Wal-Mart Critics:

Wal-Mart critics fall into many different groups. Which group do you fall into?

1. Honest, good hearted Americans who have been misinformed or misled.

2. Political critics and opportunistic trial lawyers who attack companies for being successful.

3. Labor leaders who want more money for their unions.

4. Snobbish elites (probably from away) who are self-appointed arbiters of taste and culture and who don’t appreciate Wal-Mart providing the great American middle class with countless cartloads of affordable goods..

5. Blame-America-first political radicals and environmental activists.

6. Journalists who make their living spreading doom-and-gloom economic reports.

7. People who see themselves as citizens first and consumers second.

Average wage vs. Median wage

"Wal-Mart full-time pay averages $10.17 per hour".

The MEAN is the arithmetic average, the average you are probably used
to finding for a set of numbers - add up the numbers and divide by how
many there are: (80 + 90 + 90 + 100 + 85 + 90) / 6 = 89 1/6.

The MEDIAN is the number in the middle. In order to find the median,
you have to put the values in order from lowest to highest, then find
the number that is exactly in the middle:

80 85 90 90 90 100
^
since there is an even number of values, the MEDIAN is
between these two, or it is 90. Notice that there is
exactly the same number of values ABOVE the median as
BELOW it!

Wal-Mart will not divulge the median wage of their 'associates'.

Could it be: 6 6 6 8 8 12 14 14 20 ?

Average= $10.44
Median= $8.00
Mode=$6.00

Supercenter has nothing to do with size

Sometimes size does matter.

A 121,000 sq ft WalMart Supercenter is the equivalent of 50 downtown independent stores.

Or, 12 Kinney's (a true regional company) Drug stores.

Or, 4 football fields.

Web Wars Escalate!

Wal-Mart supported Working Families for Wal-Mart (I am a card carrying member of WFFWM) is tired of being criticized by paid union leaders. It is every American's right to shop and buy stuff at one convenient location. You save money and time! Just try not to think about any possible peripheral effects of your actions.

In any case, Working Families for Wal-Mart must not be working very well. WFFWM has started up another website called 'paid critics'. This is a much better website than WFFWM in that it uses the tried and true 'Swiftboating' techniques designed by Karl Rove. In fact, 'paid critics' is actually run by paid critics, some who helped get us involved in the Iraq War, some who used to work for big tobacco and my favorite RedState blog founder and current Edelman PR employee Mike Krempasky (BTW, he is the least evil member of the group, but I voted for him).

To further escalate the Wal-Mart/Union war, we now have an entertaining site called 'a bunch of greedy right wing liars who work for Wal-Mart'. Seriously! You can even vote on who is the most evil greedy right winger (poor Mike is in 5th place, but I'm sure he's working on it when he's not playing poker or shooting pool).

One thing you can count on.....NO ONE at 'paid critics' comes from a 'working family'. These guys are out of work, ex-Republican party operatives doing what they do best. Does anyone believe these guys actually care about actual 'working families'?

We have paid Union members (from WakeUpWal-Mart) fighting $300 billion Wal-Mart, Inc. for living wages and benefits. Asking for fair labor practices. Asking that jobs not be shipped overseas. Then you have these guys:

Taylor 'don't count the votes' Gross,
Rick 'my house cost more than yours' Berman,
Kevin 'RNC' Sheridan,
Lee 'don't raise the minimum wage' Culpepper,
Mike 'I missed the recount riot' Krempasky,
Robert 'Tobbacco is Good For You' McAdam
and Terry 'I don't know Tom Delay' Nelson

These guys are being paid to swiftboat the people who are lobbying for a better life for actual 'working' people. These guys do not make $10 an hour.

By all means, visit 'paid critics' and get the Wal-Mart/Edelman viewpoint from a bunch of guys who you couldn't pay to set foot in a Wal-Mart store. Guy's that don't know the meaning of the word 'fair'. Then visit 'a bunch of greedy right wing liars who work for Wal-Mart' and find out what these guys have done in their past lives in the name of God, country and the almighty dollar.

UPDATE: See comments by Joe Trippi

Why does this blog look so much like a classic Swift-Boat attack? Probably because Wal-Mart has hired many of the same corporate and political operatives involved in past high-profile smear campaigns. Kevin Sheridan, a former spokesman and operative at the RNC, now works for Wal-Mart as consultant from Edelman PR. Terry Nelson, previously a Deputy Chief of Staff for the RNC and National Political Director for the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign, is currently a strategy advisor for Working Families for Wal-Mart - the group officially behind paidcritics.com and fully funded by Wal-Mart. And then there’s Rick Berman and Bob McAdam, two men who worked hard for Big Tobacco to convince Americans that smoking is good for you. Now they work for or with Wal-Mart on its communications strategy.

Additional comments:
Fratpack
Scatterbox
Writing on the Wal

Sam Says:

“We still want to drive a hard bargain, but now we need to guard against abusing our power.” - Sam Walton

Maybe Wal-Mart abusing it's power is just a matter of opinion. But, I'm guessing many of those American factory employee's that are out of work might disagree. Is there any other way that Wal-Mart abuses it's power?

Wal-Mart's Pay Gap

Want to see how much Wal-Mart excutives make in comparison to overseas workers? Lookhere.

Wal-Mart claims it doesn't make enough money to pay it's workers better. But wouldn't it's 1.3 million employee's in the USA be able to purchase more 'stuff' from Wal-Mart if they were better paid? It worked for Henry Ford.

These Wal-Mart exec's are the 'rich outsiders'.

Sam says:

“Maybe the most important way in which we at Wal-Mart believe in giving something back is through our commitment to using the power of this enormous enterprise as a force for change.” - Sam Walton

How come Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton thought Wal-Mart could be a force for change yet current Wal-Mart supporters don't believe Wal-Mart has any power/responsibility for change? Any ideas on how Wal-Mart could use their enormous enterprise to institute change?

Wal-Mart Gives the Small Shoplifter a Break

Wal-Mart's new shoplifting policy will give the 'little guy' (someone who steals less than $25 worth of merchandise) a break. Read about it HERE.

This helps Wal-Mart because it's not really worth prosecuting the 'little guy' even though Sam Walton wanted every shoplifter prosecuted.

J. P. Suarez, who is in charge of asset protection at Wal-Mart, said it was no longer efficient to prosecute petty shoplifters. “If I have somebody being paid $12 an hour processing a $5 theft, I have just lost money,” he said. “I have also lost the time to catch somebody stealing $100 or an organized group stealing $3,000.”

It will also help small town police departments. Would Saranac Lake need to hire another police officer just to cover a Wal-Mart Supercenter?

It may also serve to placate small-town police departments across the country who have protested what the company has called its zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting. Employees summoned officers whether a customer stole a $5 toy or a $5,000 television set — anything over $3, the company said.
At some of the chain’s giant 24-hour stores, the police make up to six arrests a day prompting a handful of departments to hire an additional officer just to deal with the extra workload.

"I had one guy tied up at Wal-Mart every day,” said Don Zofchak, chief of police in South Strabane Township, Pa., which has 9,000 residents and 16 officers. He said the higher threshold for prosecution “would help every community to deal with this.”

Maybe the SL Village Board or Village Manager should give Chief Zofchak a phone call and find out about his experiences with Wal-Mart and what it's cost his police department.

Wal-Mart YES or Wal-Mart NO Signs

Call Wal-Mart and they will send you a cool free "WalMart Yes" sign for your lawn. You can also get them if you don't support WalMart and the Yes is easy enough to change to anything else you want it to say. But it's almost not worth it. Looking within the Saranac Lake Village limits, the French Hill area, the Lake St/Petrova area, the Baker St/Lower Park Av. area and the Shepard/Franklin Av. areas you only see pockets of these signs. I was expecting to see at least 20% of the lawns sporting "WalMart Yes" signs but I doubt it's even 10%. This isn't too surprising. If WalMart supporters were a majority within the SL Village limits, Tom Michael wouldn't be mayor nor would be have two new Democrat trustees.

Now the Save Saranac Lake Coalition is also going to make signs. They are having a sign making get-together this Sunday, July 16th from 6PM to 9PM in the park in Gabrial's. Your kids are invited also as there is a playground in the park. Bring plywood, paint, brushes, tools etc although there will be extra material there.
SSLC points out:

We know that a battle of the signs can get ugly. But, please remember, IF Wal-Mart gets in, the ugliness is here to stay...........signs are temporary.

It will be interesting to see what slogans appear on these signs.

Walmart Protest

Wal-Mart, the Government and TOTT

A caller this morning on TOTT pointed out "It's not Wal-Mart's fault U.S. manufacturing jobs are going overseas, it's the Federal Government. Definitely true because the Federal Government gave China 'most favored nation status' among passing many other 'business friendly' trade laws. However, as many people understand, our congress does not pass laws independent of money and lobbyists. Look at this article from the Washington Post.

Wal-Mart, the retailer many experts consider the most-sued company in America, stands to benefit from the new class-action law, which is designed to cut down on lawsuits and big verdicts by steering some cases into federal courts, away from state courts with track records of siding with plaintiffs and awarding multimillion-dollar verdicts, according to policy experts.

The company, which expressed disdain for Washington politics in the 1990s, changed its tune dramatically after then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) sat down with the company's managers in Bentonville, Ark., in the late 1990s and warned them of the perils of sitting on the sidelines.

Soon after, Wal-Mart became a major player in GOP politics, funneling money to groups such as the U.S. Chamber to lobby on its behalf and creating a political action committee. In the elections last year, the company's $2.4 million PAC was the third-largest corporate PAC in the country, with nearly 80 percent of its money going to Republicans. Wal-Mart officials contributed more than $30,000 to Bush last election, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that prepared the fundraising data for this article.

In many cases, companies such as Wal-Mart spend significantly more money hiring Republican lobbyists and helping fund groups such as the U.S. Chamber and other GOP-dominated trade associations that are not required to disclose their donors than they devote to political candidates. Wal-Mart, for instance, has contributed at least $1 million to the Chamber of Commerce, according to chamber documents.

Marty Heires, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company did not want to comment for this report. "They want to play it low-key on this," he said.

And it's not just Republicans:

The Clintons also benefited financially from Wal-Mart. Hillary Clinton was paid $18,000 each year she served on the board, plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended. By 1993 she had accumulated at least $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock, according to Bill Clinton's federal financial disclosure that year. The Clintons also flew for free on Wal-Mart corporate planes 14 times in 1990 and 1991 in preparation for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential bid.

And it's not just WalMart, Inc., it's also the Waltons:

Wal-Mart (WMT) drew broad scrutiny last year as its political spending soared in nationwide battles over health care, labor and other hot-button issues threatening the giant retailer's growth.

The late Sam Walton, founder of retail giant Wal-Mart.
AP file

Now, in a little-noticed move, the company's founding family has plunged into a fight to pass income tax changes and other legislation that could preserve its grip on the USA's biggest business and the family's $84 billion fortune.

Led by Sam Walton's only daughter, Alice, the family spent $3.2 million on lobbying, conservative causes and candidates for last year's federal elections. That's more than double what it spent in the previous two elections combined, public documents show.

And this:

Noble says the Bush administration monitors gifts to groups such as Progress for America, so the Walton donation puts the family on the White House speed dial.

Go here for more on the Waltons lobbying activities.

You can go here to see how much WalMart and the Waltons pay Patton Boggs, LLP to lobby on their behalf.

Wal-Mart and China and TOTT

This morning a Wal-Mart critic called TOTT and pointed out that 28 cents out of every dollar spent at Wal-Mart goes to China, a communist country. Four callers were obviously ready at the phones to point out the error-of-his-ways of this poor Wal-Mart critic. I don't know if the 28 cent figure is correct or not, but the Wal-Mart critic certainly had a point. He just didn't take it to the next step.

Wal-Mart supporters will immediately scream "but everybody sells Chinese made products". That's true. But most everybody doesn't have a choice but to sell Chinese or other foreign-made consumer goods. Wal-Mart is one of the major reasons that so many retail goods are now made overseas. Wal-Mart forces it's suppliers to cut prices to the bone such that they eventually have no choice but to go overseas. One example out of many, many, many.

Take the L.R. Nelson lawn sprinklers, which used to be made in Peoria, Ill., before Wal-Mart pressured Nelson to make them in China instead. Before the move, one laid-off Peoria worker told the reporter, Chinese managers were "walking around the plant and videotaping us working. That was horrible, horrendous. Right in our faces. They are taking our jobs." More HERE and HERE.

I can understand people wanting good bargains and thus supporting Wal-Mart. I don't understand the blind, uneducated support however. You want cheap prices and you don't care what Wal-Mart is doing to our country (and the World), fine. But at least make an attempt to understand exactly what you are supporting. After all, it's not your job that's being exported overseas. Yet. Remember, you can't buy all that stuff you want if you don't have a job.

Village Board Meeting - July 10 (and a rant)

Yes I attended the Village Board Meeting last night. The topic of rezoning the village sandpit area came up after 2.5 hrs of unrelenting and uninteresting reports, discussion and repartee (ok so there wasn't really any repartee). There is an article in todays ADE and at the WNBZ news site concerning the rezoning discussion. Here is what I took home.

It's not really clear to me where the Village is in the SEQR process. If a positive declaration has been made, a draft environmental impact statement must be prepared and made available to the public. 'Scoping', a process that identifies topics the EIS should include is recommended but not required. If scoping is done, there is a requirement for community participation. After a 30 day public comment period on the draft EIS, a public hearing may be held. "All substantive comments become part of the permanent record and must be responded to by the lead agency in the final EIS. The DEC suggests that the lead agency disregard speculative comments and statements that cannot be supported. Read a two page summary of the SEQR process here.

Trustees Olsen and McEneany want to continue the SEQR process and go for a vote to rezone the sandpit area. The problem is that the public hearing is meant to discuss the various impacts the rezone will have on the community and environment. No one knows what the impacts will be without expert consultation, so how can you discuss them?

I can guess what some of the speculative comments will be already because we hear them everyday:

Wal-Mart won't hurt the environment. Yes they will and have done so. Many times. Many times.

Wal-Mart will increase the number of good jobs in the area. This and this study claims otherwise. Oh yeah, while you are at it read this too. They also seem to have a small problem with their female employees. Oh yeah, and don't gripe when they don't pay you for the hours you work.

Wal-Mart will bring in new business to the area. Sorry, this as well as this study says that is unlikely.

Wal-Mart will donate lot's of money to our community. Read this about Wal-Mart Philanthropy. And more here.

Wal-Mart will have no effect on social programs. Wrong again. Read this.

Wal-Mart will bring in badly needed tax revenues. Maybe, but read this first. Better think about increased law enforcement costs while you are at it.

No, none of the above suggested readings address Saranac Lake specifically. But they are a lot better than the truthiness speculation that you hear every day from Wal-Mart supporters.

On the other hand, you don't work there, and you didn't ship the manufacturing jobs overseas, and you weren't responsible for the low wage jobs. Nope, you just spend your money there and provide Wal-Mart with the incentive to continue doing business their way. But "Wal-Mart helps poor people"! That's one way to look at it I guess, but I think "Wal-Mart sells to poor people is much more accurate. And, the more poor people there are, the better Wal-Mart does.

NLRB Helps Wal-Mart Remain Union Free

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly has some interesting observations about the decline of unions in the United States and its effects on wages.

Successive NLRB rulings, however, have steadily chipped away at labor rights and helped companies like Wal-Mart remain happily union free. That's good for big corporations who contribute to the Republican Party, but not so good for middle class workers who no longer have anyone to fight for pay raises and better working conditions. The result is the three-decade wage stagnation illustrated in the chart above.

No more well paying, secure manufacturing jobs in the USA, so no more Unions either. But there are plenty of 'good' jobs at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart supporters will argue that Union mediated high salaries drove manufacturers out of business and this is just a result of free trade. However, anyone that has done even a bit of reading will realize there is no such thing as free trade or we wouldn't have a Federal Trade Commission or National Labor Relations Board. Many manufacturers had little choice in the matter of exporting jobs overseas. Wal-Mart all but required that they do so. Charles Fishman explains it all in "The Wal-Mart Effect". Of course no one expects a rabid Wal-Mart supporter to read such a book because they automatically assume it was written by a "Wal-Mart hater". Nothing could be further from the truth. Fishman is a reporter and he tried to get Wal-Mart and it's suppliers to provide input into the book. Obviously they were not interested.

Carl E. Person

"I'm surprised that the thousands of reporters dealing with Wal-Mart and its staggering growth never (and I repeat never)explain that Wal-Mart could not survive in business if its paid the same per-unit price for its inventory that its competitors pay. By obtaining lower per-unit prices (in alleged violation of the Robinson-Patman Act, which prohibits price discrimination), Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower retail prices and drive its competitors out of business. This is not "efficiency", but a failure of the government to enforce the antitrust statute designed to prohibit the evils resulting from this kind of prohibited business conduct".

Mr. Person is a Harvard trained antitrust attorney who wrote a book called SAVING MAIN STREET AND ITS RETAILERS. His website has quite a bit of advice on how to fight Wal-Mart.

APPENDIX C – Representations and Warranties Which a Community Should Require a Major Retailer to Sign as a Condition to Obtaining Requested Approval(s).

Here he lists a number of interrogatories that a village or town board should require when dealing with a major retailer.

you might ask for a description of the controls to ensure that the applicant is not purchasing its goods at discriminatory or, worse, below-cost prices in violation of the Robinson-Patman Act or Sherman Act. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) requires each public corporation to have an Audit Committee made up of independent individuals which committee makes sure the corporation is in compliance with various laws (where the violation of which could be materially adverse to the company’s financial interests), including the Robinson-Patman Act. It seems clear to me that none of the major retailers will be able to pass an audit of the issue of whether the manufacturers are selling to the major retailer at discriminatory, unlawful prices, and at prices which are below the manufacturers’ direct cost.

The Antitrust Case Against Wal-Mart

Breaking the Chain by Barry C. Lynn is the title of an article published in this months Harper's Magazine. You can read it at the Saranac Lake Free Library. It's a difficult article to read because although it makes a case for antitrust action against Wal-Mart it also makes you realized that it's not going to happen in the near future. The reason? One word - politics. Ever since Saint Reagan was president the concept of antitrust lawsuits by the government has basically been thrown out the window. To Reagan, "only one action could be regarded as truly unacceptable - to gouge the consumer"(B.C. Lynn, Harpers, July 2006).

Well what about the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, also known as the Anti-Price Discrimination Act or the "Anti-A&P Act? Wright Patman, the Texas Democrat who was the main force behind the bill, made sure everyone understood Congress's intent. "The express purpose of the Act is to protect the independent merchant" B.C. Lynn, Harpers, July 2006).

See the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company was putting small family owned grocery stores out of business. They did this by undercutting them in their pricing. Back in the day, the US Federal Government was relentless against the A&P, hauling them repeatedly into court. The A&P was also a monopsony. This is when a company has the power to dictate pricing to its suppliers (remind you of anyone?).

There is another older article by Robert Reich entitled "Wal-Mart is too big: But not according to America's antitrust laws".

Is Wal-Mart too big? Not according to America's antitrust laws, which consider only one thing - whether a company is so big it drives competitors out, thereby forcing consumers to pay more. Wal-Mart is huge but it still represents only 8 percent of retail sales in America. That's not nearly enough to reduce competition.

Nope, you probably need to control 30% of the market before the government will take notice. But Reich tells us that antitrust laws had another purpose that might give us hope:

Yet there's another tradition of American antitrust that may be relevant here. We don't hear much about it any longer, but a century ago antitrust was also concerned about companies becoming so large they distorted the political process. In fact, the danger to democracy posed by large corporations was the primary reason for antitrust laws being enacted in the first place.

Indeed, even at the local level you can see Wal-Mart spending money to influence the political process. But I don't hold out much hope for antitrust actions on political grounds either. Republicans just aren't interested in regulating big corporations anymore and one has to wonder about Democrats as well. After all, our own Senator Hillary Clinton once served on Wal-Mart's Board of Directors. Maybe someday Wal-Mart supporters and corrupt politicians will wake up and see the effects of Wal-Mart not just on our own economy, but the entire world's economy. The question then is will it be soon enough to do something about it.

Mia Masten: Wal-Mart Eastern Region Liar-in-Chief?

Have you seen this woman around? This is Mia Masten and she works for Wal-Mart. The press gives her several 'titles' but she seems to be the Eastern Region Community Relations person (at least as of 2005). Ms. Masten is a former Clinton administration staffer (her post was special assistant to the senior adviser to the president for policy development). From some of the quotes attributed to her it seems her job at Wal-Mart may be Liar-in-Chief for the East Coast. This is the 'outsider' (or someone just like her)whose job it is to convince Saranac Lakers that their future is dependent on a Wal-Mart store. I bet you anything she makes more than $10.40 an hour (the average Wal-Mart wage, how about telling us the median Wal-Mart wage?).

"I think most reasonable people would say zoning will probably be more difficult in 5 years or 10 years than it is today," he said in a presentation to analysts. "And so every store we get today over what we normally would have planned might be the store that would have really been delayed in the future as zoning got tougher and tougher." H. Lee Scott

That's right. Build now, even if the store is a business risk, because it's only going to be harder to build in the future. To get these stores built in communities that don't want them, sometimes you need to bring in the liar-in-chief, Mia Masten.

"As these big-box bills come up, all retailers will just have to be flexible," she said. "In this case, we developed a model that allowed us to reach our customers."Mia Masten, Wal-Mart Eastern Region Community Relations

This quote was in response to Wal-Mart's idea of building two 75,000 sq ft stores next to each other in Dunkirk, MD to get around zoning regulations.

Masten responded to Salzman. "We don't force people to work overtime. It's not unusual to have 1,000 people apply for 300 jobs, so we must be doing something right," she said as the room erupted with deafening cheers and applause. Masten at a Wal-Mart supporter meeting in St. Albans, VT

Of course, Wal-Mart workers in Massachusetts disagree with Ms. Masten. This is a lie from almost everything I've read. I guess we will see if the MA courts agree.

Mia Masten, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, told the Times that Wal-Mart often tries to work with communities and is not "just coming in and bulldozing our way in."

Here
This is just pure, unadulturated bullshit. Dare I even say a lie?

''I hope we'll be given a fair chance,'' said the Wal- Mart spokeswoman, Mia Masten, corporate affairs director for the eastern region. ''We are interested in New York City.

Yes, Wal-Mart only wants a "fair chance", you know they are a company that truly believes in fair play.

"It sounds as if we're trying to go and push our way in," Masten said. "But we are asking for and getting local input. We want a project that everyone likes at the end of the day."Here

How does Ms. Masten define "everyone"?

"Say Yes to Wal-Mart" Campaign Has Begun

If you are a wealthy, transplant living and paying taxes in the Saranac Lake area please BUTT OUT on the Wal-Mart issue.

However, and this is very important, if you are the Wal-Mart Eastern Region Community Relations people (TRUE OUTSIDERS) please feel welcome to tear our community apart.

Soon you will be seeing "Say Yes to Wal-Mart" signs sprouting up around the area, courtesy of this office. Don't believe me? Call 877-236-8862 and listen to the message. You can tell them how many signs you want them to send you. I support the right of CARD people to lobby in support of a Wal-Mart store, they are local area residents at least. But even CARD should be outraged at a group of professional, paid, outside Wal-Mart supporters meddling in our community affairs.

This is so OUTRAGEOUS. I suggest we all call and order hundreds of free signs courtesy of Wal-Mart. It will be a simple matter to change the YES to a NO. After you get your free order of signs, call again and tell them how outraged you are.

This is a perfect example of Wal-Mart 'Community Relations'.

UPDATE: I noticed there was a visit or two from Edelman PR this afternoon. Probably wanting to see the reaction to Wal-Mart's latest shenanigans. After reading Fishman's book I was beginning to believe that Wal-Mart was just clueless, not really evil. But damn, they are one truly evil company.

A Few More Questions From Fishman

Even if you are the most devoted fan of Wal-Mart, maybe you could think even a little bit about these questions.

Wal-Mart is now so big that it's possible to ask a whole set of questions that would have been irrelevant, if not downright silly, twenty years ago.
What is the impact of Wal-Mart's wages not on its own workers, but on the wages in an entire town, or in an entire industry?
What is Wal-Mart's impact on the variety and availability of consumer goods?
What is Wal-Mart's direct impact on sending U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas?
What is the impact on local economies of Wal-Mart's abandoning old stores, and even as Wal-Mart freely announces precise numbers for stores it opens, how many stores does it close but leave empty?
What is Wal-Mart's impact on the environment?
What is the impact of Wal-Mart's suppliers on the environment?
...as a country, we have the right to ask the questions; we have the power to ask the questions; indeed we have the responsibility to ask the questions.

I think the Village Board of Trustees has an obligation to ask some of these questions also. They owe it to the Village of Saranac Lake and it's residents who voted them into office.

The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman - 4

Wal-Mart could be more like Southwest Airlines.

Southwest Airlines isn't just cheap, it's fun. Wal-Mart isn't just cheap, it's joyless, when not downright vexing. Wal-Mart takes its duty to lower prices so seriously, there's no room for any other attitude, for them or us, except duty. Even without doubts about wages, suppliers, local businesses, American jobs, and quality, Wal-Mart has done such a superb job of austerity from start to finish that austerity is all that's left.

Fishman asks some very important questions about Wal-Mart:

Do we value cheap merchandise more than good factory jobs?
Do we value the convenience of buying everything from eggs and eyeglasses, Levi's and lawm mowers in a single place more than charming main streets with local shopkeepers?
Do we value the freedoms of a business to decide where and how to serve its customers more than the responsibility of a local government to safeguard the shape and character of a town?
In a democracy, do we want a single company to have the reach and power that Wal-Mart has - a power that right now is accountable to no one?
Do we value the "rules" of economic fair play as they happen to be written right now more than our ability to recognize and manage a totally new kind of economic power?

An insight into Wal-Mart corporate behavior:

The source of almost all of Wal-Mart's troubles can be traced not to some evil conspiracy spun out of the home office, but to the slogan printed right on every Wal-Mart bag: "Always low prices. Always." The second always is in italics and underlined, just so there is no confusion about the mission.
It is remarkable that almost all of Wal-Mart's behavior - even the bad behavior or the seemingly diabolical behavior - can be explained by taking Wal-Mart at its word. It really is all about "always low prices."

The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman - 3

That Wal-Mart has driven jobs overseas is an understatement.

To survive n the face of the sort of pricing demands Wal-Mart made of Vlasic, Huffy, Lovable, and Levi Strauss, some consumer products companies have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products overseas.

In the 1980's I clearly remember Wal-Mart being proud that they sold 'American-made' items. It was a major part of their marketing. Forward to 2004: Wal-Mart now imports 18 billion dollars worth of Chinese-made goods.

"People say, how can it be bad for things to come into the United States cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?

Simple really, you need a job that pays a living wage to buy stuff.

And what about those overseas jobs and factories?

The problem isn't callous, greedy, and inhumane factory managers. "Wal-Mart is itself the reason for the inhumane conditions," the suit alleges. "It uses its vast market power to insist on low unit prices that are possible only if workers are squeezed to such an extreme degree that they can barely survive the long hours and low wages they are forced to endure."

But Wal-Mart will tell you that they have ethical standards for overseas manufacturers and that they inspect the factories of Wal-Mart suppliers. That is true. But:

Yes, the factory inspections team did 12,500 inspections, but only 8 percent of them were surprise inspections.

In 2004, 8,900 out of 11,500 scheduled inspections of overseas factories revealed serious violations in factories that knew in advance that Wal-Mart inspectors were coming.

Wal-Mart Rolls Back Pay

Wal-Mart is in a bit of trouble in Massachusetts. A class-action lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart skimped "on work breaks and pay owed to thousands of former employees" to the tune of over 1 million times.

Of course:

Wal-Mart declined to address the allegations in the case, saying, “It is disrespectful to the court to comment on matters that will be heard in a legal proceeding. . . . we’re not going to comment.”

Wal-Mart has 70 lawsuits throughout the country claiming similiar allegations. People love to talk about how well Wal-Mart treats disabled employees.

Among his clients is a disabled woman from Chelmsford who has accused Wal-Mart of changing her time sheet to show she worked only one minute on days she worked eight-hour shifts. Except in this instance below.

“When I went to to complain, my manager just told me (my paycheck) was right, that there wasn’t a problem,” said Kelly Thompson, 32, who worked as a greeter for about a year before being terminated. “But they would never open up the books to show me. They just insisted.”

Thompson, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, said she was shocked when her lawyers showed her a computer analysis alleging that Wal-Mart routinely denied her pay for the hours she worked. “I feel like I was ripped off,” she said. “I couldn’t believe they would actually do this to someone.”

And Wal-Mart marches cluelessly onward.

Wal-Mart Supports Unions!

www.unionizewalmart.com. Is it owned by a leftist group that wants to unionize Wal-Mart stores? Nope. It's owned by Registrant:
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
805 Moberly Ln M31
Bentonville, AR 72716-0560
US

So, Wal-Mart either wants to help unionize its stores or they want to keep unions from using that domain name. Unfortunately, they forgot to buy unionizewalmart.ws

The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman - 2

Jobs and Manufacturing

While Wal-Mart was adding 480,000 jobs between 1997 and 2004, US manufacturing jobs during those years fell by 3,100,000 jobs, a loss of 37,000 factory jobs a month, on average, for eighty-four straight months.

...during the last 7 years, a remarkable milestone has passed all but unnoticed: In 2003, for the first time in modern US history, the number of Americans working in retail (14.9 million) was greater than the number of Americans working in factories (14.5 million). We have more people working in stores than we do making the merchandise to put in them. .....Just ask the residents of Peoria, who used to make lawn sprinklers for L.R. Nelson.

K-Mart and Target and Sears etc. also sell clothing made overseas is commonly pointed out by Wal-Mart supporters. Yeah, they do. But who shipped the jobs overseas. That would be the largest company on earth wouldn't it?

Rural Effects

In towns with a Wal-Mart, sales of general merchandise leaped dramatically compared to the state average, up 55% per capita after three years. In the 45 small towns within twenty miles of a Wal-Mart, total sales dropped 13% after 3 years, nearly double the decline for similar Iowa towns that weren't near a Wal-Mart.
But even in towns with Wal-Mart stores driving dramatic increases in the retail trade, there were losers. Grocery stores lost 5% of their sales after 3 years; specialty stores - drugstores, clothing stores, toy stores, and the like lost 12% of their sales after 3 years. Even service businesses in Wal-Mart towns lost business - down 13% after 3 years.

The entire report of Wal-Mart's effect on rural communities by Dr. Ken Stone can be found under the links to the left.

Stone updated his study in 1993.

Across the rest of the retail landscape, the arrival of Wal-Mart coincided with a swath of destruction. Grocery stores lost 5% of their business after 5 years; specialty stores lost 14% of their business, and clothing stores lost 18% of their business - all while total sales were rising 6%, mostly due to Wal-Mart.
In towns that were nearby but didn't have a Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart vacuumed customers away: clothing stores lost 13% of their business after 5 years; specialty stores lost 21%.
...small Iowa towns, with populations between five hundred and one thousand, lost 47% of their retail sales....
...43% of all stores selling men's and boy's clothing went out of business. Neary half of an entire retail category in a state was wiped out.

The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman

A few of my favorite parts of the book:

Concerning pharmacies

He opened a pharmacy at the Wal-Mart in Mena, Arkansas, #67, in 1982 or 1983. "There was already a pharmacy in the shopping center there. I opened with a coupon in the newspaper for $5 or $10 off, with the grand opening of our pharmacy, and the 9-cent rubbing alcohol special or something." The next day, the pharmacist in the shopping center announced that he would match Arch's coupon. "So the day after that, I ran a coupon for $20 off your next prescription. And I never heard another word from the guy after that."

You really can walk in the store, drop off your prescription, do your shopping, and pick up the prescription on the way out. "Once, Mr. Sam said to me, 'Clarence, tell those pharmacists to slow down a bit, so we can get the carts filled up some more.'" (pg. 43

Not just competition, cut-throat, purposeful put-them-out-of-business competition.

Monopoly and Monopsony

The term for suppliers who are big enough to control prices and markets is familiar - that's monopoly, and anyone who has played the board game understands that if you control the available real estate, you get to charge not what the market will bear, but what you want.

There is a parallel economic concept for a company that is such a large buyer (Wal-Mart)- of pickles, say - that it holds an equivalent kind of price-control power. The term is monopsony

So it is pretty clear (at least to me) that Wal-Mart has a huge, and unfair, advantage over just about any other retail business in the USA. If you haven't read the 'Vlasic Pickle Story' you can fined it here.

A Meeting with H. Lee Scott

I ask Lee to describe the legacy he wants to be remembered for at Wal-Mart. He struggles with the question, falls back on the Sam Walton story, and describes himself as continuing a tradition rather then designing a new purpose for the giant company. Pressing him again for a better answer, he talks about the team
he wants to build and leave behind when he “turns out the lights in the office for the last time.” In effect, he keeps saying it’s not about him.

Pressed again, at this point a little uncomfortably, he talks about being the best they can be, about diversity programs, environmental initiatives, the careers they help their associates build. But nothing that feels like a clear purpose or focused direction.

I take a different tact. I admit that I, like hundreds of other critics, have my own perspective on what Wal-Mart is doing right (not much) and wrong (a lot) when it comes to corporate responsibility. On how to proactively manage the endless bad press they get. How they could go about seizing their potential. Did they want to hear my thoughts? Why not, they answer. Everyone else comes down here and tells us what they think we should do. We’re used to it at this point.

This is written by someone from Seventh Generation. Seventh Generation is a precept of the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), which requires that chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the seventh generation. Read it all here.

Vast Wealthy Transplant Conspiracy in SL

Revenge of the Wal-Mart Voters

Interesting politcal/Wal-Mart article by Ryan Sager on realclearpolitics.org (a conservative political website)

What's Wal-Mart got to do with anything? Not a whole lot, except as a symbol of a particular type of voter: largely Southern, rural, lower-middle-class, female, socially conservative -- not big fans of tax cuts, but huge fans of government programs.

Zogby finds that while 85 percent of frequent Wal-Mart shoppers voted for President Bush's reelection in 2004 (and 88 percent of people who never shop there voted for Sen. John Kerry), Wal-Mart voters have turned on the president dramatically. In a poll taken earlier this month, they gave Bush a 35 percent approval rating -- compared to a 45 percent positive rating from born-again Christians, 49 percent from NASCAR fans, and 54 percent from self-identified conservatives.

The correlation between cheap underwear and populist politics could evaporate as the Wal-Mart brand evolves to fit a more urban and upscale market.

Wal-Mart voters are simply not a viable, reliable conservative constituency.

Go you fickle Wal-Mart shoppers!

Winn-Dixie Files for Bankruptcies

Care to guess the reason? Here.

Movie At LPCA

Friday, June 30
7:30pm FILM:
Independent America:
The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop

These days, you have to go out of your way if you want to do business
with Mom & Pop. One couple has taken that notion a little bit farther,
13,000 miles to be exact. Self-imposed road rules bar them from major
highways and corporate chain retail. Independent filmmakers and
award-winning journalists, Hosein and Hughes, take the road less
traveled in a thought provoking documentary, which uncovers the growing
opposition to big box retail across the U.S. and the often desperate
fight being waged by independent retailers to stay alive.
(USA/CA, 2005, 80mins., NR, Dir. Hanson Hosein & Heather Hughes)
Tickets: $6

One Reason Wal-Mart Must Grow at Any Cost

Yes, Another ADE Poll

From your friendly Adirondack Daily Enterprise: Are you in favor of a community-owned department store for Saranac Lake?

Current results (6/29):

Yes: 71.3%
No: 27.2%
Undecided: 1.5%

Now why would anyone be opposed to a community department store in Saranac Lake? A community department store certainly would not be competition to a Wal-Mart or other large retailer. The Comm. for the Advancement of Retail Development should be overjoyed with the thought of a new retail store. They are for advancement of retail development, says so right in their name.

Go here to read the comments left on the poll site.

It took a couple days, but the nastier comments are now arriving. The nasty comments seem to correlate with an uptick in the number of 'NO' voters.

UPDATE: So far approximately 90 comments. 44 of them generally in favor of a community department store and 45 opposed. More than half of those opposed to a CDS seem to think they have to write uncivil comments. I guess Wal-Mart really brings out the best in people.

Hot Off the Press

Wrestling With Wal-Mart: Tradeoffs Between Profits, Prices and Wages by Bernstein, Bivens and Dube. Find the report here(pdf). You probably need to be a trained economist to understand the math in the appendix of this paper. You can also read a news release about the paper called 'The Wal-Mart debate A false choice between prices and wages' here.

To get a feel for how much of a wage increase could be financed out of reduced profit shares, one can imagine Wal-Mart's profit margins falling back down to their 1997 levels, which would also cut half of the difference between their margins and a key Wal-Mart competitor, Costco (which posted a profit margin of 2.0% in 2005). Reducing the profit margin by this much would give Wal-Mart $2.3 billion to plough into improved worker compensation without the need to raise prices. In Wrestling With Wal-Mart, we calculate that this would translate into just under $2,100 per non-managerial employee. Simply returning to its 1997 net profit margins, Wal-Mart could give its non-supervisory workers 13% pay increases without raising prices, while maintaining higher profit margins than a main competitor.

Wal-Mart could definitely raise compensation for its workers and still have lower prices than its competitors. Note that labor costs for its non-supervisory staff account for less than 7% of its total sales. If Wal-Mart's price advantage relative to its competitors is even in the neighborhood of what its defenders claim, consumers would still find Wal-Mart's prices lower. To believe otherwise is to believe that Wal-Mart's price advantage comes completely from substandard worker pay and not through any cost efficiencies.

Wal-Mart does a lot right. It has expanded productivity by being more efficient and leaner than many other companies. Many of the benefits shoppers accrue from Wal-Mart's expansion could be preserved even if the retailer had to meet the expectations of its critics regarding fair worker compensation. Defenders of the company too often set up false dichotomies such as low prices vs. high wages when in reality, better compensation for workers won't negate Wal-Mart's competitive edge.

Good Wal-Mart Debate at Slate

Barbara Ehrenreich, ex-Wal-Mart employee, author of Nickle and Dimed a story about how she lived a low wage earners life debates economist Jason Furman, author of Wal-Mart: A progressive success story.

Barbara makes some good points:

And it is because we appreciate the low prices that we are not yelling: Stamp out the Beast! Crush it before it can bud off yet another Super Store!We are saying, pretty calmly for the most part: Why can't it be better? Why can't it offer decent-paying jobs as well as low prices, especially if it's such a genius, as you say, at increasing productivity?

The problem isn't Wal-Mart, we critics like to say, it's the Wal-Martization of the entire economy, which involves not only low wages at Wal-Mart itself but depressed wages throughout the company's whole supply chain as well as at competing companies (e.g., supermarkets).

Jason counters:

Maybe you're ready to grant my point that Wal-Mart's low prices are great for the 298 million Americans who don't work there. But what about the 1.3 million Americans who do work for Wal-Mart? Here the evidence is murkier, in part because Wal-Mart refuses to release the data on its wages and benefits that could clear up a number of questions. What we do know is that its wages and benefits are about average for the retail sector—which is to say, not so great.

But I understand why progressives are so upset about low wages and inadequate benefits. I am also upset by the rise of inequality and the relatively slow economic progress that the bottom 80 percent of Americans have made over the last several decades. I just think Wal-Mart is the wrong place to put the blame or to expect the solution.

Now imagine that Best Buys across the country were replaced by Stereo Exchanges. We would have more "good jobs" and fewer "bad jobs." The average wage in the electronics retail sector would go up. But where would all the former Best Buy workers go? Most of them wouldn't work at Stereo Exchange. Maybe some would take a pay cut and work at McDonalds.

Sounds like he is saying big box stores are there to provide jobs to dummies.

Barbara:

I'm a little baffled by your Best Buy/Stereo Exchange example. If Stereo Exchange took over from Best Buy, there'd be a lot more better-paying jobs in the retail electronics business. Why wouldn't the former Best Buy workers take a lot of these new and better jobs? They're not all as clueless as you seem to think.

You ask, in so many words, why pick on Wal-Mart when there are so many equally Scrooge-like employers around? Why not go after, say, the bodega on the corner? Well, the question answers itself. By gobbling up thousands of acres of farmland and suburban sprawl to feed its relentless appetite for growth, recruiting (and spitting out) thousands of workers a day, and achieving near-monopoly status in some parts of the country, Wal-Mart has made itself into an unmissable target for anyone concerned about poverty and mounting inequality. The bodega may be bad—not to mention any number of retail chains other than Wal-Mart—but you might as well start with the biggest piggy of all, which is the largest single private employer in America.

Why can't more people understand this point?

You're arguing, essentially, that whatever misery Wal-Mart workers endure is compensated for by the low prices Wal-Mart consumers enjoy. The same could be said of other workers who provide services to working-class people, like those in the fast-food and child-care industries: Their atrocious wages help keep prices low for impecunious parents and burger-eaters. In other words, the working class can only advance on the backs of (some of) its own members. Sacrifice one group to keep the others afloat, so that the class struggle is replaced by a kind of Darwinism internal to the working class.

I believe this debate goes on all week.

What is a Community Retail Store?

From some of the comments published on the ADE webpoll it seems there is some confusion about 'Community Retail Stores'.

A community department store is not a co-operative. You don't need to be a 'member', anyone can shop there.

A community department store is a corporation, owned by investors (restricted to community members) and overseen by a board of directors that are responsible to a set of bylaws.

If a community department store runs into financial difficulties, it is the investors that take the financial hit. Investors own shares of the corporation. Investors cannot be assessed additional monies.

What if a larger department store opens in the area causing financial problems to a community department store? Presumably the investors lose their money. A risk they were willing to take.

A community department store will just be like a Wisebuys or Dollar Store. Maybe, maybe not. If a community department store is not to your liking, you have the option of not shopping there.

The Powell Merc only pays their employees $6-7 per hour and no benefits. So what, Powell will not own our community department store. We can do what we think is right.

A community department store is not a community organization in the sense that it is a club, fraternal organization or even a volunteer fire department. It is a corporation, recognized by the state, owned by investors, who happen to be interested community members.

But Wal-Mart.... To hell with Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart's financial future is dependent on locating in Saranac Lake, it is way too late to be concerned about them. They probably have the support to build a smaller store in the downtown area. This apparently does not interest them.

Let's Be Civil

"Adirondack natives are intelligent, wise, hard-working and generous".

Generally speaking, yes. However, every now and then you get a letter like this one.

Unthinking letters are one thing, but this 'major retailer' issue has devolved into unknown persons leaving anonymous hate mail in a village trustee's mailbox. This is not only uncivil, it's against the law.

Waltons - Where are you?

Stories on Community Store Public Forum - Saranac Lake

Report from WNBZ radio here.

Adirondack Daily Enterprise story here.

Plattsburgh Press Republican story here.

Very Successful Public Forum Tonight!

Tonight was the night of the Public Forum about a community department store held at the Harrietstown Town Hall. There was quite a large audience of enthusiastic attendees. When asked how many people would buy shares in such a store (at $500 each) at least 100 people raised their hands.


Left to right: Steve Alves, Board Member, Greenfield, MA Mercantile; Nancy Neff, Stafford Springs, CT Community Store; Sharon Earhart, Chamber Director, Powell, Wyoming


Attentive Saranac Lake residents. Maybe 200-250 attendees, maybe more.


Steve Alves explains the legal process needed to sell shares in a community store venture.
I just realized that Steve Alves is the guy that made the movie 'Talking to the Wall'. Read more here. I also posted about this movie on 5/31 here.

Powell, Wyoming 'Merc' - Some Info

The Merc opened in July 2002. The store sells affordably priced clothing and shoes for the whole family. With a Wal-Mart Supercenter just 20 miles away in Cody, some Powell residents predicted that The Merc, like most small town stores focused on basic needs, would fail.But so far the store has been remarkably successful. It's met vital local needs, boosted sales at other downtown businesses, and even turned a profit. During its first year, The Merc took in $500,000 in revenue, outpacing projections, and generated a profit of $36,000. The earnings were reinvested and used to expand the store from 7,500 to 10,000 square feet. Founders cite several factors in The Merc's success, including top-notch customer service and a board made up of experienced local businesspeople. With no debt to service or stockholders demanding high rates of return, prices can be kept relatively low. "We're probably not quite as low as Wal-Mart," said store manager Paul Ramos, "but we're close and we usually do better than the mall up in Billings." Another significant factor in The Merc's success, according to board member Ken Witzeling, is the community's sense of ownership. "When you walk down the street and talk to people about the store," he said, "they all refer to it as 'our store.' Not 'the store,' or 'that store.' It's 'our store.'

Read more here.

Also, an article in the Casper Star Tribune here.

"Everyone wants to know what we're doing and how we're doing it."

The answer to the first part of the question is "pretty good." It has been three years since 800 community investors plunked down one or more $500 shares to put The Merc in business. Last year, the community-owned business cleared $560,000 in gross sales and shareholders should see "sizeable" dividends in the next few years, said Ken Witzeling, a retired pharmacist who sits in the president's chair on The Merc's Board of Directors.
"We've made money since day one," Witzeling said.

ADE Editorial - At Least Consider a Community Department Store

Here.

The 'guts' of the editorial appear below.

Nevertheless, we’ve heard many people — angry that the village board halted the rezoning process for the would-be Wal-Mart site — say they would boycott such a community store. They say it is being proposed by the same people who opposed Wal-Mart. There’s some truth to that. Although support for the store is more broad-based than such critics realize, the Save Saranac Lake Coalition, which vehemently opposes Wal-Mart, is involved in promoting the idea as a smaller alternative to the 121,000-square-foot Supercenter Wal-Mart wants to build.

We, however, are not categorically opposed to Wal-Mart. The way we see it is this: Anyone who really wants a new department store in Saranac Lake, like we do, should be willing to seriously consider the pros and cons of any party that steps up to the plate with a proposal to establish one — from Wal-Mart to a grassroots group.

The second paragraph is the key. Many opponents of Wal-Mart were/are willing to compromise if the store was located downtown and was smaller. CARD is not only unwilling to discuss compromises on Wal-Mart size and location, they are unwilling to discuss or listen to ANY viable alternative on retail development.

This is the Committee for Advancement of Retail Development? How does not listening to other ideas on retail development advancing retail development? They need to face facts. The are the Committee for Advancement of a 121,000 sq ft Wal-Mart Located on Lake Flower Avenue....let's see...that would be CA121kWMLLFA. Yeah that is a mouthful.

Todays Amusing Letter to the ADE Editor

Here

"Wal-Mart already said in a statement that the village board vote will block a store from being built there, and Wal-Mart will not wait two years for a decision".

If Wal-Mart will not wait two years for a decision, that is their business decision. If they think an SL store will be profitable, they will build...in two years, five years or ten years. It's a business decision.

"Stanley Chevrolet is now sitting empty, paying no salaries; it looks pretty bad when driving past it".

Yes, Stanley Chevrolet is sitting empty. It's a pretty big lot wouldn't you say? At least as big as the plaza across the street? Big enough for a 68,000 sq ft Wal-Mart probably. Business decision.

"This idea of a community department store is not the answer, it’s one of the worst solutions to the problem I’ve ever heard of".

It's a solution? Why? Are there any reasons other than that you want a 121,000 sq ft Wal-Mart instead?

No Quality of Life in SL!

This morning on TOT the community was notified, by a regular caller, that there is no quality of life in Saranac Lake, unlike in the past. Why is this? High crime rate? Poor educational system? Lack of clean air and water? No, it's none of those things.

It's because we don't have a Wal-Mart!

Almost everyone in the area agrees that Saranac Lake needs a large department store to replace the old Ames store. But to claim that SL lacks quality of life because we don't have a Wal-Mart is not only wrong, ignorant, illogical, and not well thought out....it's stupid.

This is what it's come down to. The problem is no longer that we lack a large department store, the problem is that we lack a 121,000 sq ft Wal-Mart box in which to buy cheap junk.

Ever wonder why Ames went bankrupt? Could it possibly be because Wal-Mart put them out of business? Hundreds of grocery stores across the USA have gone out of business. Why? Wal-Mart. Tens of thousands of good, well paying manufacturing jobs have been moved overseas. Why, because US manufacturers are pressured to do so by Wal-Mart. But no need to worry. These good paying jobs with benefits are being replaced by jobs at Wal-Mart just so you and I can buy more and more unnecessary cheap crap.

Robert Reich, ex-Secretary of Labor says, consumers' addiction to low prices is accelerating a shift toward a two-tiered U.S. economy, with a shrinking middle class and a growing pool of low-wage workers. "Wal-Mart's prices may be lower," he said, "but that's small consolation to a lot of people who end up with less money to spend."

I am finally reading "The Wal-Mart Effect" by Charles Fishman. I'm very surprised more pro-Wal-Mart people haven't read the book because Fishman actually seems to admire what Wal-Mart has accomplished. The more worrisome aspects are the spreading effects of what and how Wal-Mart does business. Even the US Bureau of Standards cannot get a handle on the effects of Wal-Mart on our economy.

Fishman wanted to interview companies that supply Wal-Mart. He had lots of trouble finding one that would talk about their so called 'partnership' with Wal-Mart. He finally found a supplier that agreed to be interviewed. Next day the supplier said they changed their mind. They had called Wal-Mart to make sure it was okay. It wasn't. They couldn't afford to alienate Wal-Mart.

An economist wanted to do a study on the effects of Wal-Mart on surrounding businesses. They called Wal-Mart to get a list of stores and the dates on which they opened for business. Wal-Mart refused to give out the information.

(Rant to be con't)

REMINDER

What: Public forum about a Community Department Store

When: Thursday, June 22nd, 7 PM

Where: Harrietstown Town Hall, Saranac Lake, NY

Everyone is welcomed.

Organization Clarifies Name

Sour Grapes at its Best

Letter in Saturdays Adirondack Daily Enterprise by Jeffrey K. Branch (loser of the race for mayor of SL 838-579)sounds like sour grapes at its finest. Mr. Branch needs to learn how a representative government works and what 'open government' means.

1. democracy took a back seat to back-room politics. Where is the evidence that any back-room politics took place? That is a serious unsubstantiated charge.

2. democracy took a back seat to a vocal minority. What vocal minority? 838-579?

3. A motion to send the issue of rezoning the sand pit to public hearing was defeated. So by your definition, every single motion of importance needs to have a public hearing before it can be voted on by elected representatives?

4. ...a process which is the basis for the republic to which they pledge their allegiance prior to every meeting.... My, hopefully they won't be sent to Gitmo.

5. The residents of the village have been denied their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be heard. CARD, SAGA, Voters for Change, Coalition to Save Saranac Lake, countless letters to the editor, months of daily calls to talk of the town, radio interviews, town meetings, petitions, campaigns etc and no one was heard? 838-579

6. It is time you (Mayor Michael) start listening to the residents of this village and time you start acting in their interest. 838-579

EXCELLENT New Website!

Here

It's the brand new website of the Save Saranac Lake Coalition, a group of area residents that want to preserve the unique character of the Village of Saranac Lake. Please visit their website and click on 'About Us'. There you will find a good summary of the story thus far concerning Wal-Mart and SL.

The pictures of our beautiful town are some of the best I've ever seen!

Saranac Lake is Not Dying

Saranac Lake may lack a large retail department store but it is not dying as many pro-WalMarter's claim. Two recent examples:


New retail space is being proposed to be built across from the train station on Depot Street. The building site is pictured above and was one of the proposed locations for a smaller, downtown Wal-Mart or other department store. Maybe the new retail space would be good for a community department store. Would it be a Wal-Mart? No. But it might be big enough to supply the necessities that many claim are difficult to find. Story here at WNBZ.


In other news, the American Management Association wants the village to consider annexing the old Trudeau Sanitorium property which is currently owned by the Association. The property is currently not on the tax rolls as it is a non-profit, educational organization. In return, the AMA would offer for sale several buildings which would then be placed back on the tax rolls.

Finally, some pro-WalMart supporters often claim there are many closed store fronts in downtown Saranac Lake. Where exactly are they?

Another Intelligent Letter

Yet another intelligent Letter to the ADE Editor that begs to be preserved longer than 2 weeks. The letter makes several important points:

1) New Village board members were fairly elected and board decisions have been based on reason and facts
2) Some disaffected area residents are acting immaturely
3) Individuals of all income levels, natives and 'transplants' may be for or opposed to a huge Wal-Mart located on Lake Flower Ave.
4) Wal-Mart is not the only solution to Village retail development
5) Wal-Mart does not care about you or me or our Village
6) We should be able to all work together, CARD included

The new village board was elected fair and square. Contrary to what some say, decisions that the board has made thus far are based on fact and reason, not on emotion or conspiracies.

It’s disappointing to read baseless accusations against our democratically elected officials and to hear fourth-grade-level nonsense on local radio. At least one new board member has received rude e-mails as well as a couple of vulgar “salutes” out on the streets of our town. This juvenile behavior will not make anyone’s life better and certainly doesn’t help the cause of these disgruntled individuals.

There is a perception among Wal-Mart supporters that “wealthy transplants” are coming in and “telling natives how to run things” or that “the rich are walking all over the poor.” This is short-sighted and uninformed. In fact, folks on both sides of the issue are natives and non-natives, pro-APA and anti-APA, full-time and part-time residents, professional and blue-collar, old and young, and people of all income levels.

The “native vs. non-native” labeling is arbitrary. What does “native” mean? Born inside the Blue Line? Born within village boundaries? Does a native resident of Paul Smiths, Vermontville or even Old Forge have more right to an opinion than a “transplant” who has lived in Saranac Lake for 10 years? What counts is what you bring and give to your community. What do you do to make Saranac Lake a flourishing and welcoming place to live?

There are many possible solutions to the retail problem, not just one. We have a chance to work together to bring in a store that will serve our needs while preserving our small-town character. How can anyone be against that? Discontented Wal-Mart supporters say they will now boycott Saranac Lake businesses, but if they already don’t shop here, what exactly will they boycott, and how does that help their town?

Here is a fact. Hundreds of towns across America are launching campaigns to keep Wal-Mart out of their communities. Why is that? Talk about a wealthy non-native coming in and running things. Five members of the Walton family are worth more than $18 billion each. Why can’t they afford to pay all of their workers a salary above the poverty line with full benefits (while they grieve their taxes, pollute and kill all the competition)? Do you honestly think they give a rat’s behind about you?

After the vote to stop the rezoning process, certain members of CARD said they would have no part of the cooperative effort to bring in a suitable retailer. That’s unfortunate. I understood CARD to be Citizens’ Advancement for Retail Development. If that’s the case, I hope to see them at the public forum on June 22, where we’ll look at better ways to advance retail development. If not, they should consider changing their name to Citizens’ Advancement for a 121,000-square-foot Wal-Mart, if that’s the only thing they actually support. I hope it’s the former.

Annette Scheuer

Saranac Lake

From the Bentonville WalMartian Today

Cogent ADE Poll Comments

Some comments posted in response to ADE poll question "Is Wal-Mart blocked from coming to Saranac Lake now that the village board has halted the rezoning process for its sand lot, on which Wal-Mart wants to build"?

No, they are not blocked. This is just a beautiful example of their corporate bullying tactics. It is a poorly-veiled attempt to evoke emotion. If they are not willing to allow the proper impact studies to be carried out, they are sending a clear message as to the manner in which they intend to become part of this community. They are behaving like foot-stomping four-year-olds, "its my ball and I'm not playing". We should not support Wal-Mart with reckless abandon; lets do this on our terms.

I don't know as anyone takes those extremist comments too seriously - they come from a very small minority of very noisy "commentators". A vast majority of this community wants to move ahead retail shopping options in finding something that fits in - a size we can live with that offers prices that those on the lower end of the economic scale can afford. I think there is about 10% of TOTT listeners that take those comments seriously and the other 90% listens for entertainment. The same with these web polls although there seems to be a larger number of rational contributors to these web polls than on TOTT Take heart - most of the community is interested in taking positive steps forward - let's keep our eye on the prize and don't let the minority extremists get you down... or distract you!

No matter how you feel about WaMart, Saranac Lake is lucky to have a Village Board that is willing to take a hard look at the facts, take public input and opinion into account, and make a very tough decision. Right on, Village Board!

It's too bad this Wal-Mart business has devolved into a dispute between 'poor natives' and 'wealthy transplants'. Where is the evidence that wealthy transplants are responsible for all the problems in Saranac Lake? Where is the evidence that the majority of people who voted for the new mayor and trustees are 'wealth transplants'? There is an honest difference of opinion on Wal-Mart. Why can't we try to solve the retail store problem instead of trying to assign blame for WM being put on hold?

I'm a 3rd generation native, own a home and work in the village and am definitely not wealthy. That being said, I voted for the new town board members and mayor and am very proud of them for standing up to Walmart's bullying tactics. I have to wonder how many of the people doing all the complaining about the board actually bothered to vote. Seems the other guys would have won in a landslide if 80% of the town really is pro-walmart. Most people I know say department store yes, but no supercenter!

Please, once and for all, open your eyes and ears: NO ONE IS AGAINST A RETAIL STORE. WE ARE AGAINST WAL-MART FOR THE SAME REASONS THAT HUNDREDS OF OTHER AMERICAN TOWNS ARE. We are in favor of free enterprise. We want a store that will serve the community. We are AGAINST having this town ruined by an unscrupulous, gluttonous corporation that will eat us alive and then spit us out. GOT IT? Second, people on BOTH sides of this issue are native and non-native. Most people in SL came from elsewhere.

More on the BillBoard Incident

Remember the June 2 post about the billboard in Bentonville, Arkansas that was up for less than one day? Read more Here.

This is interesting:

Not everyone in town is a cheerleader for the company. Some argue that its dominance may cause some people to keep quiet about misgivings about the retailer. Suburban sprawl, crowded schools, rising real estate costs and the loss of small-town culture are among the topics that generate grumbling.

New ADE Wal-Mart Poll Question

A stimulating new discussion concerning the latest ADE Poll Question.

Is Wal-Mart blocked from coming to Saranac Lake now that the village board has halted the rezoning process for its sand lot, on which Wal-Mart wants to build?

Find the discussion (as it were) here. The blame game continues and it's pretty certain all the rich, transplants are going to get their comeupance for 'chasing' Wal-Mart out of town.

Wal-Mart has options to purchase two large, commercially zoned parcels of property and could probably easily purchase the McDonald's. So what is stopping Wal-Mart from proceeding with their plans? Wal-Mart wants a 121,000 sq ft superstore and nothing less. If they can't have what they want, they will walk away.

Wal-Mart sure knows how to show their supporters how much they care about them.

Answer to Wal-Marts Mailing

Opinion column published in todays Adirondack Daily Enterprise below.

Unsolicited mail

By Gloria Volz and Doug Haney, Save Saranac Lake Coalition

How many Adirondack residents enjoy hiking up Saranac Lake’s Mount Baker?

For such a brief walk, the views of the village of Saranac Lake, Lake Flower, the High Peaks and the Saranac Lakes chain are unparalleled. For some, it’s a morning walk with the dog, a lunchtime retreat from work or an evening out with family. Locals take it for granted, and yet each time, the view is new, refreshing and reminds us of why we live in this beautifully unspoiled mountain community.

Many Saranac Lake residents recently received an unsolicited piece of mail from the Wal-Mart corporation. Both the front and back cover display was an early fall photograph of Mount Baker with the Saranac River slowly meandering in the foreground. The photo is quiet, peaceful and above all, naturally perfect.

Upon opening the mailing, one is faced with an artistic rendering of the proposed 121,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter. The elongated brown sketch unemotionally sprawls across a bifold page without representation of a parking lot or any indication of McKenzie Mountain, Moose Mountain or Mount Baker, which are normally clearly visible behind the proposed site.

The caption reads “Wal-Mart: A store designed to fit Saranac Lake.”

The piece then goes on to state that the structure will be “designed with your community in mind” and delivers four bullet points touting job creation, revenue generation of sales tax and local property taxes, “an additional local shopping choice” and also that the store will be “in keeping with the distinct character of Saranac Lake.”

Point: The average pay for a Wal-Mart sales associate is $1,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. Business as usual? Not necessarily. Retail rival Costco pays its workers 65 percent more on average than Wal-Mart, yet earns more profits per employee. According to a study performed by the University of Missouri, Wal-Mart boosts retail employment by 100 jobs in the first year, far less than the 200 promised due to the downsizing and layoffs of existing retailers that struggle to compete. Over the next four years, there is a loss of 40 to 60 more retail jobs as new area business becomes stagnant.

Point: Wal-Mart fails to mention the loss in taxes that will come from local businesses being forced to shut down. It also fails to mention the additional cost to our communities for extra services and infrastructure maintenance, which the village must provide for such a commercial addition.

Point: The only Wal-Mart in the Adirondacks is in Ticonderoga. When that 111,000-square-foot store was proposed in 1997, the company said it would not seek a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes), but it later applied for and received a 10-year PILOT agreement.

Point: At 121,000 square feet, the store would be larger than the three biggest retail locations in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Tupper Lake combined before adding the more than 600 parking spaces that would be required to support a retail location of this size. In comparison, a football field is 57,600 square feet; therefore, the proposed Saranac Lake Wal-Mart would be larger than four football fields, including a parking lot illuminated 24 hours a day.

If Wal-Mart truly wished to build a “Supercenter designed with your community in mind,” it would have asked for your input before dropping a postcard of the store in your mailbox.

Once the view is changed, it is changed forever.

If you’d like to support positive growth for the village of Saranac Lake and the continued health of our All-America City, contact the Save Saranac Lake Coalition by e-mailing slcconcerns@yahoo.com or via post: P.O. Box 643, Saranac Lake, NY 12983.

The SSLC would like to commend our elected officials for making a decision that will ensure a healthy future for Saranac Lake. They haven’t locked the door on retail development; they’ve simply given the village of Saranac Lake the key.

This letter was a collaborative effort by the steering committee of the Save Saranac Lake Coalition. Gloria Volz lives in Lake Clear, and Doug Haney lives in Saranac Lake.

Documentation for the 4 points made in the above column can be found on this blog.

Has Wal-Mart Been Prevented From Locating in Saranac Lake?

Simple answer, absolutely not. First, there are two possible building sites located in the downtown area. Second, eventually the village sandpit area will most likely be rezoned commercial and likely put up for sale.

Wal-Mart obviously thinks than can make big bucks by building a store in Saranac Lake. But only by building a 121,000 (or 100,000 downsized) sq foot store that stocks 60,000 or more items? A more reasonable sized store located in the downtown area cannot be profitable?

Wal-Mart is not interested in compromise nor are its local supporters. They must not want a store very badly.

And the Letters Begin...

In todays Adirondack Daily Enterprise, two 'woe are we' letters not really worth a comment (although the implication that our students wouldn't leave Saranac Lake if there was a Wal-Mart in SL is an original hypothesis). Here and here.

Whose Fault is It? Part IV

This mornings TOT on WNBZ (7:50 AM Mon - Fri):

To sum it up, it's the fault of the small business owners of Saranac Lake. The best thing to do now is to boycott these stores and put them out of business. That will open the way for Wal-Mart to come to town.

Whose Fault is It? Part III

This mornings TOT on WNBZ (7:50 AM Mon - Fri):

First call: Elected trustees and Mayor were for Wal-Mart and then changed their minds. Actually no. They all stated that they would want much more information before they made a decision.

Second call: Wal-Mart would have been a big boost and would have helped the small businesses. We need to vote Democrats out. Actually no. Most academic studies show that Wal-Mart is bad for small town businesses. Democrats were elected with very healthy majorities indicating that most people agreed with thier viewpoints.

Third call: Empty stores downtown, people going to Plattsburgh, boycott SL shopping. Saranac Lake is screwing everyone from what they deserve to have (Wal-Mart). There might be empty stores downtown, but they are difficult to find.

Fourth call: Democrats were wishy washy about whether they supported Wal-Mart or not. Saranac Lake is full of people with disposable income. They come from other places (during the last 20 years) and pay 2-3 times what a property is worth. The majority voters did not seem to agree that the Democrats were wishy washy. Are you saying voters in SL are stupid? Is the answer to prevent any new people from locating to SL? Should they be forced to pay less than what a property is worth? Are you willing to sell your property for less than it is worth?

Fifth call: Wish suitable place for Wal-Mart was found, opposed to Lake Flower Av site. Just as most SL residents apparently were too.

Sixth call: Let's boycott SL. There's an idea. Let's destroy the small businesses of SL. That should help the tax base.

Perfectly Stated

Opinion column in todays ADE:

Finally, let me address the issue of being an integral part of a community. What a subjective beauty this term is. It is a concept that seems to somehow get tied to the length of time a person lives in a community rather than the actions of that person while they are there. If time were the factor, none of the local residents who spend half the year in Florida would be integral. All of the residents who live in a community 12 months a year would be integral. Who is it that determines who is and who isn’t integral? This issue is a two-way street. There’s responsibility on the part of the new person to make the effort to integrate into the community, but there is also responsibility on the part of the existing community to welcome them and encourage them to become part of it. Calling them “elitists” or “outsiders” is not a good start. Fortunately, we have great neighbors and new friends who have done their share to make us feel a part of the neighborhood and community. While we don’t have a checklist on how to be integral, we do help wherever and however we can, and we don’t demand much, if anything, in the way of services from the schools and the government. We frequent and support local businesses, attend and support our local church, help local charities and, in general, seem to be doing all the things that we’ve always done wherever we’ve lived. I’m sure there are “flatlanders” who do more and some who do less. At the same time, I’m sure there are some locals who could do more for their community or could do a better job of welcoming the new people to the neighborhood. Being an integral part of anything has very little to do with time.

It is time to focus on the real issues, unite people to solve the problems and to stop creating classes that divide and provide no solution.

Whose Fault Is It? Part II

On WNBZ's Talk of the Town this morning.

1. Rich people
2. People who live here but don't work here
3. Democrats
4. Rich people who elected the Democrats
5. Rich people political machine
6. People that don't understand that Wal-Mart is a force for good
7. People who want to keep the poor people down because this is a playground for the rich
8. People that only live here in the summer
9. People that did not grow up here
10. People that did not live here during the good ole days (50's)

Whose Fault Is It? Part I

From Plattsburgh Press Republican:

Wal-Mart says:

Wal-Mart said it was disappointed in the board's decision, singling out Michael and saying the sand pit and the surrounding commercial properties it planned to buy make up the only suitable site for a Supercenter in Saranac Lake.

"Thousands of signatures were submitted supporting retail development in Saranac Lake, and we have recently received hundreds of cards in support of our project," the statement said.

"Unfortunately, the board's decision has effectively prohibited Wal-Mart from locating in Saranac Lake."

Typical response from poor beleaguered Wal-Mart. Everyone is picking on us. No one likes us, even though we are a force for good. Wal-Mart is not prohibited from locating in Saranac Lake. There are two perfectly good building sites available. And, even with the rezoning process postponed, eventually the property will be zoned commercial. Future hopes in preventing big box syndrome lie with village zoning restrictions on retail building size as has been done by several towns in Maine that care about their community character. Wal-Mart is now sulking and refuses to return calls to the Plattsburgh Press Republican.

Wal-Mart also places the blame on Saranac Lake Mayor Tom Michael, a man who won the election with a decided majority and who cast the deciding vote on the rezoning issue.

Community Department Store Presentation - June 22

That didn't take long at all. Mark your calenders. A Pro-active group is doing something about retail development already. The Save Saranac Lake Coalition is sponsoring a public forum to learn about Community Department Stores. The presentation will be held at 7 PM, June 22nd in the Harrietstown Hall, Saranac Lake, NY. Representatives from two operating community department stores will be there. More info at slconcerns@yahoo.com.

Stay tuned for the reaction. Will there be wailing and gnashing of teeth or a joining together to do something positive?

What's Next???

The possibility of Wal-Mart building a store in Saranac Lake in the near future now seems to be unlikely, at least at the Lake Flower Ave. sandpit site. However, Wal-Mart probably has better than majority support to build a smaller store at another location in the downtown area of Saranac Lake. But how likely is that? Probably 100% unlikely since Wal-Mart wants what it wants and is known for not listening to anyone. So Wal-Mart the ball is now in your court.

The ball is also in the court of the Saranac Lake community. Most area residents do want a new department store, so what's next? Wouldn't it be great if SAGA, The CSave Saranac Lake Coalition, and CARD got together and determined what everyone could agree on and support concerning retail development? If CARD (Committee for Advancement of Retail Development)is really interested in retail development and not Wal-Mart per se, there is every reason to believe that the groups getting together could happen.

There are sure to be some angry letters to the ADE and calls to TOT concerning last nights vote to stop the sandpit rezoning process. The SL mayor and two village trustees are going to take some serious heat during the next week or so. Hopefully they will remember that they were elected by a substantial majority of voters. Hopefully they will do all they can to encourage reasonable retail development in downtown Saranac Lake.

I'm still ready to put my money where my mouth is concerning a co-operative retail store.

Wal-Mart Derailed in Saranac Lake

Last night the SL Village Board voted 3-2 to stop the rezoning process for the village owned sandpit site that Wal-Mart is interested in purchasing. Hear all about it at ncpr.org

Read about it here in the ADE.

Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors with over $110 billion in combined assets. Founded in 1971, ICCR is a major force in bringing advances in corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and economic justice through organized share-owner advocacy.

See what they have to say about Wal-Mart here.

Also:
To Whom Much Is Given Much Is Expected, a few sermons.