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If you live on the North Oregon coast, it's likely the word that Wal-Mart will be opening its first regional store is no big surprise. Local business leaders are planning a workshop called Weathering Wal-Mart to help assuage fears and give local businesses marketing and other advice to help them survive, or even thrive, alongside the new big box store.
That's something Randy Dennis knows a lot about. He owns a chain of five hardware stores in Washington. The last one to open was in Aberdeen, now home to a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot. He says he keeps his prices competitive with those big box retailers but his focus is on the relationship with customers. He gives his employees extra training to make their service the best it can be, and he says he rewards good ideas — like the one his employee had to give a "customer of the month" award.
Nonetheless, some business owners on the North Coast are worried about their ability to stay afloat, especially in the down economy.
Are you a small business owner in the Warrenton area? Or in Cornelius, where another Wal-Mart is about to break ground? Are you concerned about losing sales and customers to Wal-Mart? Do you shop at other chain stores on the North Coast? How will Wal-Mart change your shopping habits?
GUESTS:
- Tim Gannaway: Co-owner of Gannaway Bros. Jewelers
- Randy Dennis: Owner of Dennis Company
- Bill Wertz: Spokeman for Wal-Mart
- Laura Snyder: Owner of Lucy's Books
Special note: Online host Dave Miller and producer Rebecca Robinson will be at the Serendipity Deli Caffe and Catering at 160 South Main Avenue in Warrenton from 8-10 a.m. to talk with local shoppers and business owners. Come on down!
Photo credit: L'Hibou / Creative Commons
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Is Wal*Mart here to stay?
I do not remember if it was "Marketplace", or "ATC" on the simple fact that the W*M Business model is not long term viable, it will have to evolve. By choice I do not do business with Wal*Mart, as has been said there are choices, and often I can find what I want made locally at the same price, and while it may just be stupid, I deliberately choose pay a bit more for local if that is all it takes to get it.
It is a choice. -
I live 30 blocks from Portlands own Walmart- and I have been there twice in the decade I have lived there. I do not like the smell or sound or the things Walmart sells. Many brands (such as Levis or carharrts) make inferior products for walmart to meet their price goals- and I am willing to pay full price to get quality clothes... and to save money I buy my durable goods from craigslist, Goodwill or The Village Merchents in Portland.
But I have also lived that purchasing choices are more limited- and money is harder to come by. In my roral life the box store was Kmart (my age is showing there I guess) and I always viewed going to Kmart as failure- but shop there I did on many occasions.
The thing that worries me about Walmart is their practice in the midwest of opening a store in one town and when the downtown is ruined, closing the walmart and opening up in a town 40 miles away. How much money do you have to save the gas and wear and tear on a vehicle?
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Is there any reason no one bats an eyelash over Target?
Don't get me wrong, I have not seen a Wal*Mart since moving to Oregon (there were 3! in Gainesville, FL alone) and I do not miss them. Mainly, I dislike Wal*Mart because shopping there has always been a horrible experience. Between, Gainesville, Ocala, and the Tampa Bay area, every Wal*Mart I have been into is dirty, jammed with crap in the aisles, packed with people, loud, and the employees are less than useful.
Conversely, I find Target to be a very pleasing experience for the most part. Clean stores, wider aisles, better products at approximately the same price, better employees, no music, no advertisements over the PA
However, that does not change the fact that Target is just as much a big box retailer as Wal*Mart. Yet, I have never heard even a murmur about Target. ...or Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, Fry's, etc. etc. etc. etc.
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i am personally less concerned about target as i think they (and costco for that matter) treat both their employees and vendors fairly. walmart doesn't. i understand about competition but only when there is a level playing field and fairness prevails. we don't need or want a walmart on the north coast!
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I am a compulsive and excessive shopper. The odd thing about Walmart, that I can't fathom, where are the low prices? To be fair I have only been to Walmart a handful of times, but nothing seems to be cheaper there. Or at least nothing I would consider buying. You can't particularly get branded quality goods at Walmart for any less then you can get them at Target and some other stores. Some things I noticed at Walmart were actually more expensive then other stores. Most of the products that are really cheap are of a commensurate quality. A lot of times you are better buying things on sale at other stores like Fred Meyer or Macy's, because they are cheaper then Walmart.
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I've just posted a White Paper about how Wal-Mart's kill off local economies. I wish I could have gotten this on-line sooner. It's crucial to this discussion. I encourage the community to read this and do what they can to stop Wal-Mart from coming in.
http://www.scn.org/neighbors/beacon/pdx/WM.pdf
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What people don't understand is that when you spend your money at Wal*Mart, it leaves our communities and goes to the the corporation. When you spend your money locally, it stays in the community and it goes to your neighbors, family and friends, which builds community. We want our wealth to stay IN the community. THAT is how we will survive.
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This argument just does not jive with me.
Almost all of the money you spend leaves the community one way or another. Whether you buy a book from a local store or Wal*Mart, almost all of the money for that book is leaving the community.
Whether or not you like having a homogenized community under a Wal*Mart banner that looks like every other community these days is another story. But, money leaving the community does not, itself, really destroy the community.
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The other problem with that argument is that you are basically saying we should punish businesses that get too large.
For instance... Publix Supermarkets in Florida. Publix is, by and large, the absolute best grocery store I have ever been to, bar none (including even, say, Whole Foods).
Publix started in Winter Haven, FL. And, through merit, it is now all over Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. Publix had about 15 stores in Gainesville, FL alone. 15 for a city of 115,000. They pushed out Winn-Dixie and Albertsons and there is no way a true local store could ever think to compete with them.
Should I have stopped shopping there? They treat their employees amazingly well, the company is employee owned, they accept only the best from their vendors, and their prices are not half bad...but, they are no longer "local".
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Hawaii law requires employers to provide health insurance to all employees who work more than 19 hours per week. Wal-Mart restricts its Hawaii employees to 19 hours per week or less.
Wal-Mart's business model is in part a response to our public policy. If they don't bring living wage jobs to the area, it's because they don't have to.
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Wal-Mart sucks! I hate Wal-Mart and everything is portrays. I wouldn’t shop there if you paid me! This guy representing Wal-Mart sounds like a retard, like the rest of the employees that work there. Have you seen some of these employees...UGH!! Somebody slapped that entire company with an ugly stick. They cater to white trash, illegal immigrants and scum bags. I guess I am thankful for one thing, those nasty people don’t shop where I do, cause they are all at Wal-Mart. So, thank you Wal-Mart for taking all these worthless people out of the stores I shop at. And you can’t tell me this moron on the radio does not know why they put Wal-Marts everywhere we DON’T WANT THEM!
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I understand supporting small business, but I generally don't understand localism at all. I don't understand why people advocate it and are such fervent supporters. If I live in Bentonville, Arkansas would it then be okay to shop at Walmart because it is local? Isn't Nike local? I don't like Nike, I would way rather buy Adidas and I am sure some Germans are nice people too.
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I do not shop at WalMart as a general rule, despite the lower prices. There are many reasons for this, including labor practices in store and abroad, driving out small business, etc.
However, the main reason I avoid WalMart is the atmosphere in the store. It is unfriendly, impersonal and just an unpleasant experience to shop at WalMart. The lights, the layout of the store, many different factors keep me away, even if I could save $1.50 on a case of Coke.
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Having lived in the lower Columbia region for roughly 20 years, the location of Walmart in Warrenton follows a pattern of Fred Meyer and Costco locating there, partly because of the City of Warrenton's policies and partly because Warrenton is just over the Columbia from Pacific County, Washington, which is one of the lowest income counties in the state of Washington, and therefore a good demographic for Walmart. Therefore this store will draw shoppers from a wide region.
Walmart took a plunge into organic groceries and found that their customer base wasn't informed or interested in the issues surrounding production of food outside the industrialized, and in many cases foreign-based, food production systems.
Finally, a major issue for me is Walmart's well-documented history of poor treatment of employees. Yes, there are jobs at Walmart, but they are jobs that are racing to the bottom in terms of pay and benefits.
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I once heard someone say "If there must be a Wal-Mart, hope that it comes to your town instead of a neighboring town. Because at least when it comes to your town you'll have one business left."
Wal-Mart has lowered consumer expectations of what shopping shuold be. Everything has become a commodity whose primary selling factor is price. Quality has become secondary, and customer service is a distant third. When people shop based solely on price, they lose site of what defines their local economy. More often than not, they also lose the local businesses that define and support their community. Say hello to low prices, but goodbye to anything that ever distinguished your town from anywhere else across the USA.
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It isn't only small businesses that have to have a "weathering Wal-Mart" strategy. Local governments have to have a plan too.
Warrenton can't take Wal-Mart for granted, once it decides to let them in. Five or ten years after Wal-Mart opens, they may decide their 2009 store doesn't suit their present needs, so they will go through a process of figuring out where their next store will be for customers in that area, with the plan to close the Warrenton store once the new one is built. The new one could end up elsewhere in Warrenton, or maybe in Astoria or somewhere else.
For an example, look what happened to Pacific, Missouri, which lost its Wal-Mart to Eureka, Missouri.
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Developers cite job growth and other benefits that big box stores will bring to a community. What is lacking full information about the potential adverse impacts -- loss of local small businesses, job loss, increased burden on local government services, etc. that big box development may cause.
The Oregon Informed Gorwth Act, sponsored by Rep. Ben Cannon, would require that economic and environmental impact analyses be conducted prior to the siting of big box developments greater in size than 75,000 square feet. The Act will ensure that more complete information is available about the impact that proposed big box development will have on local communities and help local leaders make better development decisions.
For more information about the Informed Growth Act, please contact me at elaine@onwardoregon.org.
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Wal-mart forces manufacturers to make lower quality stuff that they then offer for a slightly lower price. It looks like the product you want from another store but is of lower quality.
You can't compare prices on the same product you see in other stores.
Mussolini and his WW2 Axis tried to create the Corporative State and that is very similar to what we are dealing with here, Monopolistic Corporate rule of The People, by the Corporations, and for the Corporations.
No thanks.
Oh, and google up Mussolinis' quote on what the Corporative State is, it ain't pretty.
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What I constantly hear about WalMart is all the peripheral negative effects, as if this is the reason the company decides to open a store. The reason they open a store is simple. There are no ulterior motives of destroying a community, etc. They feel they can make money. Translation: WalMart believes people in your area will shop there.
So the argument isn't really about WalMart coming into your town. It is about you feeling you need to control where other people spend their money.
Oh, I know. You are concerned about the quality of the items they are buying or you are concerned about the treatment of the employees or you are concerned about the treatment of the suppliers...blah, blah, blah. Bottom line...if no one was going to shop there, the company wouldn't even propose a store.
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(I'm sorry to triple post, but the guidelines said 2500 characters. This has less than 2,000.)
People who have little money usually end up that way because they make bad decisions. There are always exceptions, but you can't create policy by exception. For example, a poor family wants a DVD player. Ok, should we all get together and decide the quality (and therefore price) of the DVD player they should be able to purchase at a local store or can we all be grown-ups and let them make the decision and live with it? If they buy a $40 DVD player and it breaks after a year, they have to live with it. Hopefully, they will learn from this choice and consequence. Either way, they will have to live with the consequence of their next decision. This is how it should be and also the basis of how our country developed into the generally high standard of living American citizens currently enjoy.
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"(I'm sorry to triple post, but the guidelines said 2500 characters. This has less than 2,000.)"
Microsoft Word can cause that problem because it uses hidden embeded formatting characters. Notepad works, if you're stuck with MS.
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Thanks for the tip, Tom.
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Competition drives down prices. Lower prices make us all wealthier because we can support our current standard of living on less money. How is this a bad thing? Protecting your local economy from a player with low prices is a tax on people with low incomes. Don't like WalMart? It's simple; don't shop there.
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Actually, in the real world, competition drives down quality, if you don't want quality, shop at wal-Mart. Lower quality takes away your wealth and lowers your standard of living.
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Tom, I'm sorry you feel the need to be so condescending. "in the real world, competition drives down quality"? I find this hard to believe. Two cases in point: American cars in the 1970s and cell phones in the last 10 years. American cars were extremely protected from competition and the quality was terrible. Conversely, the cell phone industry is extremely competitive and seems to roll out new features at continuously lower prices seemingly each month. Would you care to explain how you can make the statement that quality decreases as competition increases?
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I can personally tell you--Wal-Mart will DECIMATE small business wherever it is allowed to infiltrate! Our specialty family-owned retail business that for 23 years was the top spot for the whole valley got "Wal-Marted" out of business within 2 years of the arrival of our Supercenter parasite! Beware!
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Comments are now closed.
It is my observation that Walmart is a mixed blessing. The fact of the matter is that they are here to stay however. They do hire folks who would otherwise be unemployed and they do give them an opportunity to gain a positive work experience in a very structured environment. That is a big benefit to these people and other prospective employers. I think that is worth supporting. I also want to make my dollars go as far as possible and Walmart helps with this. I can go to Fred Meyers or other similar store and find the SAME items there at a higher cost. Even at upscale shops you routinely find the "China" labels. If other businesses can't compete . . . well isn't that free enterprise? I don't like paying a surcharge for a purchase just because I didn't have to shop at Walmart. There are choices.