By Bradford Larkin, Hamilton
I am confused about one simple truth here in the Bitterroot Valley. Would anyone please help me understand why we in Hamilton pay 20-30% MORE for every retail product than any Missoula store offers, yet these same Hamilton business owners pay 20-30% LESS in wages than what every employer offers their starting employees in Missoula? Is there any member of the Hamilton City Council, the Mayor, one of our respected County Commissioners, or even a business owner here in Hamilton that can explain this phenomenon to me please? Can any one of these community leaders, in simple and basic words, explain clearly to me why we here in Hamilton pay far more for every one of our retail products as compared to Missoula, yet the labor rate paid out by these same price-setters in Hamilton is far less than what is paid in the greater Missoula County?
When I moved here in 1978, Hamilton residents were being charged five cents a gallon more than any Missoula gas station for the same unleaded gasoline. Ever since then I have wondered what those 45 miles of distance between Hamilton and Missoula actually mean to us here in our faraway land up the Bitterroot. For many years I was told that “it’s the freight, dummy” that added the extra nickle in gasoline prices. When I called the manager of our local K Mart to ask why Hamilton’s store was charging $6.95 for the same size bottle of “Armor All” that Missoula’s K Mart was charging $4.95 for, he quickly explained “because we can, dummy” before hanging up on me. Can anyone please use this public venue and carefully explain to me why it is we here in Hamilton pay more for the same products purchased by known national chain stores in both Hamilton and Missoula, yet Missoula stores charge far less while also offering both a higher base wage and benefits to their employees? Is it that we here in Ravalli County do not deserve to pay the same price or be paid the same wage as Missoula citizens? Are Missoula citizens being charged less and paid more for the same services because they have higher taxes, their homes cost more, they vote left more often than right, they’re smarter, their employers believe more in their country, their city or their citizens? Please, someone explain to me why Missoula deserves so much better than we are continually being treated to here in Hamilton?
And while we are on the subject of learning something new every day, would someone also explain to me in simple and logical terms why the same gas station that always charged us five cents more per gallon of gasoline, reaping hundreds of thousands in additional profit every year for no other reason than “the owner sets the price,” now sits empty and in disrepair like some neglected store front in Anaconda? Is there no pride left to at least clean up the weeds, put a coat of paint on it, or even fix the marquee to show visitors and our out of town guests that we can at least spell correctly here in this town? The entire block is nothing more than a symbol of abandonment and neglect, reflecting poorly on our entire community.
What happened to the hundreds of thousands in gravy profit this town had siphoned from its citizens every year? Are we local-yokels not deserving of a clean town especially along our 93 corridor? That building was obviously good enough to hold a Campaign Ra$$y for the esteemed Republican thug we sent to Washington, but isn’t it more than obvious these same owners believe that we the citizens of Hamilton do not deserve one finger to be lifted to improve the horrific eye sore so front and center in our daily lives?
Either charge us higher prices for the same products we can purchase in Missoula and pay the same labor rate as Missoula does, or charge us the same price for those products as Missoula does and pay less in wages, but please don’t continually insult us by doing both. Wake up Hamilton, shopping at home is merely a warm and fuzzy slogan to be whispered in your ears by every national chain business owner here in Hamilton, all the while lying to us and themselves that they care.
Mike in Stevensville says
This is your opportunity to be a problem solver you say we need!
Open a business that charges customers less and pays employees more. You could put this great business of yours in that vacant gas station lot you complain of and clean up the weeds, and be the great example you complain we don’t have!
Get to it!