This is cross-posted at the Wake-Up Wal-Mart blog. I added a few other links there, but I'm assuming Kos readers know most of this stuff.
At an Executive Club Luncheon Meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago recently, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott sang the praises of what will be that City's first Wal-Mart:
When this Wal-Mart store gets located here in Chicago, it will be a local store. It will contribute sales tax to the local community; it will contribute back to the community in charitable causes.
What Mr. Scott doesn't seem to recognize is that a store in a particular locale is not the same as a local store.
A local store won't buy from manufacturers in developing countries whose workers labor under sweatshop conditions.
A local store doesn't demand tax breaks in order to build in the first place.
A local store doesn't have the power to shake down its suppliers.
A local store doesn't leave hundreds of abandoned buildings once its existing quarters are deemed too small because of the interests of stockholders who want faster growth.
Local stores take local zoning laws seriously and don't fund elections to try to have them overturned.
A local store advertises in the local newspaper.
A local store does not send all the sales receipts back to Bentonville, Arkansas every night unless it's located in Bentonville, Arkansas.
A local store sees its tax payments as an obligation to the community, not a selling point for the store.
Lastly, and most importantly, a local store doesn't build where it's not wanted.
JR