Dear Editor:
There seems to be a lack of common sense and reality with those
who believe the misinformation that Wal-Mart grinds out of its
propaganda machine.
Dear Editor:
There seems to be a lack of common sense and reality with those who believe the misinformation that Wal-Mart grinds out of its propaganda machine. Any realistic in-depth study of the company will see that Wal-Mart is truly not a good neighbor. Wal-Mart does make minimal donations to the community, but its devastating business practices will more than counter all of the community assistance it may have given. If the Super Center does open, then an irrevocable devastation to the communities of Gilroy, San Martin, Hollister and Morgan Hill will occur. Many scoff at that suggestion, but any serious study of smaller communities like ours will show how a Wal-Mart Super Center has “strip-mined” the entire surrounding communities.
Wal-Mart, in Gilroy, has announced that it intends to put in a MONSTROUS Super Center 40 acres in size, over 200,000 square feet. If this Super Center opens, it will have a “kill zone” of 20 plus miles. The Super Center intends to target every type of business and shut every single competitive business down. The Wal-Mart Super Center intends to sell or have: BOOKS, TOYS, BICYCLES, GROCERIES, FURNITURE, COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE, BAKERY, HAIR SALON, DRY CLEANERS, PHARMACY, OIL CHANGES, TIRE SALES, MUSIC, ARTS & SUPPLIES, LIQUOR/WINE/BEER PRODUCTS, ELECTRONICS, FLORAL, VIDEO RENTALS, etc. Wal-Mart’s strategy is simple, fool the people then take everything they have, causing them to be dependent solely on Wal-Mart. Contrary to Wal-Mart’s evil plot, you need to remember, “Just Say NO!”
With the Wal-Mart Super Center expansion, our hometown store owners will take the biggest hit. Wal-Mart will send out it’s Super Center spies to scout out the competition in Gilroy, San Martin, Hollister and Morgan Hill. A Wal-Mart Super Center on the offensive against its local competition will be willing to take losses on the merchandise that our home town businesses sell. Wal-Mart managers will ascertain what they are selling and at what prices; then they will stock, advertise, and sell those items at prices near or below their cost, an illegal tactic known as predatory pricing. Our hometown businesses will not be able to compete without losing money, and will eventually be driven out.
One of the “carrots” Wal-Mart will hold out twill be the promise of jobs.But, for every two jobs created by Wal-Mart, at least three jobs are lost. The Wal-Mart jobs that are offered will be part-time and low-paying. The vast majority will work fewer than the customary 40 hours a week (Wal-mart Super Centers define a “full-time” worker as someone who puts in 28 hours per week). Further 60 to 70 percent of these workers have no health insurance.The Wal-Mart Super Center is not really offering new jobs in the way a manufacturer would be. If the Super Center opens it will be selling merchandise that was already available in our communities, it is just going to be rearranging the way money already gets spent. It’s not job creation, but job re-allocation and, eventually, job loss.
Other businesses will suffer. Businesses not directly competitive with the Wal-Mart Super Center will not share in Wal-Mart’s wealth. Newspapers will see a decrease in advertising dollars, as smaller business are sent into extinction. Wal-Mart will rarely advertise through our local newspapers. Our local banks will not see an influx of Wal-Mart money, that could be used to help the towns’ infrastructure. The Wal-Mart Super Center may make a nightly deposit, but its money will then be electronically transferred back to its private bank in Bentonville, AK.
Downtown Morgan Hill, Hollister and even San Martin will die. This is the all-too-frequent result of a Wal-Mart Super Center infiltration – and it’s part of the plan. The formula is to provide a neatly packaged and heavily promoted alternative to our small downtown communities. Just look at downtown Gilroy, look what the smaller version of the Wal-Mart Super Center did, all that now occupies downtown Gilroy are antique and used furniture stores. Do we want that to happen to the other downtown areas? NO!
Taxpayers pay for the disaster. Along with the jobs lost to the Super Center, following that exodus will be lost sales tax from the closed businesses. Remember, Wal-Mart will be adding nontaxable items (i.e., groceries) that will not generate any more sales tax then the current Wal-mart generates. People who once made a livable wage will not be spending their money in our community and all the new Wal-Mart employees will be earning a wage rate that is at or below the poverty line, walk-in shoppers will disappear as people will bypass Morgan Hill, San Martin and Hollister to shop at Gilroy.
Even scarier are the tales from the towns that actually were strip-mined by Wal-Mart. A small town’s lifeblood isn’t always enough to feed the world’s largest discounter. Once the competition is out of business, and the community cannot support a Wal-Mart Super Center (to Wal-Mart’s standard) it will pick up and leave. Then the community has nothing at all, just like the hospital crisis Morgan Hill has been suffering.
John Reese, Morgan Hill
Submitted Thursday, Feb. 27 to ed****@************ch.com
