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: : So, if Wal-Mart is “better” than a locally-owned mom & pop business… : “Better” in some ways -- employees generally get better wages, health insurance, 401K, retirement, vacation time, which they often don’t get in mom & pop operations because of the costs; shoppers get better prices because of massive discounts given by wholesalers and producers to large-volume retailers – but emotionally I still favor mom & pop operations. They are what built this country. : The vast amount of my retail and entertainment spending (more than 90%) goes to mom & pop operations – a locally-owned dime store that’s been in business for about 85 years, a convenience store owned by a guy who lives in my neighborhood, locally owned restaurants and coffeehouses, local bakeries and meat shops, a neighborhood mechanic, an independent movie theater, small clothing, book and gift shops, local music and video rental shops, local optical shops, etc. I shop for my produce at City Market and roadside produce stands so I can help support local farmers. : I’d shop in a locally-owned grocery store if the one and only locally-owned grocery in my area didn’t have such rotten produce that fruit flies are constantly swarming, and dairy and meat products weren’t at or beyond expiration dates, food cans weren’t a bit rusty on the edges and bulging, and prices weren’t extremely high. Add in an owner with a major attitude problem and a mansion on a lake, a Lexus and a Rolox and yet can’t train and pay his staff decently. I won’t go there. Instead, I make do with buying produce directly from farmers, dairy products from my local convenience store, meat and bakery goods from local shops, etc., with a rare foray into a chain grocery store for those items I can’t buy from locals. : I have never been inside a Blockbuster, a Barnes & Noble, or a Borders Books to shop. I haven’t been to a mall to shop for over a decade. I haven’t shopped at Sears in 28 years. : I make decisions on a daily basis to shop at these small businesses even though I pay a premium price to do so, inventory selections are limited (often severely limited), and I could drive a short distance to buy all of those items and more in a mega corporate store. I don’t want the mom & pops to go away for they enrich our communities in many ways. : : would you rather your son or daughter grow up to become the owner of his/her own business, or would you rather they become just another cashier at a Wal-Mart? : If I was the sort of person to put all my hopes and dreams on my child, I’d rather they own their own business, but the reality is, the vast majority of small owner-operated businesses struggle enormously. I know decent business owners who can’t afford health insurance for themselves or others. Sure, there’s an idealized view of small business owners running this dreamy little business, doing well for themselves and their employees – and sometimes that actually happens. But not in most cases. Most struggle, struggle, struggle to make ends meet – and that was happening before this nation became so absorbed with corporate chains. : So, instead, I’d advise my child to find the kind of work that would afford them to live decently and support their families. If they can find that as a small business owner, hurrah! If they can’t, then maybe they need to either go to work for Wal-Mart and aspire to management or return to school and get training in a field that will allow them to take care of themselves properly. : : Our local businesses that were drying up before Wal-Mart were still drying up “because” of Wal-Mart : You simply can’t blame Wal-Mart for the drying up of small town businesses. Blame the proliferation of automobiles and highways or colleges or the desire for bigger incomes because those were factors that were causing small town businesses to dry up long before Wal-Mart came on the scene. Nearly 50 years ago, I remember my two sets of grandparents lamenting their drying up of their small town in Iowa. “The young people move away when they grow up – they don’t want to stay here.” : Yes, they did move away. Of my parents’ combined total of 18 siblings, only two stayed in that lovely small town in the early to mid-1950s. Of the two who remained, one was a mail carrier all his life and the other committed suicide in 1965 because his small business was failing and he thought his family would fair better with his life insurance money than if he tried to stay on supporting them. : Of those who moved away, every one of them ended up in much better economic situations and more diverse and interesting environs to raise their families. One was the president of Sara Lee for many years and during his tenure, he saw to it that a Sara Lee plant was built in his hometown to give job opportunities to many of those whose businesses had failed and their employees (again, loooong before Wal-Mart or other corporate chains had much of an impact on this community). Because of the Sara Lee plant, the community saw a boom in prosperity as there was immediately more disposable income so there was more need for local restaurants, cutsey shops, bars, etc. : : You’ve turned 25 small businessmen, putting money back into the community, into wage slaves, putting money into distant shareholders’ pockets. : But if the 25 small businessmen were withering on the vine before Wal-Mart, how much money were they putting back into your community’s economy? How were they managing to take care of their families adequately? : And yes, some of those monies spent in chains are going to distant shareholders’ pockets. But much of it is being paid out in taxes and wages that stay local, and many corporations support the community in other ways (donations to local charities, construction of community centers, assistance to local schools). And who’s to say that all those shareholders have to be distant? You, too, can own stock in those companies. : : you can vote out the government, but you have no say at all – short of boycott – in how Wal-Mart treats you and your community. : If it’s important to you and a significant number of your community peers, be sure to only elect local officials who won’t allow the big corporations to move in. If there are proposals afoot to bring corporations into your community, get very vocal – I mean VERY vocal. One nearby neighborhood here battled Starbucks. City Hall had already approved the plan. The residents wouldn’t stop their battle. It was heated. Guess who won? Starbucks moved on along to some other neighborhood that wasn’t so vocal and opposed to them being there. : And boycotts work, too. It’s a huge task, but not impossible. You have to be the one who lights the first candle. Then you have to convince a large number of other people to light their candles and spread the word. Even a Wal-Mart couldn’t survive for long if no one came through those doors with money to spend, could they? Obviously someone is spending money there – even those who protest the existence of Wal-Mart in their community still often go there to shop the deals and selections, even when they could buy from local owners. : But reality is, people want Wal-Mart. And McDonalds and Burger King and Target and Starbucks and Barnes & Noble and, for that matter, Fords and Chevys and Hondas and Campbell soup and Hershey’s chocolate and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Coca-Cola and Levi jeans and Adidas and Dell computers and Sony televisions and . . . Corporations, all. Hard to ban/boycott one on general principal and not the others, isn’t it? : : Should our children be stakeholders in the community, or cashiers at Wal-Mart? : Not everyone can be a small business owner in any community. There have to be worker bees. But anyone can be a stakeholder in the community – all they have to do is pay their taxes and be involved in the community either by owning property or paying their rent, and getting involved in the operation of our schools, libraries, community centers, and local government. And VOTE, fer cryin’ out loud! And have the courage to not vote for Joe Schmoe just ‘cause you want to school with him but rather based on his position on the issues. And if the majority of those stakeholders don’t want Wal-Mart in their community, then they fight hard to make sure it’s not there either by making sure city officials don’t allow it or by boycotting the existing operation. : Oh, and just to set the record straight, I’ve been a small business owner. I’d go back to it in a heartbeat if it was economically feasible, but it isn’t and it has nothing at all to do with Wal-Mart or any other corporate chain. I ran a good and popular business, but bottom line was that I still couldn’t afford really decent wages or benefits for my employees and I, myself, was living on an income defined by the government as “poverty level.” And that was even with supplementing my small business income by doing seasonal work for the government five months each year so I could obtain health insurance and some small benefits. Today, I am self-employed with no employees, but I still have to work that seasonal government job to even stay afloat. The day may come when it becomes necessary for me to go to work at Wal-Mart. If that’s what I have to do to stay alive, I will.

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