poster download page


						Links: Wal-Not.com and DoorCountyCompass.com (Door Co. specific) WalMartWatch.com Reinform.org The Wal-Mart You Don't Know High Cost of the Low Price Documentary DVD Wake Up Wal-Mart Sprawl Busters Corp Watch Quarantine Wal-Mart WARN WalMart Alliance for Reform Now Co-op America Wal-Mart Space (a fact-filled blog) conservatives agree: Wal-Mart stinks Ken Stone's 10-year Iowa Study (pdf) What's wrong with Wal-Mart and what we can do about it? Get up to speed quickly with this humorous animation from JibJab. On this page: Why we Oppose Big Box Big Box Impact (summary) WI OPEN Meeting Laws and Wal-Mart expansion Press release about Fair Enterprise What's wrong with Wal-Mart? University of Nebraska Study •Wal-Mart Teaches Stores how to survive when they come to town Thoughts along the Way Wal-Mart Statistics Poem: Big Box Blues Action Items Questions and Answers •OPEN LETTER the Council • Sample Letter to the Council 4/26 •Door County Super-Size Petition Flyers to Print and Distribute Articles: Beyond the Wal-Mart Economy (article from Coop America) Wal-Mart Colapses U.S. Cities and Towns What do we know about Wal-Mart The Case Against Sprawl Wal-Mart and the Obligations of Business What is the Fair Enterprise Initiative? Fair Enterprise: Treats ALL businesses (whether locally-owned, or large corporations based elsewhere) with the same respect. Insisting that ALL will operate under the same rules, regulations and restrictions. Gives the same incentives (tax breaks and other development oportunities) equally to ALL businesses - rather locally-owned and operated, or not. Is mindful of and respectful of the character of a community (those positive attributes which make a community unique). Recognizes that doing business here makes one a caretaker of this community. Gives back to the community in which it is allowed the privilege to operate. (Does not leech off of the community. Rather, keeps resources within the community.) Treats ALL employees with respect. Pays ALL employees a fair, living wage. Does not discriminate based on sex, race, age, sexual orientation, or marital status. Shares benefit programs equally with all employees. Whereas a company has the means, it provides benefits and does not limit employment hours for the sole purpose of avoiding employees benefits. Is mindful to sell only merchandise that is manufactured in humane working conditions. Does not take advantage of cheap, foreign, sweatshop labor. Is respectful of our delicate environment. Does not abuse, polute or otherwise disrepect our environment, and practices sustainability whenever possible. Is respectful of vendors. Does not abuse vendors by beating down price to bolster the bottom line. Fair enterprise does not monopolize. Fair enterprise encourages healthy competition. In Fair Enterprise, EVERYBODY benefits.
			Thank you for getting involved in preserving local business and preserving Door County's character. Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise is a grassroots volunteer citizen's group concerned with planned healthy community growth, small/independent business owners, and the environmental and economic well-being of Door County. *We are NOT Anti-Wal-Mart.* Yes, we would like to see Wal-Mart change their methods of doing business. We are well aware of the negative impact that a Wal-Mart Supercenter, or any another Big Box retailer would have on a community of our size. please read the press release sent to clarify this Wal-Mart Workers Stories click here click here to download cards to distribute to Wal-Mart workers CALL the MAYOR: "I'm not sure on my future actions, but I think it is important that it does get discussed at the City Council level, and thereby having people who are elected taking a look at it, and making sure that the community feels like they have their say." Mayor McIntosh said it. Now let's hold him to it.... Make that phone call- 920-743-0239 To read the report above online without downloading the pdf file, click here. We can CHANGE the way Wal-Mart Operates Wal-Mart and its billions of dollars to exploit its workers, shift its costs onto taxpayers and ship our jobs overseas. By signing up people in the WakeUp Wal-Mart movement, we have the power to change corporate America and make sure Wal-Mart puts people first. Wal-Mart responds when the American public demands change. Every day our movement grows, we are able to demand bigger and bolder changes to make Wal-Mart a responsible corporation. Right now, we encourage you to sign up yourself and five other people in an effort to change Wal-Mart, change corporate America, and put people first. Click here to sign up in the WakeUp Wal-Mart campaign. click on a sign below to access a printable pdf version:

Bring yourselves, friends, neighbors-- anyone interested in protecting Door County and in having a "say" in city and county development. Please forward this to interested parties! See you Tuesday, 8pm

WHY FAIR ENTERPRISE OPPOSES BIG BOX SUPERCENTERS

Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise (FE) was organized in early 2006. Our position then and now is: “Super-sized commercial development is inconsistent with the unique character and charm of Door County. If permitted, it will negatively impact the lifestyle, local businesses, tourism, the county’s number one industry, and our environment countywide”.

We agree that any expansion should be placed at the current Wal-Mart site. However, to place a SuperCenter in Door County is inappropriate. A few of the many reasons follow:
1) It is out of scale and character with existing structures in the city and county.
2) A SuperCenter puts the established Door County business community, which already offers competitive shopping, at risk given its monopolistic goal of undercutting local business.
3) Subsidies for SuperCenter developments come from taxpayer dollars.
4) SuperCenters minimally use local services such as local trades, accounting, advertising, etc. Therefore, smaller keeps dollars local.
5) Networking and social trust, the underpinnings of a healthy community, are broken when SuperCenters come into small towns.

According to the Advocate, the proposed SuperCenter would include a grocery and lube center. The city now has two grocery stores and every automobile service center does oil changes. Communities with new SuperCenters typically lose a grocery and one would expect the same for an automotive service business. Therefore, a large grocery store will probably be abandoned along with an independent automotive business.

Critical information needs to be gathered. The city has not done studies to determine if a SuperCenter is in the environmental, economic and fiscal interest of the city. Many other communities do these studies. Though the City Council has the right to approve a SuperCenter, many citizens and consultants to Door County think this would be a mistake and a step backwards for Sturgeon Bay and the county.

Last year Fair Enterprise circulated a petition that asked elected officials to stop super sized development. No concerted effort was made to obtain signatures, yet approximately 2000 people from the community signed this petition. It seems that elected officials have chosen a course in opposition to the desires of what we believe is a large majority of county citizens.

State law requires that a Smart Growth plan be completed by every city and county by 2010. The county is in the process and most other communities have started or completed their plan. However, the city has not yet begun its Smart Growth process. The Smart Growth plan requires input from citizens concerning their visions and goals for the community. This plan would address Big Box size limits, location and the character of retail/commercial development. During this process, many communities implement a moratorium, often 12 through 18 months in length, until completion of the plan.

Fair Enterprise is again asking Door County citizens to evaluate whether a SuperCenter is in the best interest of our community. If you believe a SuperCenter would impact our county negatively on any one of the above points, then all of us must demand community dialogue led by our city officials. This converation should present all the costs and benefits of a development of this scale. Our city council needs to provide an open and transparent government so that citizens can be heard and be a part of the ultimate decision.

Kathleen Finnerty, Mike Grimm, Kyra Valentine
for Fair Enterprise

The Impact of Big Box Retail Development on Door County
The Continuation of an Educational Series

SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS ARTICLES
Article 14 in a Series

During April and May of 2006, Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise (DCR4FE) placed a series of educational articles in the Advocate that addressed the negative impact of Big Box retail development on communities. The articles summarized Big Box research studies that were done by economists, consulting firms, academics, business journalists and non-profits. These studies identified information that had adverse effects environmentally, economically and fiscally upon communities with Big Box developments. Research also suggests that small communities were particularly impacted.

Fair Enterprise is stunned by and adamantly opposes the proposed plans for the Wal-Mart expansion, which enlarge the existing building from approximately 66,000 square feet to 184,000 square feet.

Given the current proposal, it is important to summarize highlights of the original 13 articles.

DOOR COUNTY RESIDENTS FOR FAIR ENTERPRISE OPPOSES BIG BOX RETAIL FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

More then half the money spent on a Big Box store leaves the community. For every $100 spent at local business - $73 remain. At Big Box stores - $43 remain.

A SuperCenter is out-of-character and out-of-proportion with other buildings in the city, the county and on Egg Harbor Road.

According to a federal taxpayer study, federal taxpayers pay an average of $2,103 in subsidies for the average Wal-Mart employee.

Big Box stores do not use local services, or purchase produce or manufactured goods locally. Therefore, local cash flow between residents is reduced.

The property for annexation sits on a ‘zone of contribution’ for Sturgeon Bay water.

Local shops typically give greater contributions to community based organizations than Big Box.

The presence of a new Big Box grocery will most likely create an abandoned big grocery store.

The community typically loses three jobs for every two jobs created by a Big Box.

Residents of local labor markets typically earn less following the opening of a Big Box, as box stores depress overall wages in the community.

THE CITY COUNCIL NEEDS TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING:
Open government. No closed sessions for annexation discussions, as occurred for the Hopf property.
A Smart Growth plan, as required by state law, to provide vision and to guide city development. A moratorium during the Smart Growth process.
Environmental, economic and fiscal impact studies to determine if it is appropriate for the city to have a SuperCenter, prior to steps for annexation.
A cap size in keeping with our community for the Big Box ordinance.

WI Open Meetings Law and the Proposed Wal-Mart Expansion
Article 15 in a Series

Fair Enterprise (FE) is hopeful that all procedures for the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter will proceed according to’ Wisconsin Open Meetings Law’. FE concern is based on elected official’s approach to the Hopf Property, which is located on highway 57 west of the city.

In the above case, the community did not learn about the process until plans were in place to provide infrastructure. This meant proponents of the project, the City Council, were prepared to annex the land and to approve a conditional use permit. In other words, city government committed to the project and determined its opinion before the public had an opportunity for input, which they gave after the fact. The following is documented:

A Pre-Annexation Agreement was completed in five closed sessions by the City Council and during these sessions, a contractual agreement was made that was binding for the city. Residents did not learn about these sessions until the mayor made an announcement. However, the impetus for the mayor’s statement was no doubt prompted by information learned and made public by FE. The legal agreement said the city would provide infrastructure whether or not the Hopf property was annexed to the city.

The City Council has already held one closed session for the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter expansion, and FE questions if that closed session was necessary and valid. It is the Attorney General’s position that ‘all governmental bodies vote in open session unless it would compromise the need for closed session discussion’.

While the content of the closed session remains unknown, ‘it is reasonable, according to the Midwest Environmental Advocates, to share all information that is known by the city and the developer’. Since discussions are between city and developer, the content of the negotiations appear ‘irrelevant when there is no competition that would warrant the secrecy’.

A proposal such as the one presented by Wal-Mart will most likely involve the City Council, Plan Commission, Public Works Committee and Finance and/or Appropriations Committee. All of these meetings must be open to the public, unless competition is involved, which is unlikely given there are two parties, the city and the developer. When a meeting is declared closed, it must comply with section 19.85(1)(e) of the Wisconsin Statutes, which allow for ‘closed sessions when competitive and/or bargaining reasons require a closed session. The exemption section must be posted on any notification.

Fair Enterprise requests the following for the proposed Wal-Mart expansion process:
That all information be made available to the public.
That city government be transparent and open.
That public discussion, which is vital to any informed decision regarding the proposed Wal-Mart SuperCenter, be allowed.

"Other studies have found that the economic gains from Wal-Mart's lower prices are more than offset by the effect of its relatively low wages. It's possible, too, that Wal-Mart's relatively low wages drive wages down elsewhere in the local job market, Azzam said".

UNL Study: Counties With Wal-Marts See Slower Growth in Standard of Living
9/19/06, Azzeddine M. Azzam - Ph.D., Agricultural Economics Professor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska counties where a Wal-Mart is located have experienced on average a slower growth in standard of living than counties without the world's largest retailer, a preliminary University of Nebraska-Lincoln study shows.

The UNL study compared how growth in household income from 1979 to 2002 differed between 19 counties with Wal-Marts and 74 without, after controlling for other economic variables that determine household income. Of the 74 counties without Wal-Marts, 47 were adjacent to a county with a Wal-Mart.
Although the preliminary results find a correlation between Wal-Mart locations and slower economic growth, Azzeddine Azzam, the agricultural economist who led the UNL research, cautioned against drawing overly simplistic conclusions.
"There is a Wal-Mart effect, but we don't completely understand it," he said. Wal-Mart didn't create the economic conditions that have led to its success, but it has learned to take advantage of them, Azzam added.
Azzam presented his preliminary findings to the 2006 Nebraska Rural Institute in Ainsworth Tuesday (Sept. 19). He's still compiling statistics about the "Wal-Mart effect" on employment and wages, which also will be included in the yet-to-be-published study.
A variety of studies in recent years have explored a number of angles of Wal-Mart's impact on local economies, with mixed findings. Azzam said the UNL study may be the first to examine Wal-Mart's effect on the standard of living of communities it has entered. The UNL study also sought to account for the effects other economic variables would have on household income in an attempt to hone in on the Wal-Mart effect alone.
"Most of the studies attribute all changes in sales, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity to the presence of Wal-Mart, which could potentially bias conclusions in favor of or against the store," Azzam said.
After accounting for the other variables, the preliminary UNL study found that the average annual growth in median household income, adjusted for inflation, in the 19 counties with a Wal-Mart was $142.62 below the average annual growth in median household income in the 74 counties without a Wal-Mart from 1979 to 2002.
The UNL study uses 1979 as its beginning point to track household income trends. The state's first Wal-Mart opened in 1982 in Jefferson County. Nine more followed from 1984-86, seven more from 1989-93 and four from 1998-2001. The preliminary study includes 21 stores that had opened in the 19 counties by 2002. Five more have opened since then and are not included in this study.
The study found that the magnitude of the Wal-Mart effect differed depending on factors such as whether counties are urban or rural; located along Interstate 80 or not; and how dependent their economies are on agriculture.
The counties whose standards of living seem to benefit most from Wal-Mart, according to the study, are those that do not have a store themselves, but are adjacent to counties that do – if they're located along I-80.
On the other hand, the counties that seemed on average to see the biggest negative impact in their standard of living, according to the research, are urban counties that have Wal-Marts – and the older the Wal-Mart, the bigger the impact. For example, urban counties in which Wal-Marts have opened since 1985 have seen annual drops in inflation-adjusted household income of $89 and $143 for those along I-80 and not along the interstate, respectively. The declines were $65 and $118 for urban counties in which Wal-Marts opened since 1995.
In the study, urban counties are defined as those with an urban population of at least 2,500.
"This isn't necessarily cause and effect," Azzam said. "Wal-Mart is a manifestation of the restructuring going on in the U.S. economy ... It's a symptom of the economy, not necessarily a cause."
Other studies have found that the economic gains from Wal-Mart's lower prices are more than offset by the effect of its relatively low wages. It's possible, too, that Wal-Mart's relatively low wages drive wages down elsewhere in the local job market, Azzam said.
According to Wal-Mart's Web site, which Azzam used to collect information on the store's presence in Nebraska, Wal-Mart's 10,300 employees in the state are paid an average of $10.04 an hour.
The 19 counties with Wal-Marts as of 2002 were: Adams, Buffalo, Dakota, Dawes, Dawson, Dodge, Douglas, Gage, Hall, Jefferson, Lancaster, Lincoln, Madison, Platte, Red Willow, Sarpy, Scotts Bluff, Seward and York.
Funding for the study was provided by the university's Agricultural Research Division, a part of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Nebraska Rural Initiative.

Thoughts along the way:

Plan Commission Meeting Notes, May 17, 2006
Felhofer's Diapers / Hauser's Debut

Laurel Hauser sat on her first Plan Commission meeting Wednesday, May 17. She appeared a little nervous, but when committee took on the Big Box Ordinance, she was composed.

Marty Olejniczak, introduced a list of tools that might be useful in crafting the Big Box Ordinance. Since no one in the audience had a copy, the committeeâ•˙s references to specific items by number or letter were a little confusing, but discussion clarified all but one. There was brief mention of the Wellhead protection item. Jeff Norland recommended that they leave it as written, everyone agreed. Surprisingly, on Thursday, it was discovered that the planner supported construction in the Wellhead protection Zone, but, there would have to be a construction site runoff plan in place, and a post construction plan also, as mandated by the state.

After a brief discussion on the merits of various options, Laurel spoke. She held high a fat yellow file folder, and said that it contained about 80 Big Box Ordinances from other communities around the state and suggested that the committee study what other communities are doing. She said she would like to see an economic impact study to identify retail trends, and analyze the impact of additional retail in the community; it would analyze the impact of revenue moving from one business sector to another and help determine if a big box were warranted. More information means better informed decisions.

Mike Felhofer started by saying that since he was still buying cheap diapers, he would like a superstore in Sturgeon Bay so he could buy cheap diapers locally. Laurel stated that there was a Wal-Mart, a Target, and a couple of Dollar Stores in town. They all sell cheap diapers. Felhofer then said he read about 800 big box ordinances. He felt that economic impact studies were too subjective and ambiguous. Fiscal studies contain concrete numbers and are more accurate. Stressing the ambiguity of the subjectivity of economic impact studies, he talked at length about their ineffectiveness. The city already conducts fiscal studies for new developments.

Then holding the Sturgeon Bay Comprehensive Plan, Laurel said, "Mike, I understand your concern, . . .You know, I like this, it reminds me of high school debate. . . This is our comprehensive plan. You should all read this, it's good and it'˙s easy. I read it this morning." Then she hyped economic impact studies in addition to any other studies deemed necessary as being important in the decision-making process. The cost of the studies could be borne by the developer. Studies should be done by unbiased third parties appointed by the city, and would help the city make smart decisions. She said there was nothing in the comprehensive plan that supported big box development, adding, "This issue flies in the face of our Comprehensive Plan."

Felhofer restated his desire for a local big box retailer so he could get his cheap diapers adding that now he has to go to Sams in Green Bay to buy a three-month supply of cheap diapers, no doubt every three months or so. Why should the city let all that revenue and potential employment go south.

Ken Glasheen spoke up saying that Green Bay was an established retail hub. Sturgeon Bay cannot compete with GreenBay, therefore it's not realistic for Sturgeon Bay to try. The city should entertain a limit on big boxes. He made his push for a size cap. Mike Gilson, the other new member on the committee, said he was opposed to a size cap. No explanation.

Previous items on the agenda took a lot of time, it was getting late. Laurel wondered if the plan commission would consider devoting an entire meeting to the Big Box Issue, since they had been discussing it for nearly an hour and were not making much headway. The city administrator suggested that they limit agenda items at future meetings, and give Big Box more time in their regular meetings. They could have a special meeting, but he felt it wouldn't be much more effective. Cap Wulf, before moving to the next item, expressed his concern about vacant buildings, depressed property value, and all the negatives of big box development. Felhofer suggested a TIF and redevelopment. End of discussion. End of Big Box for now.

Annexation of the Hopf property. O'Donnell favored the annexation because they were committed to bringing sewer and water to the property, per the agreement. It is in the city's best interest to annex the property so it would have more control over the property. Laurel interjected, "Isn't this backward?"ˇ Brent Denzin, a lawyer with Midwest Environmental Advocates in Madison, was in the audience. He whispered, "That's illegal! They can'˙t do that!" Then Cap suggested that they vote to annex the Hopf property. There was a voice vote and not unanimous. Laurel said she was opposed to the annexation.

After the meeting adjourned Denzin approached Marty Olejniczak, city planner, and suggested that the city was acting illegally by proceeding with installation of sewer and water to a property yet to be annexed. He cited chapter 13 of our utility ordinances. Marty O. referred Denzin to O'Donnell, our new administrator. Denzin told O'Donnell who found the ordinance and read it out loud. He did not see anything illegal about the city's actions. The agreement authorized them to proceed. Denzin pointed out that the ordinance clearly states that an agreement must be between the municipality, in this case Nasewaupee, and the City, or a customer of the municipality. Hopf is not a customer of Nasewaupee, and the agreement is not between Nasewaupee and the City, therefore, it is illegal to proceed with water and sewer installation prior to the annexation. O"Donnell's response was, "Well, that's a city ordinance, that can be changed." He then excused himself.

5/4/06 Unplanned, Ugly Sprawl a GREAT IDEA!
My wife and I just got back from Appleton. We traveled the big box-laden Highway 41 corridor. It was breathtaking! The concrete! The lights! The parking lots! The billboards! I was convinced. This is EXACTLY what we need welcoming people to Door County! It's what we need to assure that visitors will put the pedal to the metal to speed past the same ugliness they have in their own towns while hurrying to reach their precious destination: the "unspoiled quaintness" of Northern Door.

Here's how the incentive to speed past Sturgeon Bay will really work FOR us: All we have to do to turn sprawl-induced speed into revenue is purchase a couple of those automated Photo Cop Ticketing devices. Granted, speeding tickets don't create much good will, but they will put revenue into the Sturgeon Bay coffers - money that will be sorely needed when our local merchants close their doors, property values drop and tax revenues plummet.
(I have attached a simple chart on the left describing how the plan works.)

Unchecked development? Yes, it's a great idea! So continue to rip down those ugly hills. Blast up more billboards. Demolish those stupid old barns and pave over those fields. We CAN achieve Highway 41 corridor standards of ugliness. I know that we can! We are taking giants steps in the right direction with every City Council meeting.

- Tim Nyberg, Sturgeon Bay (click the graphic to access a print-resolution version)

(click cartoon to access a print-resolution version)

4/20/06 Felhofer not up to the task?
Here's a quote from Commission Michael Felhofer from Wednesday night's Plan Commission meeting (posted as an audio file on DoorCountyDailyNews.com): "Wal-Mart will not drive anybody out of business... I'm not smart enough to say who should be in business and who shouldn't be. I don't think anybody on this commission or on the city council is close to being smart enough to make that decision."

Mr. Felhofer: There's been study after study nationwide by independent firms detailing just how devastating a Wal-Mart and their Supercenters are on local businesses and small communities like ours. Wal-Mart DOES in fact drive others out of business.

Maybe you are being honest in stating that you aren't smart enough, but that's no excuse. You certainly could be if you would take time to read the studies and make informed decisions based on fact - on reality - on track record. Saying that none of us are smart enough to make that decision [about business] is just not true - and borders on irresponsible.

FairEnterprise.org has posted many of these studies so the public and our elected officials CAN make informed decisions. Please take time to do your homework and to get informed. We've entrusted you with decisions that affect the future of our local businesses and our County. If you aren't up to the task, please step aside so someone else can do the work required.

- Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise

4/7/06 It's Magic!
I have a magician friend who was once hired by ZZ-Top to make their car appear on stage before a live audience. He did it quite conspicuously by using a flash and smoke on another portion of the stage while the car was being driven onto the stage - in plain site - right in front of everyone. When the flash and smoke cleared, the audience's attention was redirected to the car and they had absolutely no idea how it got there. It was magic!

Let's consider the possibility that the recently revealed fax from Wal-Mart expressing interest in expanding at the Alabama Street / Keller property is a rouse - a red-herring - a diversion - designed to take our focus off of the Hopf property and focus on Alabama Street. I'm not making any claims about who might be doing this, but keep in mind that misdirection is a wonderful tactic in magic as it is in politics and mega business. I'm just throwing it out there as a possible scenario. Let's be vigilant in seeking the truth. The future of our city and county is at stake. - Tim Nyberg

To Door County /Green Bay Media: We respectfully request that the media refrain from referring to Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise as "anti-Wal-Mart". This is not an issue with all of you, but, for the record and for immediate release:

Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise is NOT "anti-Wal-Mart" nor are we "anti-Wal-Mart protesters" as some have quoted. Although we have some supporters who refuse to shop at Wal-Mart, others of us shop there often. This is not our common thread.

Fair Enterprise is a growing grass-roots organization focused on smart, healthy, planned growth for our community. We are very concerned with the social, economic and environmental impact of ANY sprawl development - particularly "Big Box" retailers (under any name, Wal-Mart or otherwise). We are PRO independently-owned and small business - those businesses that comprise the economic core of our community.

At the same time, we are well aware of the devastating impact that the introduction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter has on communities of our size. We are doing everything in our power to encourage our elected officials to be fully informed so they do not blindly welcome in what may ultimately result in financial ruin for our community and the denigration of Door County's character which makes it a unique, desirable place to live, work and to visit.
- Tim Nyberg

For further information about Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise please contact 920-743-5605.

What's Wrong with Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart has earned a reputation as the ultimate bad neighbor, upheaving communities with virtually every store opening. Their requirements for giant parking lots force them to set up on the fringes of urban areas, often destroying open space and opening the gateways for sprawl development around their stores. They also hurt communities by destroying jobs and drawing the commercial focus away from downtown Main Streets. Research shows that for every two jobs Wal-Mart creates, three jobs are destroyed in the community. Such heavy competition forces local shop owners to close their doors, and downtown streets become vacant. Wal-Mart also has a poor environmental track record. The stores have several incidents of inadequately dealing with storm water and polluting groundwater with parking lot run-off and poorly stored chemicals and fertilizers.

The presence of a Wal-Mart indicates a disinvestment in a community’s downtown, sprawling growth on the urban fringe, and potential environmental hazards. Furthermore, the ability to keep a Wal-Mart out of a town shows a community’s ability to rally to protect its local identity and economy.

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD Ken Stone's 10-year Iowa Study (pdf)

Here are some Wal-Mart statistics that you will not find in any economic study that is required prior to the introduction of a Wal-Mart into a community:

The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. [Harper's Index - Harper's Magazine, Vol. 310, No. 1858, 3/2005]

One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year.
This cost comes from the following, on average:
$36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
$42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
$125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
$100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
$108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
$9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.
From: THE HIDDEN PRICE WE ALL PAY FOR WAL-MART, A REPORT BY THE DEMOCRATIC STAFF OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE, 2/16/04

Loss of Community Business An Iowa study showed that in the decade after Wal-Mart arrived, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women’s apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, and 111 men’s and boys’ apparel stores. The Iowa study revealed that some small towns lose up to 47% of their retail trade after 10 years of a Wal-Mart store moving in nearby. CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD Ken Stone's 10-year Iowa Study (pdf)

Wal-Mart’s lower wages mean less money for communities In one study, Southern California municipalities estimated that for every dollar decrease in wages in the southern California economy, $2.08 in spending was lost - the $1 decrease plus another $1.08 in indirect multiplier impacts.

Money spent at Wal-Mart does not stay in the community In Virginia, 60 cents of every dollar spent downtown, stays downtown - compared to just six cents for every dollar spent at a so-called "big-box" store, such as Wal-Mart.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND ARTICLES ABOUT WAL-MART, CLICK HERE.

big box blues

another big box sits empty
some local stores not left alive
but that's okay we say
we can get a four-slice toaster for just $11.95

main street stores sit empty
a bunch of jobs are gone
but that's okay we save on stuff
sometimes two for the price of one

we sure love our super stores
they save us hard-earned cash
but please don't mention sweatshops
that make our discount stash

big box workers get poverty wage
and qualify for public aid
but that's okay we say
just look at the cash we've saved

they'll just have to get a second job
to get off of medicaid
'cause our taxes pay those benefits
used by the big box work brigade

it's not the employees' fault at all
put the blame on corporate greed
and do this while remembering
the warnings we failed to heed

one more big box sits empty
an even bigger box lights our evening sky
our wallets too are empty
while we sit and wonder why

- tim nyberg, sturgeon bay

These are signs to print out (8.5" by 11") to mail to the mayor and your common council representatives (addresses below).
Click on images to access pdf files for printing.

click ad to download a pdf - these are sized for the Penninsula Pulse

two-up mini posters - click image to download pdf:

flyers to print out - click image to download printable 8.5" by 11" pdf
(you may need to upload a current version of Acrobat Reader):

go to top of page

Keep the Heat on the City Council
The Big Box issue keeps sneaking it onto the City Planning Commission's agenda and it should! Unfortunately, no amendment to put MORE TEETH into the big box ordanance has been brought up for vote. What we can do is to keep on the city council and planning commission members until the message gets through to them LOUD AND CLEAR - We DO NOT want Big Box Stores like Super Wal-Mart in Door County!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ON THE LEFT TO PRINT OUT A SIGN that you can mail to your your alderman and to the mayor's office (addresses below).

YARD SIGNS ARE AVAILABLE FREE AT THE ARTISTS GUILD, STURGEON BAY & COMPASS COFFEEHOUSE, FISH CREEK

BIG BOX action update #6

If you attended [last Wednesday's Plan Commission meeting], you saw first-hand that Ken Glasheen's proposal to cap the size of BigBox retail in Sturgeon Bay at 100,000 s.f. met with no support. Instead, Felhofer called the proposal "simplistic". Other committee members said that maybe we should revisit the existing ordinance; that perhaps we could put future Big Boxes outside the city; that there really hadn't been enough time to consider what to do at this meeting....   Cap Wulf spoke, somewhat ironically, of the "devastation" caused to local business when existing Big Boxes first came to Sturgeon Bay, and recommended the Commission look for examples of other cities' Big Box ordinances and bring it back (again, delayed) to "next month's agenda".

All in all, a VERY dissatisfying evening - esp. since we, the public, weren't even on the agenda 'til the day prior, and-- of course-- had no forum to speak.   (Christie Weber did "steal" an opportunity when she stood up, and - on behalf of Fair Enterprise - offered her support for a small local soap-making business requesting a sign permit.)

All said and done, we MORE THAN suspect a delay tactic here. Wal Mart's representatives have not turned in their application to the city (they're already a couple of weeks late), but probably will have by next month's meeting of the Planning Commission. At that time any "discussion" by the commission will be too late: Applications made prior to any amendments will be grandfathered into our existing ordinance, allowing Big Boxes of 500,000 s.f. or more.

So, we're shifting our attention back to the mayor and city council!   We're requesting they take up the BIG BOX matter directly.

Here's where you can help:
Your primary job, over the next week, is to call the mayor and city council members. (This is especially important for residents of Sturgeon Bay.) The "Big Three" are Mayor McIntosh, Dave McAllister and Ron Vandertie (both McAllister and Vandertie were at the Town Hall meeting, may be receptive, and may have some clout with the mayor-- if they see enough public interest). Tell them you support changes to the BIG BOX ordinance, or a moratorium on Big Box development until such time as the city has required an economic impact study (minimally). And tell them whatever else you think!   Their phone numbers are:
   a.. Mayor Dennis McIntosh- 920-743-0239
   b.. Dave McAllister- 920-743-3968
   c.. Ron Vandertie- 920-746-3886

Please also call your district's Council Member (if different from Mr. McAllister or Vandertie).    Their phone numbers: Danny Wiegand, 3-7145; Thomas (Cap) Wulf, 3-4080; Stephen Mann, 3-9337; Kim Hayes, 3-9756; Ken Glasheen, 6-5239.   If you don't know who represents your district, call Sturgeon Bay City Hall (746-2900).

The following letter was sent to the City Council - basically a short rehash of what was learned at the Town Hall Meeting:

To the city of Sturgeon Bay planning commission
from Rick and Stella Rogers, 308 South 12th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay
March 14, 2006
RE: Big Box issues

We have just invested considerable treasure, sweat, and perhaps some blood in refurbishing Madison Street, the lakeshore, Third Avenue, and Jefferson Street to make them into pleasant places for tourists and residents. When we discussed the new bridge issue, one of the things we considered was the effect of an extended bridge shut down on the investment we had just made. Wouldn’t it make sense to do the same in our big box deliberations?

Every big box developer will tout the benefits of the development asserting jobs, property values, etc. that will be created. However, each one of these gains will be at the cost of existing jobs, wages, property values, etc. When we consider a big box permit it is important to do so in light of valid studies on the global effects the development would have on the community. Making this decision by the “seat of our pants” will probably result in soiled pants.

We have customers that big box developers want, so we are negotiating from a position of strength. They will do what we want as long as we are firm about reasonable and fair conditions. It is our city and it is ours to say how it is developed.

A developer would not be so foolish as to build a superbox in Nasewaupe unless we are so foolish as to give them city sewer, water, police, fire protection, and build and maintain access roads. A box that size is not feasible without these services—regardless of how much bluffing they do.

Any monies spent by the city in preparing for a superbox (roads, water, sewer, etc.) will not be recovered when the global effects of loss of jobs, wages, and property values are considered. The existing businesses will in effect be taxed to provide these services to an arch-competitor.

Some well known facts about Wal-Mart Supercenters.

1. Whenever a supercenter is opened it causes nearby grocery stores to close—generally two. This results in a net loss of jobs, wages, and falling property values in the community.
2. A blighted downtown is the predictable result of a new supercenter.
3. Sure, they have “Always low prices” at the beginning, but only until they have driven the local shop owners out of business. Then the downtown area becomes blighted and the prices go right up. Prices here will be higher than at the supercenter in Green Bay because there will be no competition. Wal-Mart is ruthless in their marketing practices and makes decisions for its own good; not for the best interest of the community.
4. Wal-Mart operates through proxies. A development is often started by a front company and is revealed Wal-Mart only at the final stage.
5. We do not need to be concerned about the existing Wal-Mart store going away unless we do one of the following:
a. A successful union organizing campaign.
b. Epidemic of shoplifting by the community.
c. Some extraordinary circumstance causes a decline in sales to the point of loss.
6. Wal-Mart pays it’s workers so little that it will increase the tax burden on the rest of us to provide assistance to these citizens.
A Supercenter may well jeopardize our tourist business. People come to visit Door County for the local charm, rural and lakeshore areas, parks, and unique small shops. They have no reason to patronize a Supercenter that has higher prices than the one at home.

Previous action items (still valid):

2. Write a letter to the editor:

Mention the high cost of a Super Wal-Mart to our community including any or all of the following:
Uncontrolled sprawl along HWY. 42/57
The loss of Door County character and charm
The need for proper county zoning to assure smart growth
The protection of our environment and farm lands
Highway 42/57 turning into a big box business route
Fair Enterprise and the impact on/loss of our small businesses

Include in your letter the names of the mayor and council members (below) who are the ones that can stop this type of growth by passage of resolutions that zone out this type of big box development in Door County. We need to call them on this outloud , right away.

Advocate email for editor: warren@doorcountyadvocate.com
Peninsula Pulse email for editor: dsteliot@ppulse.com

3. Make some phone calls:

Call Charlie Most, the County Board Chairman and the County Board Representative in your district, and the Mayor of Sturgeon Bay and City Representative (leave a message if you need to).

Issues to mention:
You do not want SUPER CENTERS Along our Highway. Ask them to please stop in any way possible the promotion of that type of destructive development IN DOOR COUNTY.

Highway 42/57 belongs to EVERYONE in DOOR COUNTY and must be preserved as a highway. Please do everything in your POWER to work together assuring that 42/57 not become Sturgeon Bay's new business route.

Tell them that you support an ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT at the county and at the city level, be done before any permits of any kind are given out along our highway corridor.

Urge them to get the Door County and City Planner to establish some smart growth rules along our highway and to stop promoting and permitting sprawl entrances onto the highway corridor in the Sturgeon Bay area. Bring this up at the highway commission meetings and in planning committee meetings.

Ask them to please create and pass a resolution which promotes retention of existing businesses, not destroy them, by controlling and reducing highway sprawl and big box development. Put teeth into the existing big box ordanance by amending the ordanance to require economic and enviromental studies provided by a non-biased source.

Ask them to please support in every way the County Comprehensive Plan. Start requiring all committees to follow the plan in their planning and recommendations.
For example: Right now, the highway commission is ignoring the plan and reviewing and promoting alternatives to the plan for the Super Wal-Mart at Alabama Street by considering relocating the proposed stop light from the Egg Harbor Road Business Route junction. This will force more relocations to our highway corridor and promote uncontrolled relocation of our business to the highway.

If and when they say they can't, insist on them figuring out how they can and that they should do it NOW before its too late.

4. PETITIONS: Keep up the good work. If you need more petition blanks they can be picked up at the compass cafe in Fish Creek or the Bluefront cafe in Sturgeon Bay but please remember to also use the web site by typing the address (http://www.fairenterprise.org).

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Names and phone/address information you will need:

County Board Chairman
Charlie Most, Jr.
email: cmost@dcwis.com
1048 Cottage Rd.
Ellison Bay, WI 54210
Phone: 920-854-9085
Fax: 920-854-6405

Sturgeon Bay Mayor
Dennis D. McIntosh - Serving the City of Sturgeon Bay
329 North 18th Place
920-743-0239

Community Development Director
Martin Olejniczk
Community Development Department
36 South Third Avenue
P O Box 47
920-746-2910

Sturgeon Bay Common Council:

District 1
Danny B. Wiegand - Serving Wards 1 and 2
1155 N 4th Ave
920-743-7145

District 2
Ronald A. Vandertie - Serving Wards 3 and 4
818 Oregon
920-746-3886

District 3
Thomas (Cap) Wulf - Serving Wards 5, 6, 22, and 23
1127 Cove Road
920-743-4080

District 4
David W. McAllister - Serving Wards 7, 8, 20, 21, and 24
1779 Shiloh Road
920-743-3968

District 5
Stephen C. Mann - Serving Wards 9, 10, 18, 19, and 25
123 North Lansing Ave
920-743-9337

District 6
D. Kim Hays - Serving Wards 11, 12, 15, 16, and 17
1421 North 11th Place
920-743-9756

District 7
Kenneth B. Glasheen - Serving Wards 13 and 14
920 Michigan Street
920-746-5239

City Plan Commission
Thomas "Cap" Wulf 920-743-4080, Chairperson, Joy Bordeau 920-743-5780, Michael Felhofer 920-746-9480, Kenneth Glasheen 920-746-5239, Jeff Norland 920-743-7302, Laurel Hauser 920-743-8990,

County Board
Chair Charlie Most, 1048 Cottage Lane, Ellison Bay 54210

Mr.Cletus Fontaine, 936 Shoemaker Point Rd, Brussels 54204

Mr. Charles Gulley, 371 S. Forestville Ave, Forestville 54213

Mr. Bob Ryan, 145 Char-Lin Road, Algoma 54201

Ms. Kari Lee Anderson, 6844 County A, Egg Harbor 54209

Merrell P. Runquist, 8488 Highway 42, Fish Creek 54212

Mr. Hugh Mulliken, PO BOX 275, Ephraim, 54211

Mr. Marc Savard, 1693 Wildwood Rd, Sister Bay, 54234

The following County Board members all live in Sturgeon Bay (54235):

Mr. Colin Sacotte, 8407 Hwy. 57

Mr. Leroy Liebe, 3201 Park Drive

Ms. Jaime Forest, 5880 Cedar Creek Place

Mr. Richard Virlee, 534 Delaware St

Mr. Daniel Austad, 942 Memorial Drive

Mr. Richard Haines, 1126 S. 18^th Pl

Mr. Kenneth Fisher, 967 S. Douglas Ave

Mr. Charles Brann, 207 N. Fulton

Mr. Mark Moeller, 916 N. 8^th

Mr. Will Jeanquart, 324 Jaycee Court

Mr. Leo Zipperer, 3850 Bay Shore Dr

Mr. Peter Polich, 4161 Highway 57

Mr. Bill Goettelman, 376 N. 3rd Ave.

Sturgeon Bay Highway Commission:
Daniel Austad, Merrell Runquist, Charles Gulley, Kenneth Fisher, Leo Zipperer (addresses above)

Mr. Bill Chaudoir, Door County Economic Development Council, 185 E. Walnut, Sturgeon

Ms. Karen Raymore, Chamber of Commerce, 1015 Green Bay Road, Sturgeon Bay

Ms. Becky McKee, Sturgeon Bay Visitor and Convention Bureau, 25 N. 5^th Ave, Sturgeon Bay

Department of Transportation:
Mr. David Neilson, 944 Vanderparren Way, PL BOX 28080, Green Bay 54324

Department of Natural Resources:
Mr. Will Dorsey, 944 Vanderparren Way, PO BOS 28080, Green Bay 54324

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Why is Door County Too Small for Big Box Development?

1. It is contrary to the rural, natural area that is defined by small retail shops and a small town atmosphere, which are the reasons many people choose to live in Door County.
2. Long term, it will have a negative impact on the Door County economy
3. It will set a precedent for other big box permits and it is known that other large retail stores typically follow a Wal-Mart development.
4. A Super Wal-Mart (200,000 sq. ft), the equivalent of two Target Stores, is out of character and scale with other existing buildings in the area.
5. The Door County Comprehensive Land Use Plan states that there is to be no development along the bypass corridor north on 42/57.
6. A big box will create a massive impervious surface runoff. The proposed site is part of a wellhead protection zone that was created to protect the city wells from polluted drain off water.
7. Every county in the state must have a Smart Growth Plan in place by 2010, as mandated by state legislation. This plan will determine what citizens want Door County to look like and should be complete before big boxes are even considered.
8. The market power of a Super Wal-Mart will cause dramatic changes to the existing retail fabric.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. Is it true that Wal-Mart will leave if they can’t build a Supercenter?
A. A few years ago Wal-Mart was denied building approval for a supercenter, and didn’t leave the county. Door County’s Wal-Mart is one of their more profitable stores per square foot in this region.

Q. If this location is denied, will they try to build somewhere else?
A. Most likely, that is why Fair Enterprise is actively pursuing city and county-wide legislation to zone out all super-sized big box commercial development over 90,000 square feet.

Q. Is there an economic advantage for the public if we allow a superstore here?
A. Possibly short term lower pricing, while they are wiping out their competition in the market area, like they did with KMart. After KMart closed, Wal-Mart raised their prices. It is well known that Wal-Mart adjusts its prices higher and higher in a non-competitive market leaving the consumer with smaller selection and the same low quality, only more expensive.

Q. Which businesses in our community are at risk if a supercenter is built?
A. Today, the grocery stores tire centers, gas stations, hardware stores, and optometrists. In the future, the supercenters are considering expansion of their services to compete with banks, car dealerships, and many other consumer goods and services in order to control 25% of all consumer goods sold in America.

Q. What about Free Enterprise? Who are we to tell them they can’t build here?
A. Just as a good planning department regulates strip joints, bars, adult video and book stores to protect surrounding neighborhoods and quality of life, so it is charged to regulate the business climate to maintain a healthy economic, social and environmental balance that reflects the community’s wants and needs and not those of large corporations. Free enterprise is dependent on a fair marketplace.

Q. If we allowed a super Wal-Mart in our community, what would happen to the existing Wal-Mart?
A. Like the KMart, Save A Buck, and Pamida buildings the Wal-Mart building would sit empty or be under utilized for years, lowering property values in the immediate area. It would also mean the loss of an anchor store in a major retail district that is now located off the highway corridor.

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Wal-Mart Health Care Crisis
Our Wal-Mart Workers Deserve Better

Click the card on the left to download a sheet of this card that you can distribute to Wal-Mart workers.

Based on our new report (wakeupwalmart.com), we estimate Wal-Mart has over 296,000 employees and dependents on public health care at a cost to taxpayers of $1.37 billion in 2005.

We cannot stay silent while Wal-Mart makes obscene profits at the expense of its employees and American taxpayers. And, while we may not be able to change all of corporate America at once, we do have the power to make corporations put people first, and it starts by making the largest employer in America, Wal-Mart, a responsible corporation.

Watch a quicktime commercial outlining the Wal-Mart Health Care Crisis here.

Super-Size Petition Drive
(if you can't download/print this, you can pick up copies at Kick Coffee in Sturgeon Bay and at Compass Coffee House in Fish Creek)

Thank you for your committed concern over a Super Center built in Door County.

Please download and print the countywide petition pdf and start filling out and distributing it to as many places as you can, asking our elected officials to eliminate "super-sized commercial development in Door County" then send your completed petition sheets back to the address listed at the bottom of the page by February 25th and we will distribute them county wide to our elected officials. They need to here from everyone, not just the developers.

Thanks for your active participation in this time sensitive, very important county-wide petition drive.

Ellen Wittebrog

Note: You may also drop off your completed petitions anytime before February 25th at either Kick Coffee, Sturgeon Bay or Compass Coffee House in Fish Creek.

Beyond the Wal-Mart Economy
Co-op America Quarterly, SPRING 2006

Wal-Mart faces a growing number of consumers who understand there is no place for today's Wal-Mart in a sustainable society.

The Wal-Mart economy is the opposite of sustainable.

There can be no place in a sustainable economy for a corporation like today’s Wal-Mart that advances a business model riddled with negative repurcussions—from its low-wage, environmentally destructive factories in developing countries, to shuttered local businesses all across America.

“Wal-Mart makes the corporate business model even more destructive,” says Erin Gorman, director of Co-op America’s Wal-Mart Action Campaign. “Their push to lower their costs year after year has driven down wages here and abroad, sent American manufacturing jobs overseas, rapidly expanded toxic industrial production in countries that lack rigorous labor or environmental protections, and contributed to a host of other social and environmental ills. It’s a race to the bottom where everyone loses.”

Until Wal-Mart, the trend in the American marketplace had been to increasingly internalize the costs of doing business, from paying decent wages and offering health-care benefits, to limiting the work-week to 40 hours, to curbing environmental impact. While the job of internalizing business costs was nowhere near complete, the trend was in the right direction.

In its relentless pursuit of ever-cheaper products and ever-larger market shares, Wal-Mart reverses that trend. Wal-Mart externalizes its costs any way it can—by pushing its health-care costs onto local communities, for example, or by soliciting taxpayer dollars to subsidize its sprawl.

These costs, then, are born by all of us, including the low-income consumers supposedly assisted by Wal-Mart’s “low prices.” What’s more, for individuals stuck without retail options—whether because of poverty or because big-box stores have killed off local businesses—the truth is that Wal-Mart’s “low prices” aren’t always exactly that (see “Skip Wal-Mart, Save Money”, p.13). Concerned consumers need to take an encompassing view of the retail situation in the US and work to provide other choices for people in our communities who are struggling economically.

At the same time, concerned consumers can use the power of their dollars to force Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world, to use their infrastructure more for good than for ill. Already, Wal-Mart rings up more sales than any other company in a host of retail categories, including toys, books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, dog food, diapers, jewelry, and groceries. Imagine if those products were all sustainably produced by workers making fair wages using processes that protect the environment.

That day is not yet here, but the good news is that the market is beginning to wake up to the problems with the Wal-Mart way, and together we can advance the momentum for change.

As Business Week reporter Roben Farzad put it, “Leave it to Wal-Mart to double its profits to more than $10 billion in five years, blanketing the globe with more $20 DVD players than you can shake a $2 broomstick at, only to see its share price fall 13 percent over the same period.” In other words, the Wal-Mart way won’t hold up over the long term, and Wal-Mart needs to completely reform itself or be put out of business. Its current business model is unsustainable every step of the way.

Sweatshops: The Starting Point

The problems with Wal-Mart begin with its supply chain, where many of the workers who make its products pay the price for low-cost items by toiling in sweatshop conditions.

Outlets as diverse as the National Labor Committee (NLC) and the Wall Street Journal continue to produce new reports on sweatshop abuses connected with Wal-Mart’s supply chain. In 2004, NLC reported on a Chinese leather goods factory where nearly half of the workforce earns no wages at all (working instead to pay off debts for training, food, and lodging), and the Wall Street Journal exposed a Wal-Mart toaster producer where workers’ wages were 40 percent below the minimum wage.

Chinese workers filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart last September, alleging a range of sweatshop abuses, including “forced overtime, payment below the minimum wage, and [denial of] full overtime pay, holidays off, weekly days off, or daily rest periods.” The sweatshop problem, however, is not limited to one country. The Chinese plaintiffs were joined by plaintiffs from other countries, including the US, all alleging the same thing—that Wal-Mart ignores its own “standards for suppliers” and tolerates abuse of workers in its supply chain.

“As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart has the power to set higher [labor] standards within the industry,” says Maquila Solidarity Network president Ian Thompson. “Instead, it continuously pressures its suppliers to produce cheaper and quicker, encouraging sweatshop abuses.”

That pressure can be devastating to suppliers that don’t or can’t bow to Wal-Mart’s demands. Frank Garson, the last president of the Georgia-based Lovable Company, which had supplied apparel to Wal-Mart since the retail giant’s earliest days, told Fast Company in 2003 how the shifting terms of his contract cost him his business.

“Wal-Mart has a big pencil,” Garson said.”They have such awesome purchasing power that they write their own ticket. If they don’t like your prices, they’ll go vertical and do it themselves—or they’ll find someone that will meet their terms.”

Although the Lovable Company had once been the sixth-largest in its field, Garson’s loss of Wal-Mart as a customer was “irreplaceable,” and the company closed its doors within three years. “Wal-Mart chewed us up and spit us out,” he said.

US Workers: Low, Low Wages

In 2004, Wal-Mart earned $10 billion in profits. CEO H. Lee Scott took home a salary of more than $17 million, and yet the majority of Wal-Mart associates made wages that would place them below the poverty line for a family of four.

In 2003, the New York Times reported that Wal-Mart’s clerks make around $14,000 a year, about $5,000 below the poverty line for a family of four. Even using Wal-Mart’s own numbers from 2004, which claimed that a full-time Wal-Mart worker averages $9.64 per hour, take-home pay would total around $18,000—still $1,000 below the family-of-four poverty line, as explained in John Dicker’s book The United States of Wal-Mart.

A 2005 study by the University of California–Berkeley found that from 1992 to 2000, the total earnings of US urban workers in the general merchandise and grocery sectors were reduced by 1.3 percent after Wal-Mart showed up in their areas. In 2000 alone, study authors estimated that Wal-Mart depressed total earnings of retail workers nationwide by $4.7 billion. Plus, Wal-Mart spends less per worker on employee health care than its competitors. A Harvard Business School study found that Wal-Mart spent $3,500 per employee on health care in 2002, while the average corporation spends $5,600.

Furthermore, high premiums and limits on eligibility mean that fewer than half of Wal-Mart workers are insured under the company plan. Full-time, non-management Wal-Mart employees must wait six months to be eligible for the company health plan, and part-time workers must wait two years, compared to an average 2.5-month wait for retail companies as a whole. Once they are eligible, many employees decline the plan because they are unable to afford premiums and deductibles, which exclude or limit coverage for certain routine necessities like check-ups and vaccinations.

Last fall, the company proposed modest improvements to its health care plan, in the face of rising public criticism. But shortly thereafter, the New York Times published internal Wal-Mart memos that admitted the company would try to offset its now slightly better plan by screening its pools of job applicants for only the healthiest workers.

Wal-Mart doesn’t stop at keeping wages low and benefits inadequate. Workers in more than 30 states have sued Wal-Mart for failing to pay overtime wages, and it currently faces a class-action lawsuit for discriminating against women in pay and promotion. In December, a California jury ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million to 116,000 of its employees who had been illegally and routinely denied meal breaks.

“[L]awsuits are pending in six states accusing Wal-Mart of forcing employees to work off the clock, to work without breaks,” states a 2005 report by the nonprofit American Rights at Work. “Wal-Mart expects its employees to be at its beck and call. Workers at a store in West Virginia were recently informed they would be fired if they could not commit to working any shift between 7 am and 11 pm, seven days a week.”

Taxpayers: Footing the Bill

When workers can’t afford their employer’s health plan, those costs often shift from both the employer and the employee onto the taxpayers.

Three states where the Wal-Mart effect on public health insurance programs has been measured have seen Wal-Mart workers costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year. For example, in Georgia, Wal-Mart employees cost taxpayers an estimated $6.6 million in 2002, with nearly 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees enrolled in the state’s “PeachCare” program—ten times more than from any other employer. In Wisconsin, the bill for Wal-Mart employees depending on “BadgerCare” ran to $4.75 million in 2004, and the Knoxville News-Sentinal reported in 2005 that 25 percent of all Tennessee Wal-Mart employees were enrolled in “TennCare.”

“Social safety net programs are, in effect, the employee benefit plan for much of Wal-Mart's workforce,” says Phil Mattera of the nonprofit Good Jobs First. In fact, federal taxpayers spend an average of $420,750 for each 200-person Wal-Mart store because many of its employees receive Section 8 housing assistance, low-income tax credit, low-income energy assistance, free or reduced school lunches, food stamps, and other assistance, according to a study by the Democratic Staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Furthermore, taxpayers often subsidize Wal-Mart’s expansion into new towns, as the company actively shops for incentive packages from local governments, promising new jobs and other benefits. As of 2004, Phil Mattera and his colleagues had identified many different types of Wal-Mart subsidies, including free or low-cost land, road construction projects, and income tax credits, totalling more than a billion dollars in assistance to Wal-Mart—the largest corporation in the world.

Since there’s no single source of information on this topic, Mattera says Good Jobs First pieced its information together through painstaking research of news articles and interviews with local officials. Because the group couldn’t research every single Wal-Mart (there are more than 3,500 in the US alone), Mattera acknowledges that the billion dollars in subsidies is likely only “the tip of the iceberg.”

Local Businesses: Shut Out

As early as 1989, when the New York Times Magazine profiled the decline of local businesses in the town of Independence, Iowa, observers were already sounding the alarm about the cost of Wal-Mart to local economies. A year after Wal-Mart came to town, a dozen of Independence’s local businesses—some of which had thrived downtown for more than 100 years—had folded and closed their doors.

“Wal-Mart just cannibalizes Main Street,” a retail analyst told the Times about the transformation of Independence. “They move into town and in the first year they’re doing $10 million. That money has to come from somewhere, and generally it’s out of the small [businessperson’s] cash register.”

Unfortunately, the town felt it had no choice but to accept Wal-Mart’s advances. “Wal-Mart threatened us,” the Independence mayor told the Times. “They told us if they didn’t build here, they’d build nearby, and that would have been equally hard on us.”

By 1995, University of Iowa researchers looked at the impact of Wal-Mart stores on Iowa communities in the decade since Wal-Mart established its first Iowa store, in 1983. They found that between 1983 and 1993, the home-grown businesses of Iowa’s small towns tended to lose between 16 and 46 percent of their sales after Wal-Mart came to town, causing many of them to collapse.

Today, local communities are still feeling the effects when Wal-Mart comes to town. When the first Wal-Mart Supercenter (a gigantic Wal-Mart that also sells groceries) moved into La Quinta, California, in 2004, it took only eight months for the Los Angeles Times to begin reporting wage and benefit losses to other workers in the local economy.

The Environment: Exporting Pollution, Importing Sprawl

When the once-vibrant city-centers of towns like Independence, Iowa, fade away, and consumers start driving to big-box developments on the edge of town, you’ve got sprawl.

Sprawl threatens air and water quality, reduces wildlife habitat and open space, and creates requirements for expensive new infrastructure. Also, with the average Wal-Mart Supercenter generating 7,000 to 10,000 car trips each day, each new Wal-Mart store can represent massive new emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants with a devastating effect on local communities.

The nonprofit Sprawl-Busters also calls attention to Wal-Mart’s habit of closing one of its smaller stores to build an even bigger one close by—then often standing in the way of their abandoned buildings’ reuse. A 2004 Wall Street Journal article quoted real estate agents and community officials asserting that sometimes, Wal-Mart “creates roadblocks when other discount merchandisers or supermarkets have expressed interest in its shuttered buildings.” As a result, by the end of 2004, Sprawl-Busters reported that it had found 356 empty buildings that Wal-Mart had available for sale or lease—enough empty space to fill 534 football fields.

In the US, Wal-Mart has been fined for multiple violations of environmental regulations like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, but it is perhaps the Wal-Mart business model, with its emphasis on seeking ever-lower prices, that fuels the most disastrous of Wal-Mart’s impacts on the environment. Heather Rogers, author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, told Grist magazine, “The real environmental impact comes from what Wal-Mart sells: cheap commodoties that are designed to wear out quickly.”

What’s more, Wal-Mart’s pursuit of cheap labor around the globe has exponetially increased the amount of fossil fuels needed to get a product onto a Wal-Mart shelf. While sourcing locally dramatically reduces fuel and energy use, Wal-Mart focuses on distributing goods shipped from overseas via the nation’s largest company-owned fleet of trucks (which averages around 6.5 miles per gallon). Wal-Mart doubled its Chinese imports in the first five years of the 21st century, and in countries like China, Wal-Mart’s environmental impact is felt even more acutely because the company can take advantage of weaker environmental standards.

According to Elizabeth Economy, author of The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future, 400,000 people die in China every year because of respiratory infections related to air pollution. She told “Talk of the Nation” host Neil Conan in December that China now contains 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, and that nearly three-quarters of the country’s rivers are polluted with toxins, acid rain, and erosion.

As Conan remarked, “Those factories in towns that churn out everything from your latest sneakers to the shiny new bicycle under a Christmas tree also pump out toxic chemicals and waste.”

Pushing a Political Agenda

With its ever-increasing market share, Wal-Mart profits have allowed Walton family members to claim four of the top ten spots in the Forbes list of wealthiest people, and they’re using their money to support controversial causes such as school vouchers and the repeal of the estate tax.

The St. Petersburg Times reports that in 2004, Wal-Mart made $2.7 million in political contributions (about 80 percent of which went to Republicans), and Sam Walton’s family donated $3.2 million during the 2004 election cycle, with most of the money going to pro-Bush groups.

Even beyond the political arena, many find that Wal-Mart pushes an idealogy in its stores, using its influence to determine what products are available to consumers.

For example, AlterNet reports that the company pulled a T-shirt reading “Someday a woman will be president” from the sales floor because “the message goes against Wal-Mart values.” And Business Week notes that Wal-Mart has banned popular books like talk-show host Jon Stewart’s America: The Book, refuses to stock the morning-after pill, Preven, and yet continues to stock inexpensive firearms.
According to AlterNet, “The political bias inherent in Wal-Mart’s criteria becomes clearer when Wal-Mart’s merchandiser for films found Robert Greenwald’s acclaimed documentary, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, inappropriate for Wal-Mart. For no conceivable reason could a documentary involving no gratuitous violence, expletives, or sex be inappropriate, other than its criticism of a conservative political administration.”

Beyond the Wal-Mart Economy

With Wal-Mart’s cost of doing business so high, can any of us really afford to shop there?

More and more, US consumers are saying they’ve had enough of Wal-Mart. In fact, as of July 2005, nearly 300 communities nationwide had successfully kept Wal-Mart out—a number that’s growing all the time.

With the word clearly spreading on the costs of the Wal-Mart economy, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott gave a speech in October saying that last summer’s Hurricane Katrina opened his eyes to Wal-Mart’s responsibilities to both local communities and the larger world. He announced small steps forward for Wal-Mart in areas like employee health care and his stores’ environmental footprints. While praising a co-manager of a Mississippi store who handed out emergency supplies from flooded Wal-Mart to needy evacuees during the hurricane, Scott called her actions “Wal-Mart at its best” and asked, “What would it take for Wal-Mart to be that company, at our best, all the time?”

Right now, while Wal-Mart appears to be at a crossroads, is the critical moment for concerned consumers to step forward and tell Lee Scott the answer to the question.

Together, we can increase the pressure on Wal-Mart and demand real improvements. We can work to protect communities that will be hurt by Wal-Mart’s presence, and most of all, we can refuse to buy products whose journey from the factory to the check-out line is tainted by externalized costs to workers, communities, and the environment.

Together, we can say “no” to Wal-Mart’s business model and start moving beyond the Wal-Mart economy.

—Andrew Korfhage and Liz Borkowski

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check out reinform.org for other socially responsible initiatives

Hats off to city council person, KEN GLASHEEN for listening! One with a heart and a head on his shoulders.

Action Item 1. READ AND CALL Read story below and call the Mayor and alderman to ask them also to support this issue being placed on the agenda and to support the passage and additions to it asap.

Door County Daily News Reports:
Glasheen Wants To Talk About "Big Box"
by Karen Klement February 19, 2006
A member of the Sturgeon Bay City Council has called on Mayor Dennis McIntosh to bring up discussing a big box ordinance at a future meeting of the council. In a letter to McIntosh, City Council Member Kenneth Glasheen suggests the city consider the "economic impact" a big box store will have on the community. Glasheen talks about why he thinks discussing on the topic is necessary.
(click to DoorCountyDailyNews.com for audio)
The city has considered amending an ordinance regulating large retail stores as a result of interest by Wal Mart in construction of a Wal Mart Super Store in Sturgeon Bay. Glasheen says the entrance of a big box retailer could have a devastating effect on our economy. Glasheen says he is not the only one who feels this way.
(Audio Here)
Glasheen hopes the issue will be discussed in the first possible council meeting, which would be Tuesday, March 7. Mayor McIntosh was not available for comment.

Action Item 2. WRITE A LETTER If you live in the city- Please write a letter of support ASAP to " Mayor and City Council" and send it too or drop it off at city hall and request "that your letter be delivered to all council and read into the minutes" and that the stamp it and date it received. In the letter, ask the mayor to honor Kens request that this issue be placed on the next city council agenda and ask them to support Glashsens respectful desire toward getting a start of the proper information (that every council person should want) before making costly, life changing decisions in Door County such as the super Walmart. Within the letter also ask that they consider support of a 90,000 max. size limit be added to Glasheens original request in order to protect the city from monster development pressure in the future as Madison WI did and why you do not support this type of development.

Action Item 3. YARD SIGNS Get your yard signs up and let them know how much support the community has for no big box!

Action Item 4. PETITIONS: Keep up the good work. If you need more petition blanks they can be picked up at the compass cafe in Fish Creek or the Bluefront cafe in Sturgeon Bay but please remember to also use the web site by typing the address (http://www.fairenterprise.org). There are also petitions that you can sign at various local retailers.

Action Item 5. PRINT & DISTRIBUTE: We have flyers above announcing the March 9th County-Wide Town Hall Meeting and a two-sided question and answer sheet that you can distribute. If you have a printer, we'd appreciate it if you print, read, and distribute these flyers. Thank you!

YARD SIGNS:
The yard signs are printed. We need people to assemble them. Any takers?
Tell your friends they can pick up the new yard signs now at:
• Artists Guild Third Avenue Sturgeon Bay,
• Compass Coffee House Top of the Hill Shops in Fish Creek
• 3W Design in the mall in Sister Bay by the Pig.
We are getting an amazing reply on signs and we need to get the county covered!

2. TOWN MEETING: Mark your calendar for March 9th - that night at 7 pm we will be having a county-wide "Town Meeting" with a special guest speaker to be announced later this week. YARD SIGNS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED FREE AT THE TOWN HALL MEETING

1. Print and distribute the posters above.

Download a pdf of the information below here - send a copy to the Mayor, the Community Development Director and your Alderman

OPEN LETTER to the COUNCIL

Dear Sturgeon Bay City Council, Planning Commission, Door County Common Council, and Residents:

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer - it is the 19th largest economy in the world - Wal-Mart's sales exceed the combined sales of the second, third and fourth largest retailers in the world. Wal-Mart WILL NOT be negatively impacted if Door County refuses to let them expand their presence here. However, it is has been exhaustively researched and substantiated that our community and citizens - like others before us - WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED on multiple fronts if Wal-Mart is allowed to have its way with us.

We implore you to read the research presented below and then act to put more teeth in the Big Box Ordinance. We need to PREVENT the devastating effects of Super Centers from destroying Door County.

Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration of the well-documented information presented below.

- Door County Citizens for FairEnterprise / FairEnterprise.org

Wal-Mart and Your Community
The facts below have been gathered as research materials for the Sturgeon Bay City Council, Planning Commission and Door County Common Council as they consider the merits of limiting big box (super center) development in Door County. All items are referenced with the source of the information. More in-depth study of the long-term effects of Super Centers may be found in the Kenneth Stone 10-year Iowa study which is downloadable here.

Wal-Mart’s lower wages mean less money for communities
• In one study, Southern California municipalities estimated that for every dollar decrease in wages in the southern California economy, $2.08 in spending was lost- the $1 decrease plus another $1.08 in indirect multiplier impacts. 1

Money spent at Wal-Mart does not stay in the community
• In Virginia, 60 cents of every dollar spent downtown, stays downtown- compared to just six cents for every dollar spent at a so-called "big-box" store, such as Wal-Mart. 2

Wal-Mart negatively impacts the environment, traffic and sprawl
• In October 2004, the United States sued Wal-Mart for violating the Clean Water Act in 9 states, calling for penalties of over $3 million and changes to W-M building codes. 3
• A study of estimated additional driving costs of Supercenters in the San Francisco Bay area estimated a cost of up to $256 million in additional costs to the community for infrastructure repair and environmental degradation. 4

Wal-Mart doesn’t care what your community thinks
• Wal-Mart real-estate manager Jeff Doss spoke about an oft-cited remark by company founder Sam Walton that Wal-Mart would not build stores in towns if the residents did not want them. “Were that the case,” he said, “we’d never build a store anywhere.” 5

Wal-Mart forces local small businesses to close
• Studies in Iowa have shown that some small towns lose up to 47% of their retail trade after 10 years of a Wal-Mart store moving in nearby. 6

Wal-Mart and Cost to Taxpayers

Our tax dollars pay for Wal-Mart’s greed
• The staff of the House Committee on Education and Workforce estimates that because of their low wages, Wal-Mart costs federal taxpayers up to $2.5 billion a year in the form of federal public assistance programs. 7
• Wal-Mart’s failure to provide affordable health care for all of its employees has resulted in a cost to taxpayers of $210 million and counting.

Local Wal-Marts cost local communities up to $420,000 per year
• These costs come from many public assistance programs, such as $108,000/yr for children’s health care costs, and $42,000/yr for low-income housing assistance – per store! 7

Our tax dollars subsidize Wal-Mart’s growth
• The first ever national report on Wal-Mart subsidies documented at least $1 billion in subsidies from state and local governments. 2
• A Wal-Mart official once stated that “it is common” for the company to request subsidies “in about 1/3 of all [retail] projects.” This would suggest that over a thousand Wal-Mart stores have received taxpayer-funded subsidies. 8

Source footnotes to items above:
1. “The Impact of Big Box Grocers in Southern California” Dr. Marlon Boarnet and Dr. Randall Crane
2. 'Ideal of a small town,’ Citizenet.com
3. U.S. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2004 WL 2370700
4. Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts. Bay Area Economic Forum, 2004
5. Lebanon Daily News, 7/13/05
6. Kenneth Stone at Iowa State University, “Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities”
7. “Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," A Report by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/16/04
8. “Shopping For Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth,” Good Job First, May 2004

Additional Facts to Consider:

Wal-Mart wages negatively impact overall wages
• The influx of big-box stores into San Diego would result in an annual decline in wages and benefits between $105 million and $221 million [San Diego Taxpayers Association (SDCTA)]
• “[The threat of Wal-Mart's incursion into the southern California grocery market] is already triggering a dynamic in which the grocery stores are negotiating with workers for lowered compensation, in an attempt to re-level the `playing field.’” [Rodino and Associates]

Lower wages mean less money for communities
• When an employer pays low wages to its employees, the employees have less money to spend on goods and services in the community, which in turn reduces the income and spending of others in the community. In other words a reduction in wages has a multiplier impact in the surrounding area.
• For instance, in 1999, Southern California municipalities estimated that for every dollar decrease in wages in the southern California economy, $2.08 in spending was lost-- the $1 decrease plus another $1.08 in indirect multiplier impacts. [“The Impact of Big Box Grocers in Southern California” Dr. Marlon Boarnet and Dr. Randall Crane.]

Longer term effects of Wal-Mart can be disastrous
• Over the course of [a few years after Wal-Mart entered a community], retailers' sales of mens' and boys' apparel dropped 44% on average, hardware sales fell by 31%, and lawn and garden sales fell by 26%.
• In towns without Wal-Marts that are close to towns with Wal-Marts, sales in general merchandise declined immediately after Wal-Mart stores opened. After ten years, sales declined by a cumulative 34%. [Kenneth Stone at Iowa State University, “Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities”]

Wal-Mart stifles competition
• A Congressional Research Service report in 1994 explained that Wal-Mart builds stores in nearby connected markets in order to stifle any competition in the targeted area by the size of its presence. [Jessica Hall and Jim Troy, “Wal-Mart Go Home! Wal-Mart’s Expansion Juggernaut Stumbles as Towns Turn Thumbs Down and Noses Up,” Warfield’s Business Record 1 (July 22, 1994]

Wal-Mart destroys the environment
• In October 2004, the United States sued Wal-mart for violating the Clean Water Act in 9 states, calling for penalties of over $3 million and changes to W-M building codes. [U.S. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 2004 WL 2370700]
• The United States Environmental Protection agency fined Wal-Mart $1 million, settling allegations that Wal-Mart violated the Clean Water Act with dirt discharges while building stores in Massachusetts, New Mexico, Okalahoma, and Texas. [Wal-MartLitigation.com]
• The Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Department fined Wal-Mart $100,000 for polluting rivers. [Business Week, 5/31/99]
• Wal-Mart was fined $765,000 for violating Florida’s petroleum storage tank laws at its automobile service centers. Wal-Mart failed to register its fuel tanks, failed to install devices that prevent overflow, did not perform monthly monitoring, lacked current technologies, and blocked state inspectors. [Associated Press, 11/18/04]
• In Georgia, Wal-Mart was fined about $150,000 for water contamination. [Atlanta Journal- Constitution, 2/10/05]

Wal-Mart increases vehicle traffic
• A study of estimated additional driving costs of Supercenters in the San Francisco Bay area concluded that there would be up to an additional 238 million vehicle miles traveled per year.
• These extra miles traveled could cost communities in the Bay area up $ 256 million in additional costs for infrastructure repair and environmental degradation. [Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts. Bay Area Economic Forum, 2004]

Wal-Mart desecrates sacred grounds
• In 2004, Wal-Mart built a 71,902-square-foot store near the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon in San Juan Teotichuacan, Mexico. Teotihuacan was called "the place where the gods were created" by the Aztecs. [Kinght Ridder, 10/25/04]
• In 1993 in Southern California, Wal-Mart, faced with threats of a nationwide boycott if it proceded with a development project that have destroyed Indian burial grounds, which Indians consider to be as holy as a church, synagogue or mosque. Wal-Mart was forced to compromise with the Indian activists by building a monument on store property to honor the grounds. [Los Angeles Times, 10/16/93]
• Wal-Mart reached a tentative settlement with a nonprofit group in Hawaii that alleged Wal-Mart violated state law dealing with the protection and preservation of human remains and desecration of graves while constructing a store in Honolulu. [KHNL-TV/KHBC/KOGG, HI. 7/19/2005]

Wal-Mart's empty stores are blighting communities
• Wal-Mart’s rapid expansion of Supercenters and Sam's Clubs has contributed to hundreds of vacant stores across the country. [“Wal Mart site: Use as is or rebuild?”, Dallas Morning News, 2/20/02]
• When Wal-Mart decides to convert a discount store into a larger Supercenter, it is often cheaper or easier simply to relocate entirely. David Brennan, associate professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn, notes that Wal-Mart stores relocate so regularly that, “it is not uncommon to relocate right across the street." [“Home Depot to Move from Old to New Store Next Door,” Providence News-Journal, 8/17/03]
• Wal-Mart plans to build another 55 million square feet of store space this year, or roughly the equivalent of 1,000 football fields or 15 Pentagon buildings. [Wal- Mart Annual Report 2005]
• Big box retailers will most likely enter a community, only to be among the first to consolidate or fold when conditions begin to change. [“The Impact of Big Box Stores in S. California,” Dr. Marlon Boarnet]
• In 2001, Wal-Mart controlled around 30 million square feet of vacant retail space through ownership or leases. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/28/01]
• Vacant property drains the value from the surrounding area, whether comme

County Board Chair Charlie Most, 1048 Cottage Lane, Ellison Bay 54210

County Board
Chair Charlie Most, 1048 Cottage Lane, Ellison Bay 54210