Editor:
I would like to join in with the voices regarding Wal-Mart’s secret move into the Bayshore Mall (“Touchdown Wal-Mart,” Dec. 15). It takes a lot of chutzpah (and I mean that in the negative sense of the word) for the owners of Wal-Mart (and the others who were instrumental in making this happen) to insinuate the store into a community where clearly the majority is not in favor of its presence. This is yet another instance where the peoples’ voice is not being heard in favor of the interests of a large corporation.
Many have already written about how the Wal-Mart presence in Humboldt County will affect small businesses, not to mention how it will affect the already existing big box stores as well as many other aspects of the community. Having Wal-Mart in our midst is not the way to deal with poverty — by providing minimum wage jobs with little or no benefits and cheap stuff from other countries where the workers are paid even worse, not to mention the ecological consequences. The remedy for our economic ills is to examine the very fabric of our economic system. We need to engage in that discussion as a county, a nation and a world.
What pisses me off the most is that it could be done in secret, so the next question is, what are we going to do about it besides boycott? Hmmm.
Lynn Kerman, Myrtletown
This article appears in Aldaron’s Walkabout.
Damn Walmart and their products people can afford!
Who is the “majority” that is referred to in Ms. Kerman’s letter? Eureka voters deciding on a zoning issue? Since when do we get to “vote” on whether or not a business is allowed to enter our County? Secrets? I hate to inform you but many corporations use a name that does not reveal all of their business ventures. Perhaps I would be more sympathetic if many local small businesses had been kinder to their patrons and employees when they had a monopoly that allowed them to prosper despite poor customer service, bad employment practices, and outrageous prices. Competition sucks.
If the “majority” is not in favor of the big box, then Walmart made a poor business decision to move here, and will not get enough business to survive. Lord knows the Bayshore Mall need some renters.
You people here kill, apparently you love your small mom and pop stores that don’t mind grouging their neighbors and friends.Being behind the redwood curtain must also mean closed minds. Have you shopped anywhere here, check the labels not much in stores which doesn’t say made in China or some other county. Walmart does pay well, and they give employees stock, etc. Plenty of companies here only give you part time hours so they don’t have to give out any benefits, and never going to get more than $8.00 an hour. If you don’t like it don’t shop there!
Things must be worse than I thought in Del Norte.
“If the ‘majority’ is not in favor of the big box, then Walmart made a poor business decision to move here, and will not get enough business to survive”.
Thanks to our lack of community-interest media, this tired myth persists.
Walmart won’t need customers for a decade or more. They need only extract a few of the limited retail dollars that keep their competition afloat. They even hire “price-checkers” to make sure they undercut the competition.
Once the competition disappears, so do choices and low-prices.
I don’t agree with Walmart’s decision to locate a store in Humboldt County. We are happy to welcome you to Del Norte County where you get great prices from our Walmart that more than make up for the time and gas you have to buy to get here. While you are here, stop in at our Home Depot for more great bargains. Yes… Welcome to Del Norte County.
Only someone who is unacquainted with arithmetic, and whose time is worth little, could imagine that a trip to WalMart in Del Norte would “more than make up for the time and gas” required.
soo what if they moive into the mall?? there isnt hardly anything in there anyway and more and more are closing up shop and IT HAD ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO DO WITH WALMART! and since when is there a “local shop” that you can get a pair of jeans lest than one hundred bucks? id be damed if i am to be forced to pay a hundred dollars for a freaken pair of jeans when i can get one at walmart or where ever for 20 bucks. not to mention the three hundred jobs it is going to hve availble to the hundreds of people who need a job and are willing to work when your preciouse little local stores wont hire anyone for jack Sh..t. if you never let them in then you might as well condem humboldt county and pull the trigger on the gun that kills our comunity! so needless to say to the selfish “hippies” F YOU!
I feel so ignored!
Walmart Blacklisted By Major Pension Fund Over Poor Labor Practices
A major pension fund and longtime investor in Walmart has blacklisted the retailing behemoth, citing poor labor practices and the company’s anti-union stance as the driving force behind its rejection.
Walmart typically shrugs off criticism of its labor practices as union-driven propaganda and insists that its employees are happy and well-managed, but investing experts say that when one of the largest pension funds in the world divests, the company would be wise to listen to the message. It’s the same message the American labor movement has been pushing for decades.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands’ biggest pension fund, Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds, with more than $300 billion in assets, announced that it was blacklisting the largest retailer in the world for noncompliance with the United Nations’ Global Compact principles. The Global Compact presents a set of core values relating to human rights, labor standards, the environment and anti-corruption efforts. Sixteen other companies were blacklisted along with Walmart, nearly all of them excluded for producing chemical or nuclear weapons that violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Rest of article at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/walmart-blacklist-abp-pension-fund_n_1186384.html
“there isnt hardly anything in there anyway and more and more are closing up shop and IT HAD ABSOLUTLY NOTHING TO DO WITH WALMART”!
That’s because Eureka was already saturated in temporary, part-time, poverty wage big boxes BEFORE Walmart arrives.
Yeah, let’s keep repeating the same mistake, at least it will add better-paying employees at the local welfare office to serve more impoverished workers.
since Joel is mentally retarded, stupid, or has never lived any more rural than his place in Eureka (really, the closest Joel has lived to rural is his place in Carson Park) he has no idea how to bulk shop. He doesn’t know some people plan and shop once a month who live in rural areas, so the thought never enters his little burnt out mind.
Go back to living in the shadows of I-5 in San Diego Joel.
Poor Anon-r-Mouse. His only claim to decency is that he’s from Humboldt County. Oh, and that he fooled his pal Rose with his “I’m a hero” stunt.
Never posted that Joel.
You still have that drinking problem?
“Never posted that”?
No, it just “appeared” on your blog.
Just like this:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/09473282983443475456
isn’t me
http://anon-r-mous-sucks.blogspot.com/
But that might be more than you could figure out on your own.
I do have two blogs thought!
http://anonrmous.blogspot.com
http://eurekanonsequitur.blogspot.com/
So, just so we all know, how many times did you report the blog and picture? You know the picture.
Those sites are probably tributes from your buddy Nick Bravo, but I’d rather not look. Don’t worry, you made an ass of Rose with your “tragic hero’s death” post, but you’ll always be “one of the good guys” in her book. Touching. Sniff.
@##$% WALMART Eureka businesses had better invest in plywood to shutter all the places that will close down for good over the next few years. Walmart will do nothing positive for Eureka or the entire county. Denial and ignorance reign supreme. Might as well just tear down the mall and build a Walmart supercenter. Every retail store that exists today in Eureka and the region will be and can only be negatively affected by this tragedy. 200 piss poor jobs, and some sales tax revenue. What a treat!
If you don’t want to shop at Walmart, then don’t. It wont make any difference. The damage to the community and other businesses in the area will be done no matter how you feel or what you do. The same fools that are glad that Walmart is coming to town and bag on those that oppose Walmart will be putting their foot in there mouth in 5 to 10 years when Eureka turns into the @#$%hole that they hoped for.
LOL nice try Joel.
1099-2603-1837-2034-3923-6151-3923-1855
Did you just cut and paste those Brian Murphy stories from other Walmart postings?
Nice try? Thanks, just calling a drip a drip.
It seems to me there was a big uproar when Target was coming to town. It has been sucessfull, in having it’s loyal consumers, everytime I have been there ( Maybe 5 times) There is parking available and the store doesn’t seem overly crowded, with the exception of at Christmas time. I am with those who say “if you don’t like Walmart, Target, Kmart or Costco, then don’t shop there”.
Sorry to let you know Eureka is a !@#$hole.
well, Eureka is on the way in a lot of respects. Certainly infested with trolls; always an early, certain sign of declining livability. There are some good critiques here about WalMart, however, and it often tends to live up to its negative press, but the bottom line is–don’t shop there if you don’t like it. If they followed all existing ordinances and rules in their application, construction, and operation, then tough shit Hippie. There are worse things to happen to a community. What I’d like to know is where is the statistical proof that a “majority” of citizens don’t want it? Are we all operating on an anecdotal basis here??
There is no proof (and perhaps not even any evidence) that any majority opposes having a WalMart in Eureka. The vote years ago was decided by a minority (those who vote), and they decided not to give WalMart a zoning variance.
I hate WalMart as much as anyone, but as Mr. Malcomson says, “tough shit.”
My family shops at Wal Mart regularly. I know lots of people that make regular trips to Crescent City several times a year to do “bulk” shopping at Wal Mart since the prices are so low. My family does a large majority of shopping online as well.
When we go we make a day of it and usually go to Home Depot while we are there too. I have been in favor of Wal Mart since they first attempted coming to the area years ago and I am looking forward to their arrival in Eureka.
There is very little left in Humboldt County as far as shopping.
What products in what quantities would justify a drive to Crescent City? This reminds me of people who drive down to CostCo to buy gas, so that they can save a buck-and -a-quarter.
I drive right by Costco to work every day – so I go there too and save 12-15 cents per gallon which adds up when you drive as much as I do.
I also drive through Crescent City about 12 times per year, so there is no extra gas wasted by stopping in to shop Walmart – only the taxes I am paying and dollars spent patronizing another store going to Del Norte County instead of Humboldt.
It takes some real redneck mathematics to characterize a drive to Crescent City in a gas guzzling truck as “thrifty.”