Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Blocking Walmart From Washington, D.C. Would Hurt Poor
Townhall.com ^ | July 20, 2013 | Star Parker

Posted on 07/20/2013 4:22:25 AM PDT by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last
To: Venturer

Washington DC is not like other places Walmart puts their stores.The labor force in DC is unlike any other.

Those who do not have Gubmint affirmative action jobs or haven’t got an SEIU job are unemployable.”,

...agreed. I go to DC every week and it’s rare to go into a retail outlet and be treated humanely. Walmart would lose in the long run. Also, DC could incorporate other laws that would hurt Walmart.


21 posted on 07/20/2013 4:57:14 AM PDT by albie (t allowed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: RKBA Democrat

The very use of the phrase “living wage” is flawed at its premise. I understand what you are trying to say, but use of the phrase imbues your argument with an element that is loaded by its nature.


22 posted on 07/20/2013 4:58:58 AM PDT by rlmorel (Silence: The New Hate Speech)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: RKBA Democrat

So how many stores does Kroger have in DC?


23 posted on 07/20/2013 5:04:44 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It bothers me that corporations that have the resources to take these usurpations of freedom to court and challenge these petty dictators never do.


24 posted on 07/20/2013 5:05:37 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac

Recall if you will, the reason a corporation exists is to make a profit, to make money. Spending money to fight the hustlers is a total waste and produces no profit.

If they have no Walmart, let them go to Macy’s


25 posted on 07/20/2013 5:08:24 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Travon... Felony assault and battery hate crime)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

Not a fallacy, in this instance.

Let us assume Walmart sales average $100M per store in a year.

Three stores open in DC, with total annual sales of $300M.

Do you seriously contend that the city’s population suddenly spends $300M more than the previous year for toothpaste and T-shirts? Most, effectively all, of that $300M will come from other stores’ lost business.

You have just expressed a zero-sum fallacy fallacy.

The true zero-sum fallacy is that any one person or organization in the economy gaining business must result in a loss for someone else, that there is only so much wealth to go around.

What I am pointing out is that in any given market, while a zero-sum is not applicable, the total sales are quite inelastic. If McDonalds increases its sales by $10B, it generally means most of that is from reduced sales to other fast food outlets, not that the world suddenly decided to spend $10B on lousy hamburgers.


26 posted on 07/20/2013 5:10:25 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
Do you seriously contend that the city’s population suddenly spends $300M more than the previous year for toothpaste and T-shirts? Most, effectively all, of that $300M will come from other stores’ lost business.

You assume that, magically, Wal-Mart will price its products at the exact same level as the other retailers.

So, let's say you originally spent $1.50 on toothpaste, and now spend $1.00 (on perhaps a larger tube). And to be fair, let's say you now spend $1.25 on eggs versus $1.00.

Where does your 0.25 savings go? Does it simply evaporate?

27 posted on 07/20/2013 5:14:41 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: bert
Recall if you will, the reason a corporation exists is to make a profit, to make money. Spending money to fight the hustlers is a total waste and produces no profit.

In the past at least Walmart did not see it that way.

When Walmart was trying to build in a city near me the city council fought them all the way, going to court more than once. Walmart ultimately succeeded after winning in court and making some compromises.

28 posted on 07/20/2013 5:19:29 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: 1rudeboy

No, that’s one of the (many) complicating factors.

Let us assume that people save 10% when buying the same goods at WalMart as opposed to somewhere else.

They might very well spend the savings at WM for additional stuff, or they might save it, or they might possibly spend it somewhere else.

Few of them, however, will take that 10% to a WM competitor and spend it there.

My sole point is that WM moving into a community creates few if any net new jobs. If this were the case, then the 2M+ in WM employees would be on top of the retail employees that would have been around had WM never existed, which is obviously just not true.

I like WM, or used to, mostly because it pisses liberals off so much, including some family members.

Unfortunately, about a year ago they seem to have made a decision to cut way back on staffing levels and wait times to checkout have gotten very unpleasant.


29 posted on 07/20/2013 5:21:26 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
“No, it will not lead to 300 more jobs being available in the retail sales field in the city. Since the sales of the new store will largely come from a reduction in sales by existing stores, the “new” jobs will be offset by loss of jobs elsewhere.”

I disagree. In all the cases I've seen a walmart open in smaller towns it created so much customer traffic that dozens of new businesses spring up around them.

A small business that would never have would have opened anywhere due to ‘low traffic count’ now has a huge potential customer base to make opening a business viable.

When that customer base is spread out over a two county area nobody gets enough traffic to support a niche business.

The new jobs weren't stolen from anywhere else in the area because there was no business like it anywhere in the area!

30 posted on 07/20/2013 5:22:04 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: PeteB570

None. Apparently Kroger is smart enough not to put any in the area.


31 posted on 07/20/2013 5:22:47 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Food, water, guns, ammo, useful skills, cash, and precious metals.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

Agreed, but the language does have it’s limits. I could use the term “fair” wage, but that has limits as well. “Fair” as determined by who?


32 posted on 07/20/2013 5:25:08 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Food, water, guns, ammo, useful skills, cash, and precious metals.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Democrats doing what they do best — acting stupidly.


33 posted on 07/20/2013 5:30:19 AM PDT by jhroberts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Beagle8U

Yet another of the confounding factors.

But not much comfort to the many small businesses throughout that two-county area put out of business by WM.

The claim in the article is not that WM creates additional traffic allowing niche businesses to thrive, which is often true, but that the WM store itself creates 300 new (presumably net) jobs.

Someone has probably done a national analysis of whether WM has been good or bad for the economy as a whole, and its probably good. Mostly because the lower prices give people savings they can spend somewhere else, in the process creating new businesses and industries.

But I also suspect total retail jobs are fewer in number than they would have been without WM and its innovations, which other retailers have been forced to imitate.

WM is more efficient, which is to say productive, which is to say it gets more done with less. Part of the “less” is number of jobs for a given volume of retail sales.


34 posted on 07/20/2013 5:32:27 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Kaslin.
Why, when capitalism has created wealth and eradicated poverty, do left-wing politicians hate it so much? After all, it's supposed to be the left that cares about the poor.
Now wait just a minute -- how is the left supposed to foster dependence if they allow poor people to have jobs and cheap places to shop? Meanwhile, that lovely taxpayer-funded multi-state commuter train system will have to continue to carry to and from Walmart outside of DC.


35 posted on 07/20/2013 5:36:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I remember years ago when some Wal-Marts had meat departments. Where they actually had butchers cutting meat.

Well, guess what, those butchers tried to unionize. What did Wal-Mart do?

They closed ALL of their meat departments and told the unions to F**K OFF!

If only Wal-Mart had the balls to stop withholding and tell the IRS to stick it up their asses. Now THAT would be a dagger through the heart.


36 posted on 07/20/2013 5:40:05 AM PDT by unixfox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #37 Removed by Moderator

To: RKBA Democrat
Kroger has it's place in the retail market but it's not nearly as available to the public as Walmart.


38 posted on 07/20/2013 5:48:50 AM PDT by deport
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Sherman Logan
“The claim in the article is not that WM creates additional traffic allowing niche businesses to thrive, which is often true, but that the WM store itself creates 300 new (presumably net) jobs.”

I guess you are stuck on the idea that there are only a fixed amount of jobs in the world.

39 posted on 07/20/2013 5:53:58 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: deport; RKBA Democrat

shucks.... the image didn’t display in total. Here’s the link to it:

Click view document at the link and it’s the 2nd page.

http://thomson.mobular.net/thomson/7/3304/4785/


40 posted on 07/20/2013 5:55:59 AM PDT by deport
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson