By Carla McDonald, Stevensville
I was hired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the Main Street Manager for Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in particular to keep Wal-mart from coming in in the late ’80’s. Their business practices have caused a Blue-Ribbon committee to keep them from taking over small town areas such as ours. They will come in and drop the prices on drugs, auto supplies, nursery items, you name it. Then, when they have driven the home-town shops out of business, leaving behind empty buildings and ruining long time careers, they will double or triple the prices on those items. Note the Sale items, then look at the prices of the items next to them, they will be higher than you can find elsewhere.
My husband worked for a short time at the first store in Missoula in 1997. Then, as now, they did not hire full time workers from the community for any position, so they didn’t have to pay benefits, and this has now come up again with health care. They bring in their own people. This great “offer” of employment for locals will be for 20 hours a week, usually at night. And you won’t get insurance, benefits, or vacation. You might get an offer for a tiny bit of stock. The corporation lies, they cheat, and now they are hiding their name, since we already fought this same battle several years ago.
PLEASE Do NOT approve that waste water plan, either, they care nothing for the environment. If they operate as they did in Jackson, the electric and water pipes are already installed. This whole cloud of obfuscation is shady.
And any donation ‘given’ to the community for charity is only a token. The money brought in by Wal-mart does not stay in our economy in our valley, it goes straight to headquarters in Arkansas, where the temperature for each store is also controlled.
Don’t fall for this, folks. I got fired over it, but there is not a Wal-mart in Jackson, and for years, we have managed to keep them out of the Bitterroot. Look up the reasons we were successful before. It was simply going to be too much of a headache for them to overcome the opposition. Help keep the beautiful home-town feel of the Bitterroot Valley. If you must shop Wal-mart, there are two huge stores in Missoula, a short drive, and a nice day out.