Letters From The Heartland
Posted on December 8, 2005 by webteam
This letter to the editor reprinted in Sprawl-Busters from small businessman Joel Olson captures Wal-Mart’s negative impact on small-town America. This time the locale is Montevideo, Minnesota.
Our city council members passed a motion to support a proposal to re-zone property east of town to allow a Wal-Mart Super center to be built. I would like to know what research they have done to educate themselves on what impact this 155,000 sq ft super center (that is almost 2 ½ times bigger than the current Wal-Mart) will have on this and surrounding communities?
Growth comes from industry, manufacturing, colleges, etc. Not from retail. A super center in this community will not be economic development, it will be economic displacement. Some people think a Wal-Mart super center will be a draw to this community. What happens when all of the communities around us have a Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart Super center, Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market or a Sam’s Club? When this happens–and it will– that draw is gone and they will have most of the retail dollars.
They talked about how community-oriented they are. As a past Montevideo Area Chamber of Commerce board member and past president, Wal-Mart has never been a consistent member. Some quarters they pay their chamber dues and some quarters they do not. In the past they have gone more than a year without being a chamber member.
We pride ourselves on being able to provided a good wage, benefits, 401(K) for our employees to live a good middle class life style. Thirty seven percent of our staff are full time at forty plus hours, not twenty eight hours as described as Wal-Mart’s full time. We do not encourage employees to survive on a lower wages and government-funded health care or welfare. Do we want to lower our standards of our community? Do we want to pay more taxes to support Wal-Mart employees?
Read our report ”Shameless: How Wal-Mart Bullies Its Way Into Communities Across America” to learn more about the giant retailer’s underhanded tactics.
