CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: NO SHORTAGE OF OPINIONS IN REDLANDS AND SOLEDAD

Topics: | | Community Impact | Economic/Small Business | | |

Why all the fuss about building a new Wal-Mart? [Redlands Daily Facts]

I can’t understand all the uproar over a new Wal-Mart being planned in Redlands. We’ve already had one for 15 years, and a new one would replace the old one. So what’s the big deal? People don’t like to save money?

The criticism is unfounded and baseless, and I’m already tired of hearing about it. I hope the city approves it.

SOAPBOX: One voice for Wal-Mart in Soledad [Salinas Californian]

Many working people in Soledad are struggling to make ends meet. As our paychecks shrink and health-care costs skyrocket, people are looking to save money. They want to spend their money, what’s left of it, as they choose.

Bill Shaw, of Shaw Development, doesn’t want us to have that choice. He wants the proposed Wal-Mart Super Center in Soledad to reduce the size of the food portion of the store. His company owns the property that houses Foods Co and Longs on the southern side of town. Freedom of choice is a fundamental right. Give me the freedom to decide for myself whether I want to buy groceries at a Wal-Mart Super Center or somewhere else in town. Shaw says Foods Co and Longs complement the downtown stores. That is not correct. They compete with the downtown stores.

Why do consumers flock to Wal-Mart’s doors while its competitors and special interest groups try to block it? It’s so simple it amazes me how other merchants have such a hard time figuring it out: Wal-Mart gives customers what they want.

If you are a Soledad retailer, what should you do? I suggest you take a step back, take a deep breath and have a good, hard look at your business and customer base, and change your business model so you can take advantage of what a Wal-Mart Super Center will bring.

Soledad retailers’ philosophy should be: “I can’t wait for the Wal-Mart Super Center to come to town. I know they can’t compete with me. And I’ll be after all those customers they bring into the area, customers I might never have attracted on my own.”

When you are in a market with Wal-Mart, be everything a Wal-Mart isn’t. Your customers will love the difference.

Foods Co’s parent company is Kroger, the biggest and oldest supermarket chain in the U.S. They compete against more Wal-Marts than any other grocer. Kroger CEO David Dillon said Kroger increased its market share in 20 of 28 major markets in which it faced significant Wal-Mart competition.

But Bill Shaw doesn’t want Foods Co or Longs to have competition.

While turning down Wal-Mart may be great politics, it reflects the thinking of economic illiterates. These people would advise troubled candlemakers to lobby for a law outlawing the sun. Defeat of a Wal-Mart Super Center will be a victory for the few people who want to control our spending habits and our choices.

I want more jobs and retail choices. I want our leaders to expand and grow Soledad’s economy. I want a Wal-Mart Super Center.

Posted by Luke West on Friday, September 12, 2008