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Thread: Battle ensues over Wal-Mart plans

  1. #1
    Member steven's Avatar
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    Battle ensues over Wal-Mart plans

    A public relations battle is shaping on the flood plains of North Amherst, where the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, wants to build a 200,000-square-foot super store.
    More than 700 residents have signed a petition against the store, proposed for Millersport Highway between Smith and New Roads. Wal-Mart fired back this week with a mailing offering to debunk "the myths" about its project for town residents.

    One homeowner showed up at a Town Board meeting and ripped up the company's mailer before a crowd of cheering residents.

    A company spokesman says Wal-Mart is trying to reach Amherst's silent majority.

    http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...03/1052770.asp
    People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.

  2. #2
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    Wal-Mart mailer!

    I received one of those mailers. Very slick piece of propaganda. Made me sick!!!!!!

    I'm writing back to let WalMart know where exactly I think they should go -- and it isn't in my community!

  3. #3
    Member crlachepinochet's Avatar
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    Could someone who got a mailer scan it and put it up on the web? I'd like to see what the company is putting out.
    Remain calm!! But run for your lives if necessary!

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    Thought you might find this of interest. . .

    Study: Wal-Mart Stores Add to Poverty, Not Prosperity

    Although Wal-Mart claims its stores benefit communities and grow local economies, a new study shows that Wal-Mart retail stores contribute to higher local poverty rates.

    The study, published in the June 2006 issue of Social Science Quarterly (subscription required), the journal of the Southwestern Social Science Association, finds “unequivocally” that counties with the most Wal-Mart stores and counties that added stores between 1987 and 1998 had higher poverty rates during the 1990s economic boom.

    Wal-Mart stores increase the poverty rate in several ways, the report says. First, Wal-Mart’s business practices drive independent retailers out of business. The workers who once worked for these “mom-and-pop” stores often end up working part-time at Wal-Mart for lower wages. In addition, other local retailers reduce their wages to remain competitive with Wal-Mart, the study shows. As a result, even though Wal-Mart may move into a depressed neighborhood, the poverty rate rises after the new stores are built because the chain forces down wages for everyone. This contradicts Wal-Mart’s claims that its stores benefit low-income communities by lowering prices for consumers.

    The businesses that had supplied local stores, such as wholesalers, transporters, accountants and lawyers, also lose income when local stores close because Wal-Mart handles nearly all of those services through its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., the study says. With fewer business opportunities, better-educated service providers often move to other areas, reducing the number of “nonpoor” households in an area and leaving more workers jobless, according to the study.

    “The public costs that the chain imposes by raising the poverty rate suggest that public infrastructure subsidies may not be warranted or, as a minimum, that these two types of costs need to be added together to assess the overall cost of the chain to a community,” say the study’s authors, Stephan J. Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Pennsylvania State University, and Hema Swaminathan, an economist with the International Center for Research on Women.

    Counties in which the number of Wal-Mart stores increased during the 1990s had higher average usage of food stamps or smaller reductions in use of food stamps, according to the study.

    Other studies have noted a large number of Wal-Mart workers are paid poverty-level wages and the retail giant’s lack of affordable health care coverage forces many of its workers to apply for public health care assistance, which adds considerably to the tax burdens of communities in which stores are located.

    By reducing the number of local entrepreneurs, the presence of Wal-Mart also decreases local leadership capacity, according to the report, which called this the single, most far-reaching effect of the chain’s impact on communities.

    by James Parks

    ******************

    This Article is accessible on the web at:

    http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/05/31/st...not-prosperity

  5. #5
    Member Smiley's Avatar
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    Dog,
    GREAT post ! Those points really hits home. Now, the Town residents can use this to support their position in North Amherst. I sure hope that the Town will be successful in the law suit keeping them out of here.

  6. #6
    Member TheRightView's Avatar
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    web link

    "All government, -indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act,- is founded on compromise..." -Edmund Burke
    A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
    Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), (attributed)
    Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 George W. Bush

  7. #7
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    I haven't been keeping up with the latest here - Did the Town ever re-zone that land?

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    What was the economic position prior to Wal-Mart?
    Where these counties already in a downward spirial prior to Wal-Mart?
    How many counties where studied?

    This would also have to apply to every large discount retail store.
    Dollar General
    Family Dollar
    Block Buster
    Net-Flix
    Regal Theaters
    K-Mart

    Any establishment that is not a mom and pop shop.
    Mom and pop shops DO NOT pay higher wages compaired with Wal-Mart.
    Prior to or after Wal-Mart has entered a community.
    If you can not compete sell something else or get out of that buisness.


    With these theories Wal-Mart has caused the decline of the WNY economy.

    What a bunch of crap and all the anti Wal-Mart people suck it up like kool-aid.

  9. #9
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    Yes, Blockbuster is evil because it put all the Mom and Pop Video stores out of business. The next time Blockbuster files plans to open a store in Amherst, the Town should re-zone the parcel to Residential.

    And, Netflix is also evil because it is hurting the large chains, such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Maybe the Town will look into making it illegal to rent from Netflix.

    Competition is bad, let's all pay more than necessary.

    Have you seen Cold Stone Creamery? Don't get me started.


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    Blockbuster put my store out of business and who was there fighting to keep my store open? Not one person at all.
    The fact remains this is strictly a union issue and nothing more.
    There is no concern for mom and pop by the anti Wal-Mart crowd.
    If there was they, the anti Wal-Mart crowd, would be against every large retailer to come into any community. This is also not about a flood plain. Look at all the homes the community has allowed to be built in a flood plain.
    The area they refer to also has a very large industrial complex in the same flood zone. Again this all leads back to unions and their gripe against Wal-Mart.

  11. #11
    Member TheRightView's Avatar
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    Pro-Communist China

    Quote Originally Posted by LHardy
    Blockbuster put my store out of business and who was there fighting to keep my store open? Not one person at all.
    The fact remains this is strictly a union issue and nothing more.
    There is no concern for mom and pop by the anti Wal-Mart crowd.
    If there was they, the anti Wal-Mart crowd, would be against every large retailer to come into any community. This is also not about a flood plain. Look at all the homes the community has allowed to be built in a flood plain.
    The area they refer to also has a very large industrial complex in the same flood zone. Again this all leads back to unions and their gripe against Wal-Mart.
    I think that LHardy is.....
    my question is did you set off fireworks when the whole happening at Tianimnen(sp.) square started?
    "All government, -indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act,- is founded on compromise..." -Edmund Burke
    A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
    Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), (attributed)
    Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 George W. Bush

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRightView
    I think that LHardy is.....
    my question is did you set off fireworks when the whole happening at Tianimnen(sp.) square started?
    No I wore a black arm band as did many sympathetic to their cause.

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    Here is some more info. . .

    For those of you who are studying this issue, here is some more information that you might find of interest.

    Dog

    ***************

    Study: Wal-Mart Can Afford Low Prices, Higher Wages

    Wal-Mart, which always boasts about its always low prices, claims it has saved the American consumer $263 billion by expanding its stores. But a new study released today by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI) demonstrates Wal-Mart’s always low-wage policy actually does more harm than good to low-income consumers.

    In The Wal-Mart Debate: A False Choice Between Prices and Wages, EPI economists Jared Bernstein and Josh Bivens find that Wal-Mart could raise wages and benefits for its non-supervisory staff by 13 percent and still maintain a profit margin nearly 50 percent greater than its top competitor.

    The EPI study also disproves a widely cited study commissioned by Wal-Mart that claims U.S. consumers saved a whopping $263 billion because of the giant retailer’s expansion. That study by the consulting firm Global Insight is based on incorrect findings and faulty research methods, according to Bernstein and Bivens.

    “Working families need higher wages to keep up with the rising prices of gas and housing,” Bivens says. “Rent or mortgage, utilities, medical services and transportation—these are what take up the largest portion of a family’s income—not goods bought at Wal-Mart.”

    As Wal-Mart expands into more urban areas, studies have found it kills competing retailers that typically paid 18 percent more. A University of California, Berkeley study showed that in 2000, total earnings of retail workers nationwide were reduced by $4.7 billion due to Wal-Mart’s presence.

    The EPI study says Wal-Mart does not have to underpay its workers to make a profit. The world’s largest retailer, with 2005 profits of some $11 billion, could provide its non-supervisory workers a significant raise in salary and benefits without raising prices—and still have a bigger profit margin than its key competitor Costco, which had a profit margin of 2 percent in 2005. Wal-Mart’s net profit margin grew from 2.9 percent in 1997 to 3.6 percent in 2005. Returning to its 1997 profit margin would allow Wal-Mart to give its non-supervisory workers 13 percent pay increases without raising prices, while still maintaining higher profit margins than Costco, Bernstein and Bivens say.

    The New York Times reported last year that Wal-Mart makes nearly $20,000 profit every minute, while Costco and Target, two of its biggest competitors, make $7,795 profit each minute combined.

    The EPI study backs up the findings in another report published in the June 2006 issue of Social Science Quarterly (subscription required), the journal of the Southwestern Social Science Association, that shows “unequivocally” that counties with the most Wal-Mart stores and counties that added stores between 1987 and 1998 had higher poverty rates during the 1990s economic boom.

    Wal-Mart stores increase the poverty rate in several ways, the report says. First, Wal-Mart’s business practices drive independent retailers out of business. The workers who once worked for these “mom-and-pop” stores often end up working part-time at Wal-Mart for lower wages. In addition, other local retailers reduce their wages to remain competitive with Wal-Mart, the study shows.

    As a result, even though Wal-Mart may move into a low-income neighborhood, the poverty rate rises after the new stores are built because the chain forces down wages for everyone, according to the EPI study. This contradicts Wal-Mart’s claims that its stores benefit low-income communities by lowering prices for consumers, Bernstein and Bivens say.

    by James Parks

    Web accessible at:

    http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/06/15/st...-higher-wages/

  14. #14
    Member Smiley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Underdog
    For those of you who are studying this issue, here is some more information that you might find of interest.

    Dog

    ***************

    Study: Wal-Mart Can Afford Low Prices, Higher Wages

    Wal-Mart, which always boasts about its always low prices, claims it has saved the American consumer $263 billion by expanding its stores. But a new study released today by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI) demonstrates Wal-Mart’s always low-wage policy actually does more harm than good to low-income consumers.

    In The Wal-Mart Debate: A False Choice Between Prices and Wages, EPI economists Jared Bernstein and Josh Bivens find that Wal-Mart could raise wages and benefits for its non-supervisory staff by 13 percent and still maintain a profit margin nearly 50 percent greater than its top competitor.

    The EPI study also disproves a widely cited study commissioned by Wal-Mart that claims U.S. consumers saved a whopping $263 billion because of the giant retailer’s expansion. That study by the consulting firm Global Insight is based on incorrect findings and faulty research methods, according to Bernstein and Bivens.

    “Working families need higher wages to keep up with the rising prices of gas and housing,” Bivens says. “Rent or mortgage, utilities, medical services and transportation—these are what take up the largest portion of a family’s income—not goods bought at Wal-Mart.”

    As Wal-Mart expands into more urban areas, studies have found it kills competing retailers that typically paid 18 percent more. A University of California, Berkeley study showed that in 2000, total earnings of retail workers nationwide were reduced by $4.7 billion due to Wal-Mart’s presence.

    The EPI study says Wal-Mart does not have to underpay its workers to make a profit. The world’s largest retailer, with 2005 profits of some $11 billion, could provide its non-supervisory workers a significant raise in salary and benefits without raising prices—and still have a bigger profit margin than its key competitor Costco, which had a profit margin of 2 percent in 2005. Wal-Mart’s net profit margin grew from 2.9 percent in 1997 to 3.6 percent in 2005. Returning to its 1997 profit margin would allow Wal-Mart to give its non-supervisory workers 13 percent pay increases without raising prices, while still maintaining higher profit margins than Costco, Bernstein and Bivens say.

    The New York Times reported last year that Wal-Mart makes nearly $20,000 profit every minute, while Costco and Target, two of its biggest competitors, make $7,795 profit each minute combined.

    The EPI study backs up the findings in another report published in the June 2006 issue of Social Science Quarterly (subscription required), the journal of the Southwestern Social Science Association, that shows “unequivocally” that counties with the most Wal-Mart stores and counties that added stores between 1987 and 1998 had higher poverty rates during the 1990s economic boom.

    Wal-Mart stores increase the poverty rate in several ways, the report says. First, Wal-Mart’s business practices drive independent retailers out of business. The workers who once worked for these “mom-and-pop” stores often end up working part-time at Wal-Mart for lower wages. In addition, other local retailers reduce their wages to remain competitive with Wal-Mart, the study shows.

    As a result, even though Wal-Mart may move into a low-income neighborhood, the poverty rate rises after the new stores are built because the chain forces down wages for everyone, according to the EPI study. This contradicts Wal-Mart’s claims that its stores benefit low-income communities by lowering prices for consumers, Bernstein and Bivens say.

    by James Parks

    Web accessible at:

    http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/06/15/st...-higher-wages/
    Thanks Dog,

    It is really amazing that most of the people only see the immediate effect for them in the pocket book with the "savings" at purchase time. They don't realize the "hidden costs" behind buying things there. The hidden costs are shared by people like me that WON'T shop there.

    Most of the info that you stated I knew, but I didn't have the figures.

    This is all part of the "Race to the Bottom!"

    Are we having fun yet

  15. #15
    Member AmherstSucks's Avatar
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    One of my favorite links with some good info

    http://www.walmartsucks.org

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