Editor:
Good grief! How blind is this area? (“Where’s Walmart?” Aug. 11) The mall tore the businesses in Old Town apart! Target and K-Marts are barely filling their parking lots, and now you bring in Walmart? Walmart doesn’t pay the business taxes other big-box stores pay to the cities who welcome them. Walmart discriminates against seniors and women. Walmart cares little for their staff nor the cities they inhabit. Costco pays all employees well and gives great benefits! It keeps a very low profile. Target gives to the community according to its contracts with the areas they do business. However, Walmart? Nooooo! Has anyone in Humboldt been polled to their views on Walmart? I thought we turned it down before. How about keeping our local businesses health? And well, if there is empty space in the mall … what comes around goes around!
Ginni Hassrick, Bayside
Sweet Spot: Ginni Hassrick, a master of righteous indignation that’s both pithy and truly righteous, wins this week’s Bon Boniere sundae.
Editor:
My hat’s off to Don Anderson (Mailbox, Aug. 4) for a true look at what Wally World can do to a community. We don’t need a Walmart here. It’s going hurt our lives. Don Anderson is telling it like it is.
More businesses will close up and we will be left with junk from a junky store. Tourism is our big draw here. Tourists like our quant stores. They don’t want see big box stores here; they come here from the incorporated areas to our hometown atmosphere.
Marietta Christensen, Loleta
This article appears in EPIC Changes.
Before you all jump on the bandwagon screaming about Walmart and how they treat their employees, maybe you should get your facts straight. I know plenty of ppl who have worked there and they treat the employees well, pay well, and give you stock. Really there are plenty of businesses here only pay mininum wages and no benefits or they are so high you can’t avoid insurance. At least they hire older ppl. Get a life!
Marilyn Valva warns us not to “jump on the bandwagon” as she rolls by on Walmart’s über wagon. There are so very many reasons to dislike Walmart that it’s hard to decide which bandwagon to ride on.
Lets buy “Marilyn Valva” a cigar, after all, there’s some smokers who never contract lung cancer!
Walmart hires old people only because old people already get Social Security, thus Walmart does not have to pay them a living wage. Their salary is a mere suppliment , also, no need to worry about health care, old folks can sign up for MediCare. Walmart: Instant made in China plastic landfill. Consume away.
Ive worked for walmart.They donate tocal charities and sell at lower prices than any one.We get screwed everywhere we shop in humboldt.It would be a nice change to get a deal no and again.our gas prices are .30 more expensive than most anywhere else and walmart beats k-mart prices and quality hands down.grow up and give the less fortunate a break!
Its time to say NO TO the yuppies that haved moved here,opened buisnesses and are screwing the locals with high prices.these people no nothing about walmart or its bizness practices they are just looking for A band wagon to jump on.HOWS THAT HOPE AND CHANGE WORKING FOR YOU? Its just time for people to stand up and say ENOUGH THE 60’S ARE LONG GONE
Good luck, Bill. Let us know how your angry journey back to the 1950s works out.
wal-mart does not discriminate against seniors i have seen 1st hand where the seniors are the greeters at the doors,also the seniors get all kinds of respect from their fellow staff members. wal mart does not discriminate against woman walmart is full of women workers who love their jobs and get top promotions.wal-mart helps with kids not fortunate enough to get trhings they need to help them grow. 1 bad wal mart experience does not make all wal mart store bad. these people who are talking trash about wal mart are just afraid that wal mart will take away their little mom amd pop stores,because wal mart is very affordable,and we who are on very low limited incomes can afford to shop at wal mart and get nice things for ourseleves and our loved ones. so being such prudes and let the liitle guy next to you have nice things too.
Good point about Target and Kmart parking lots that are 25% full, on good days.
Better yet, Walmart’s average pay is probably $2.00/hour after you include the children making that crap.
Walmart’s “low prices” expire with their competition.
IT’S THEIR M.O.!!!
For right-wingers, Walmart is a win-win:
More poverty-wage jobs means growth in predator industries like pawn shops, check cashing, rent-to-own, bail bonds, storage units, rental agencies and job scalpers, which means even more welfare and social services that Tea-baggers love to whine about.
HEY Digging the hole deeper, go buy yourself that cigar!!! Marilyn isn’t a smoker!!! The only reason why Target and Kmart’s parking lots aren’t full is the price of their so-called fashionable clothes! I have 2 kids to clothe for school on a limited budget and before you jump all over me I am NOT on welfare or getting any kind of help from the County!!! Walmart would be a welcome help to my wallet!
Lots of people in this county would be super happy about a walmart coming to town. They have great prices, for a low budget. It will also employ many people here that are out of work!!!!!! Can’t wait
Lisa has such high aspirations.
Funny how people scream about walmart. Its very simple, If you like walmart shop there. If you dont like them then dont shop there. Simple.Let Walmart come. If it survives then that proves people in Humboldt county want to shop there, If it goes under then its gone. We loose nothing. Look at Crescent City. Walmart’s still going strong. I didnt think it would last this long but it has and has just started construction on its super walmart.
We can aspire to be like Crescent City. Thanks, Lisa.
I’ve always disliked seeing paid hacks post counter points on article commentaries which go negative on corporations. In that spirit…
There were a number of articles, mid decade which disclosed that WalMart proposed a human resources strategy to shed older workers, fatter workers, etc., in order to reduce expenses. Here’s the link, plus a tidbit posted below. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/business/businessspecial2/29health.html
“While the memo outlines a series of fairly simple steps to expand coverage – at an additional cost of some $300 million a year by 2011 – it also recommends a wide-ranging set of initiatives to control costs, including one controversial proposal aimed at recruiting what the memo describes as “a healthier, more productive work force.”
Perhaps the most unflattering element is the statistic that nearly half of the children of Wal-Mart employees are uninsured or on Medicaid, the federal and state insurance program for the poor. For the nation’s overall labor force, that portion is one-third, according to Wal-Mart.”
Thanks, Jane. Basically, federal, state and local businesses are subsidizing Walmart. Walmart is a net drain on local economies.
The people of Humboldt voted NO to walmart for all the reasons everybody all over the world know all too well. This is corrupt politics, plain and simple. Anybody involved in local politics who supports not only the coming of more big box in this manner, but the secrecy involved in this development, should kindly resign.
Who’s prospering from all this? Excerpts from this week’s journal…
“Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, southeast of Fortuna along the Van Duzen River. The park, while tiny – only 360 acres – is significant because it’s literally all that’s left of the old growth redwood forest that used to carpet this part of the Van Duzen watershed.”
“The Lower Klamath River, for example, used to be an incredibly productive salmon stream. When the fish were running it harbored the densest populations of California grizzlies in the state, Hughes said. Today the salmon have greatly diminished. And the California grizzly is nowhere to be found.”
“In any ocean or bay, viral contamination is possible from bacteria associated with water runoff and sewage discharge,” says Susan Buckley, Humboldt County’s Public Health Branch director. Her advice to swimmers is to use common sense. “Don’t swim if you have cuts or open sores. Don’t swim after a heavy storm, or near runoff. Avoid swallowing water, and after swimming, dry your ears and shower.” For extra caution, she suggests keeping your head above water.”
For all this a big THANKS! goes out to Humboldt’s big business movers and shakers, political pushers of the status quo and good ol’ business as usual, like the good folks who want to bless our neighborhoods (not theirs) with gifts like the “Marina Center”, the Richardson Grove “Improvement” Project, rezoning real estaters, etc. etc. etc….
” Its very simple, If you like walmart shop there. If you dont like them then dont shop there. Simple.”
Lisa, the reason I discount this common argument is that the store I’d choose to shop at over Walmart may suffer to the point of closure. These are stores that employ my neighbors. I’m sorry, but I have every right to oppose Walmart in our community.
It’s sad that you can’t shop at Walmart locally because the uber-rich of Humboldt (who made their money elsewhere and moved into the area AKA Carpetbagger Joel) don’t want Walmart because they would have to stop overcharging you.
But you can shop online for most items and get 97 cent shipping.
The anti-Walmart crowd are doing this to keep the poor people under their heel and grind the poor of Humboldt harder by selling you the lies that keeps them down.
@Anon.R.Mous
I think it has already been stated that people have a choice where to shop. The idea that it is a conspiracy to undermine the poor is a bit of a stretch. Especially when one considers that by shopping for the “lowest prices” ensures that the “lowest possible wages” will always be paid–and therefore since the poor most likely have fewer jobs skills are the same set of people who are most likely to suffer the larger consequences of shopping at WalMart. It is rather a circular process. The poor don’t need help from the “rich” necessarily to ensure lives of impoverishment. But the wealth holders surely profit, as investors, from the ignorance of the poor understanding the complexity of the problem and being caught up in the circular treadmill.
Look at how well these people are doing thanks to the awesome savings at Walmart!
Jane Fish, that isn’t true about the wage issue. In fact, that isn’t anywhere close at all. There are many reasons you pay less at Walmart, some are Walmart only products, others are that Walmart buys in bulk. And I mean bulk. I’ve seen orders for over 100,000 tons of product before. They also charge less other companies cough Safeway cough to load and unload trucks. While you say they pay less, they pay more in many areas. Most of their drivers make over $100,000 dollars a year, that’s about 3x the going rate for other companies. Their warehouse workers make around $20.
Is Walmart the bestest thing ever? No, but it is better than some of the local companies when I lived in Humboldt that would pay you nothing but Min wage, and if you where lucky, the paychecks would be on time and not bounce.
And to get this out of the way and completely win the thread:
http://youtu.be/in0_VvHVIEQ
Safeway doesn’t have a rap song.
Do you like cheaper bread, milk, meat, soup or coffee? I guess if you are so yuppie-organic that you don’t eat regular food, then you don’t have to shop at Wal-Mart.
Now I hate going to wal-mart sometimes, but I like a good deal also. It smell like diapers and attracts lots of down and out people, but we cannot all afford to shop elsewhere. I am from Humboldt and Mendo, and I live in colorado where there is like five wal-marts in 11 miles.
Great recommendation. We can all aspire to live “where there is like five wal-marts in 11 miles.”
You’re right, we should all aspire to live like people in Humboldt County, with 11 pot medical centers within 5 miles.
@Anon….
1) Walmart didn’t get to where they are by paying one cent surplus for anything.
2) If A, then B, but not necessarily C. (Logic 101).
3) Economy of scale.
4) It is not about winning anything. It is about an exchange of ideas. Our quality of life isn’t the same as Nascar.
Just connect the dots.
Saving $1 today so that overtime society can pick up the added cost of $10 has never looked like a reasonable option to me. But I am willing to acknowledge some people are forced to make short term decisions based on long term bad math. And as long as there are more short term decision makers WalMart will do just fine with the way they operate.
“Quality of life isn’t the same as Nascar”
Wow, classest much?
Also it’s NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. which is really funny because the largest NASCAR approved oval track in Northern California is in….Eureka.
But what gets me laughing is that you think if a Walmart is built, all of a sudden, rednecks and NASCAR fans will take over. Isn’t that a lot like the fear of a black person moving into your neighborhood will lower property values? I guess you are worried that if a Planned Parenthood goes up, loose women with bad morals follow right behind.
I do think it’s funny that the only company with modern equipment that includes hybird powered trucks and is EPA SmartWay certified isn’t allowed into Hippie-Dippy Humboldt. Keep driving your dirty Pruis and feeling good about yourself….
Walmart and NASCAR. Perfect examples of southern culture.
Bigots and Racists, things that make people from Arcata so grand.
Don’t be so sensitive, friend. We recognize the great contributions of the south to our culture: deep fried butter, hot dog salad, Jim Crow, obesity, Twizzlers, fried chicken in a bucket, handguns and of course, Walmart!
Bigots and Racists, isn’t that the state motto of Arkansas?
@Anon.R.Mous The context for Nascar is “It isn’t about winning or losing–it isn’t a race.”
Pay attention to who tries to turn arguments against walmart into one about class discrimination.
Why don’t proponents of Walmart move out of Humboldt? Because they like Humboldt, and it has a lot to do with the fact that Walmart isn’t welcome here.
Some of us did just that, forced to move from Humboldt to find better lives and jobs for ourselves because you NIMBY jerks ruined our county.
Enjoy your WalMart, Anon-R-Mouse. I don’t know how we survive here without you.
Let walmart come in,, just dont shop there. It’s pretty simple. There are plenty of crap stores around here, this is just another one on the list i wont go to..
Isn’t just Walmart, it’s Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Target, Jimmy Johns….
Did you know that in Twin Falls Idaho, not only do they have everything, including a college, they have a Farmer’s Market and a Plaza…. a Plaza with not only a public stage, but BATHROOMS?
They also allow BASE jumping off their bridges.
Pretty sad when you are worse off than Twin Falls Idaho.
Oh yeah, they also have not a one story, not a two story, but a three story tall headshop.
Humboldt County, are you even trying?
It all about my FREEDOM to undermine my own rural economy, and Walmart’s FREEDOM to a public-subsidized workforce!