Jobs Lost To China Since 1990s. Larry Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute, said, “When you look at the growth of the trade deficit with China, you could say that a very conservative estimate is that we have lost more than a million jobs to China since the early 1990s.” [Scott Interview, ABC “Good Morning America,” 1/13/05; PBS Frontline, 2004; CBS, 12/14/03; Washington Post, 10/29/0; New York Times, 4/17/04; US News & World Report, 9/15/03] WalmartWatch.com is exposing the truth. Following up on our successful launch last week, a new conversation began on Monday morning with over 2.6 million readers of USA Today. We will continue to expose the impact of Wal-Mart's appetite for Chinese goods over the coming days with a targeted media campaign in communities hardest hit by Wal-Mart's abandonment of the "Buy America Program". http://walmartwatch.com/pages/that_was_then_this_is_now Join the conversation on the blog today. http://walmartwatch.com/blog
I agree with some of what is said, but it should also be noted that all the companies have foreign componets. Let me use my own experience. When i was still driving big trucks, i saw first the commerce trade. We used to pick up coca cola flavoring syrup from jersey and take it all the way to laredo. We would drop the trailer and a over the border driver would drop his load and take that back accross the mexico border. At the same time, we would also pick up cans from longview and take those to laredo so they could go across the border. I've also witness high end, italians or euro fashion makers sending raw materials from those countries down to mexico to have their products made, but on the tags it says made in italy. Those clothes from target and jc penney, guess where they're made? In mexico. Truth is deckard and you know this, manufactoring jobs in america are a thing of the past. Other countries can produce those same items cheaper because of the cheap labor and non unions that most companies get their stuff made overseas. Now, I'm not saying their right or that i like it, but if you take out wal mart and enter whatever store you want to replace it with, its no different. There is a walmart off el dorado which is the 26 mile marker and one off 646 which is the 21 mile marker and one in la marque which is the 16 mile marker and all of them are full and was occupying grass before.
When Wal Mart increases drunk driving, brings in organized crime and prostitution, call me. Until then, I still maintain that your point and comparison are lame. Show me how saying Target is ok, but Wal Mart cannot build is at all Constitutional and we can talk. I really don't think you get that point. If government wanted to take an area and say no retail stores of any kind, big or small, then sure. It is called zoning. But if retail stores are ok, government cannot single out Wal Mart as unacceptable to build.
We ought to be building these Wal-marts all along the US-Mexican border. Let the Americans go there to shop and the Mexicans can go there to work and then go back home at the end of the day.
Its all attacking Wal-Mart because they are the biggest. Do they discriminate against women in terms of promotion? Maybe so, I was a sales associate. We certainly had plenty of female managers and associates at our store. I'm going on personal experience. The job was easy, it paid better than minimum wage, and we were treated very well. Maybe it was because they lost those court battles you are alluding to that made the job so much better. Like I said you are strictly told to not work off the clock. You are told that your 15 minute break every 2 hours is required. You are told you can not work more than 6 hours straight without a lunch break. They were extremely strict about those rules(I left in December 2006).
Umm there's a massive apartment complex that went up at the same time right next to it. It's also two blocks from the Wal Mart. I think the traffic argument is a load of BS. The douchey frat bars on Washington have turned that place into gridlock three or four nights a week already. Also, like Donny said it ain't in the Heights, which is on the other side of I 10. You'll get people going to the store, sure -- but they will come from Downtown, from Mid town, from other areas of the city. They aren't going to go through the Heights to get to Wal Mart -- that would make no sense. They will either head back into town or get off of I 10, go shopping, and get back on. No one is going to go through the Heights to get to it unless they already live there.
Sadly a few people in management were in on it. While I was there they did some stuff to improve security against employee theft though. The truth of productivity is they only worry about things getting off the truck, onto shelves, and having cashiers so you can checkout. The people doing those jobs were monitored more closely.
You're right, Ref. So if the community hates Wal-Mart or retail stores that much, they'll have push for a zoning change. I made the comparison after reading hypotheticals of "what gives us the right". On a broader basis, we do have the power to change zoning laws, but I can't say it stretches to singling out Wal-Mart.
No, but I've been to a lot of Wal-Marts. Ours a nice where I live. I've been to some that are even nicer, and I've been to some that are a lot worse. I don't like going into our older grocery stores and the dollar general type stores. The stores and the people always seem to be trashy. K-Mart is pretty trashy as well.
