Why I Fight Wal-Mart
The Zeeman: July 22, 2007
There are some LOVE bloggers who are against Wal-Mart in general. And some who just don't want one in their backyard. That’s their prerogative. That’s not me. Heck, I know people from Wal-Mart. I sit on an Advisory Board with them. I've worked with them. I have absolutely no problem with them.
Where's the beef?
To me, and many others, it’s simply a matter of getting what we were promised; of holding Vestar to their word; of making sure they give use what their glossy mailings promised us.
We were promised "a unique, upscale shopping experience" to go along with a movie theatre. Instead, we get a Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart is neither unique nor upscale. It doesn't fit the profile of stores we were promised. The world’s largest corporation, a company that has economic power larger than most countries, does not need an incentive to come to Oro Valley. It is corporate welfare for the world's largest company. Wrong!!!
Wal-Mart is desperately seeking retail sites. There are lots of towns that don't want them. Wal-Mart would have paid Oro Valley to build at the Oracle-Tangerine intersection. Giving Vestar an incentive to bring us a Wal-Mart on this prime site was foolhardy on the part of the Oro Valley Town Council and Mayor Paul Loomis.
Would voters have approved the $23.2 million incentive if they knew Wal-Mart was the anchor? I doubt it. Remember, voters approved the incentive by only a slight majority.
Hoodwinked by Vestar? You bet! I don't like it. And you shouldn't either.
So, for many of us, we just want to get what we were promised. In other words, $23.2 million should buy us a "unique, upscale shopping experience" to go along with our new movie theatre and not just another ho-hum strip mall anchored by the world's largest lower-end retailer.
Read: Blogger Talk
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