Wal-Mart's power can be overwhelming

Editor,

Wal-Mart's scale and power hurt free enterprise because they strangle the competition. Their deep pockets allow long-term undercutting of prices so that free enterprises, which are your neighbors and friends in this community, the local business people, will often have to go out of business. Wal-Mart's worldwide size allows them to buy products cheaper in global quantities.

When they have driven out all the healthy competition, Wal-Mart becomes the "company store" to which you then owe your soul, the only game in town. Then, you lose choice, price advantages and diversity of products. Worse, you lose local control of your economy and your community. And your town becomes poorer, because only 43 cents out of every dollar stays here in the local economy rather than 73 cents.

With their one-stop shopping model, Wal-Mart's superstores punish free enterprise by conspiring to put out of business the very individuals in our community who have dared to open a business. These real representatives of free enterprise, your local, independent business community members, have risked their lives and their own money to offer goods and services to you. These people have paid taxes, supported your school competitions, and your town events for years before Wal-Mart came to town, giving a greater percentage of support relative to their sales than Wal-Mart ever has.

If these businesses aren't forced to actually close their doors, there's a good chance they'll have difficulty selling their businesses for what they're worth after a super store dominates the economy. After all the decades of work they have put into these businesses, these members of our community will suddenly find themselves without the retirement they anticipated. Who wants to buy a business that will have to compete with a Wal-Mart super center? And who among your children will want to come back to Polson to open a business if they have to compete with Wal-Mart's huge fortune, the largest corporate economy in the world?

Wal-Mart is not about free enterprise; they have had much help from government legislation and subsidies. Wal-Mart will try to rule the economy and actively work to become a monopoly at the expense of every other store in town. If we let them, they will lead the transition of our commercial and cultural center from downtown to Highway 93, with more global box chains sprawling along behind them.

Carolyn Beecher, Ronan