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):

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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).

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.

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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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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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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1. Print and distribute the posters above.

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 commercial or residential.

Much more information at FairEnterprise.org

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One annexation for Big Box development is pending and it is possible Wal-Mart may submit a new contract to the Common Council for the property located across from Pick ‘n Save.  (Please refer to enclosed letter.)  Like many residents, we, volunteers for Door County Residents for Fair Enterprise, are deeply concerned and urgently need your support. 

Until recently, citizens have been unaware of the discussions regarding steps taken for pre-annexation of the Hopf property, which began in June 2005.  To date, the Sturgeon Bay Common Council has held no less than three closed sessions, parts of which may be in violation of Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law.  A complaint, regarding the closed sessions, was recently delivered to Sturgeon Bay city legislators and is on file with the Sturgeon Bay District Attorney and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. 

Common Council decisions on annexations and Big Box retail will impact, in part, the whole county. The city is not without Big Box retail.  It already offers a Wal-Mart, a Target, two competitive groceries and two, dollar stores. We don’t oppose growth, however, we do want well-managed, planned, Smart Growth, and good land use policies, which spend tax dollars wisely.

After doing extensive research, we are convinced this type annexation and development is contrary to the economic good and the character of city and county.  Therefore, we have two requests for you to consider:

 • Letter of opposition:  A letter intended for the City Mayor, Common Council and others is enclosed.  If you choose to sign it, simply sign and return to the address on the bottom of the letter and we will distribute copies.  Or, write your own letter, which is encouraged, send to us, and we will distribute.  Or, you can send copies to all individuals on the list.  If doing so, your prompt response will be appreciated.

• Email updates:  We maintain an email list of residents, who wish for updates.  If interested, send us your email address and it will be added to the email list.  Email addresses will not be used for any other purpose.

The Hopf property annexation appears to be moving ahead quickly. Elected and appointed officials need to hear from you as soon as possible.  Your response will help to make a difference in preserving the character of the city and county and will be in the best interest of the city’s economic interest.  Thank you for your time and for giving this issue and our request consideration. 

With appreciation, Volunteers for Door County Citizens for Fair Enterprise

Door County Citizens for Fair Enterprise has over 200 volunteers.  Volunteers span a wide age, live throughout the county, represent a broad social/economic spectrum and represent a variety of backgrounds and professions.  The website is:  www.fairenterprise.org

 (Addresses are provided on the reverse side of the cover letter and on the web site.)

Sample Letter:

TO:  Sturgeon Bay Mayor, Common Council and City Plan Commission
RE:  Annexation and Big Box Development
DATE:  Spring, 2006

 Large numbers of Door County residents and second homeowners, myself (ourselves) included, believe Big Box development is inappropriate for the county.  Land on highway 42/57, known as the Hopf property, is being leveled and will likely be annexed to the city.  The plan on file strongly suggests that Big Box development will occur on this site.  Even though the Wal-Mart annexation and development request was denied, Wal-Mart may be heard from again.

Big Box development is not right for the following reasons:

• It is contrary to the rural, small town character that defines Door County, which is the reason many people choose to live in the county.

• It contributes to unattractive, inefficient, redundant sprawl and pulls retail development away from the highway 42/57 business corridor (including Egg Harbor Road), which has, in its entirety, been identified as a core business area.

• It is massively out of scale and proportion with the existing character of the county development.

• It is most likely that infrastructure, municipal and community service costs will exceed tax revenues generated by Big Box development.  This will result in increased taxes for all property owners.

• Market power of Big Box development will cause dramatic, negative changes to established businesses, particularly in Sturgeon Bay and throughout the county, as well.

• Long term, it will have a negative impact on the city and county economy.

The above statements are confirmed by research.  On April 18, 2006, Brent Denzin, Attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, sent a six-page letter entitled, “Re: Big-Box Development and Annexation”, which also alerted you, Common Council, to the concerns surrounding annexation and Big-Box Development.  Attorney Denzin states, “A wide range of economic studies on big-box retail have shown dismal results across the country.” Two of his four study case examples, each with cited bibliography, follow:

• In Ohio and Massachusetts, big-box retail showed average net annual losses in tax revenue of around $0.44 per square foot due to the cost of services.
• In Missouri, the average community showed net losses of retail jobs four years after Wal-Mart Supercenter arrived.

Regarding annexation, Attorney Denzin states, “a city’s decision to accept these projects is a key catalyst for big-box sprawl.”  He continues, “the City’s power to annex property is additionally constrained by the ‘rule of reason’. … In Wisconsin, all annexations [must] … fulfill a demonstrable need”.

Regarding the City of Sturgeon Bay’s Comprehensive Plan, Attorney Denzin states that it “identifies four key principles for all development in Sturgeon Bay”, … and “these principles suggest that big-box development is not what the City of Sturgeon Bay needs. … The Plan consistently stresses the need to support existing commercial areas, protect natural resources and small town character through ‘manageable’ growth, and to avoid intense growth in rural and unincorporated areas”.

 Based on the above concerns, which are confirmed in the attorney’s letter, I (we) are asking elected and appointed Sturgeon Bay officials to take the following actions:

1.     Enact a moratorium or interim ordinance until the Big Box ordinance is amended to comply with the existing Sturgeon Bay Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

2.     Seek existing areas within the city that may be appropriate for infill or redevelopment prior to entertaining annexation possibilities.

3.     Complete economic, fiscal, environmental and community impact studies prior to any annexation or Big Box permit.

4.     Enact a restrictive cap on all Big Box retail that compares to existing Big Box buildings located on Egg Harbor Road, which are 68,000 square feet or less.

5.     Limit the total number of permitted Big Box retail structures, and tailor Big Box retail to community needs.

6.     Provide open meetings for all steps of the process and allow for citizen input at each meeting.

7.     Commence work on the Smart Growth plan, which must be implemented, by state law, in 2010.

It is imperative that citizens have a voice in the planning process, especially in regard to development that profoundly impacts character, lifestyle, small business and the economic welfare of the county.  To listen, to be open and to be responsive to citizen concern is the responsibility of all elected and appointed government staff.

 Sincerely, (area for personalization)

If you would like to download the Word Documents to print out this sample letter, click here: sample letter

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This article appears in the November 21, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review and is posted online at http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3045walmart_iowa.html The charts and graphs referenced in this article are available to paid subscribers to EIR.

Wal-Mart Collapses U.S. Cities and Towns
by Richard Freeman

During the last 20 years, Wal-Mart has moved into communities and destroyed them, wiping out stores, slashing the tax base, and turning downtown areas into ghost-towns. This is accomplished through Wal-Mart's policy of paying workers below subsistence wages, and importing goods that have been produced under slave-labor conditions overseas. Often, communities will even give Wal-Mart tax incentives, for the right to be destroyed.

Wal-Mart both reflects, and is, a major driving force for America's deadly implementation of the Imperial Rome model. Unable to produce physical goods to sustain its own existence, the United States, like Rome, sucks in imported goods from around the world, using, in this case, a dollar that is over-valued by 50-60%. America has been transformed from a producer to a consumer society. From the 1940s through the early 1960s, through its technologically-advanced manufacturing-agricultural economy, America produced new value that contributed to mankind's advancement. Through a "post-industrial society" policy, the bankers have pushed Wal-Mart to the top of the heap, so that it is now the world's largest corporation, with $245.5 billion in sales last year. Wal-Mart, which produces no value-added whatsoever, dominates the geometry that governs the U.S. consumer society. America consumes goods that others produce, which Wal-Mart markets. Wal-Mart dictates, through its demand for low prices, that its suppliers outsource their production to foreign nations, further ripping down America's battered domestic manufacturing and agricultural capability, in a self-feeding process.

Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche has called for an international boycott of Wal-Mart. He told a cadre school of the LaRouche Youth Movement on Nov. 10: "Wal-Mart is probably one of the major foreign enemies of the United States! And, it's based in the United States. Where Wal-Mart strides, whole communities collapse! It runs in like a vampire: It flies in by night, and sucks the blood of the citizens, and the cows, and so forth. In the morning, there's not much left! Except unemployment and cheap labor. What Wal-Mart is doing to many communities of the Americas, is comparable to what happens to the poor Chinese, who are victims of the cheap-labor programs, which supply most of the product which Wal-Mart sells, as cheap-labor product."

Wal-Mart pays its American workers sweat-shop wages, and enforces a worldwide system of concentration camp production plants, where some workers are literally kept as indentured servants (see EIR, Nov. 14). Here, we look at how Wal-Mart has laid waste communities from Iowa to Mississippi, from Ohio to Oklahoma.

Destroying Iowa

Iowa represents the paradigm of Wal-Mart's destruction of a state and its communities. Iowa is a leading agricultural state, with an industrial center in its northeast. In 1983, Wal-Mart opened its first store in the state. Since that time, the number of other retail stores that Wal-Mart has forced to close in Iowa, in communities of 5,000 or fewer people, is immense.

Sam Walton started Wal-Mart in his home town of Bentonville, Arkansas in 1962. At first he concentrated on Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, along with a few other southern states. Beginning in the 1980s, he spread Wal-Mart out as a national chain, shifting from discount stores with 40-70,000 square feet of sales space, to increasingly building Sam's Club and supercenters, which typically have 150-200,000 square feet. The idea was to use its ability to sell a huge volume of goods, its sweat-shop pay to American workers, and its flood of cheap imports, to blow apart any competition. In the October 1996 issue of Wal-Mart Today, an internal company newsletter, Tom Coughlin, executive vice president for operations, summed up the approach: "At Wal-Mart, we make dust. Our competitors eat dust."

In looking at Iowa, we encounter a myth: that when Wal-Mart opened a store in Town A, it may have hurt by a small amount the sales of stores in other towns neighboring Town A—as the people from the other towns went to Wal-Mart to do some of their shopping; but nonetheless, Wal-Mart so increased the volume of sales at its own store and other stores in Town A, that the stores in the overall region experienced significant sales growth and job growth. Wal-Mart hired compliant research and marketing firms to "prove" this point. This is a lie.

We look at what happened to Iowa communities of 5,000 or fewer people. Significant research has been done in this area by Prof. Kenneth Stone of Iowa State University, which we draw upon. Since it is difficult to see what effect occurred after only one or two years, we look at the effects after ten years or longer.

Using sales tax records, Professor Stone compared the change in sales volume at stores located in towns where Wal-Mart opened one of its stores (a "Wal-Mart Town"), and in the neighboring towns where Wal-mart did not open a store ("Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Town"). In cases selected from the study, the sales at Wal-Mart stores themselves are not included, since the focus here is to measure the "Wal-Mart effect": Once Wal-Mart opens a store, what happens to all the other stores in the neighboring communities, in Iowa communities of 5,000 or fewer people?

Figure 1 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa home furnishings stores (furniture stores, major appliance stores, drapery stores, etc.). One year after Wal-Mart opened a store in a town, in the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, at home furnishing stores the sales volume collapsed by 14%. People from the Non Wal-Mart Towns travelled to the towns where a Wal-Mart had opened, to purchase a share of their home furnishings at the Wal-Mart store. However, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, in the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, at home furnishing stores the sales volume had fallen a stunning 31% below the level it had been ten years earlier. A large number of home furnishing stores were forced to close.

In the Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at home furnishing stores had declined by only 1%. Clearly, the home furnishing stores located at Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, had suffered the brunt of the damage.

Figure 2 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa specialty stores (sporting goods stores, druggists, jewelry stores, card and gift shops, florists, etc.). In the Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at specialty stores had plunged by 17%. In the Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns, by the tenth year after the Wal-Mart store had opened, the sales volume at specialty stores had tumbled by 28%.

Figure 3 presents the change in sales volume for Iowa apparel stores, showing a 28% decline by the tenth year in both Wal-Mart Towns and Non Wal-Mart Towns. The Wal-Mart Towns had not escaped the Wal-Mart effect.

Thus, Wal-Mart's assertion that the sales by a range of stores in Neighboring Non Wal-Mart Towns would fall by a small amount, and that the sales volume by a range of stores in Wal-Mart Towns would rise significantly, is completely false.

Putting aside this myth, Figure 4 shows the catastrophe caused by the Wal-Mart effect in Iowa, inclusive of towns that did and did not have a Wal-Mart store. The period under consideration is 1983-96, three years longer than the earlier study, giving three more years of the devastation. By 1996, 13 years after a Wal-Mart had opened in a town, the volume of sales at department stores, which includes Wal-Mart and other large discount chains, rose by 42%. However, since 1983, sales at grocery stores fell by 11%; sales at drug stores fell by 32%; and sales at men's and boys' stores dropped headlong by 59%. Iowa's retail and grocery stores, which form the underpinning of communities, had been ravaged.

Table 1 shows the second phase of the Wal-Mart effect: the closing of stores whose revenues had collapsed. All told, a staggering 7,326 stores closed in Iowa communities of 5,000 or less people (the table covers a ten-year period through 1993; were it to cover the longer period through 1996, the number of store closings would be even greater). The health and vitality of these communities, including employment at rising wages and benefits, the generation of taxes, etc., will not be restored.

Nationwide Blood-Letting

Wal-Mart destroyed other communities and cities. For example:

Toledo, Ohio. Author Al Norman describes the effect of Wal-Mart and Home Depot (another outsourcing chain) on Toledo: "When I went for a walk in downtown Toledo, I passed the old Lamson dry goods store: 9 stories of empty retail space. Each floor is the size of a football field. The building served as the home of a Macy's Department store from 1924 to 1984. For the past fourteen years, the store has been empty. The City now owns it, which means the taxpayers of Toledo are paying the freight for its upkeep."

Nowata, Oklahoma. In 1982, Wal-Mart opened a store on the outskirts of Nowata, a town of 4,000 people. Half of the small businesses in downtown Nowata shut down. Then in 1994, Wal-Mart abruptly closed this store, as well as another in a nearby town, and opened up a supercenter in Bartlesville, which is 30 miles away, leaving Nowata prostrate.

Mississippi. A study found that in small towns in the state, five years after the opening of a Wal-Mart, the dollar volume of grocery store trade had collapsed 17%.

Vermont. In an attempt to stop Wal-Mart from becoming large in the state, various towns passed restrictions that would halt Wal-Mart construction. Wal-Mart built stores in the neighboring New Hampshire and New York, which sucked business out of Vermont.

Collapsing Tax Revenue

Despite all this, many states and communities are using taxpayers' money to finance subsidies to Wal-Mart, to come in and rape them.

In 1999, it was reported that in Olivette, Missouri, a developer received a tax incentive of up to $38.9 million for a construction project including a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club—more than a third of the projected total cost of the project. In 1998, it was reported that the city of Chesterfield, Missouri was supplying $25.5 million in tax incentives toward the construction of a $100 million-plus mall, anchored by a Wal-Mart. In 2001, Ohio approved $10 million in tax credits and other assistance for Wal-Mart to build two distribution centers and an eyeglass-manufacturing facility.

These insane subsidies draw down the public finances. At the same time, Wal-Mart decimates the tax-base through other methods:
• Many stores which, unlike Wal-Mart, did not get tax breaks, are closed. This causes the loss to many states of sales taxes, and to all states of corporate profit taxes.
• Workers at established stores that have been closed by the Wal-Mart effect, who were paid higher wages than workers at Wal-Mart, have been fired, causing a drop in state income taxes.
• Wal-Mart's outsourcing caused the loss of 1-1.5 million manufacturing production jobs, and thus the taxes that these workers and the manufacturing plants that they worked at, would have paid.
• States and cities often have to finance downtown revitalization programs for the areas devastated by Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart certainly produces a wealth effect: the loss of wealth. Just walk through any community downtown with its empty or boarded-up stores, to see the workings of the Wal-Mart effect.

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