Wal-Mart expansion would not be bad
Editor,
The building of the Wal-Mart supercenter is not as bad as some people want you to believe. Let us look at some realistic examples:
1. It seems that every time there is a charity needing donations, schools needing scholarships, toys for families needed at Christmas, a burned out family needing household items and clothes, Wal-Mart is always there with "open doors." Just about every week when I open the newspaper, I read where Wal-Mart is doing something for the community. Yes, some of the other businesses donate to the causes, but not as extensively.
2. The Wal-Mart building will be an eyesore? Wrong. I attended he last meeting: Wal-Mart will be landscaping the area with a wall, trees and shrubs. Did you look at the pictures and listen to the lady? In addition, Wal-Mart will be putting in a stoplight to help with the flow of traffic, the one the city of Polson was going to do in the "future." Wal-Mart offered, they were not told they had to.
Talking about eyesores, how many buildings and houses are sitting empty and neglected in the city of Polson. How about junked cars and trucks sitting in people's yards? What about the new apartments being built on the lake on Highway 93 — don't these places take away the view of the lake? Wal-Mart will not be on the lake, and you're complaining … doesn't make sense to me.
3. The tax revenue from Wal-Mart could drastically help the city. I would hope that the money would go to the teachers, to the police departments, to the libraries, to the Department of Transportation. These are all areas that I can see that need the revenue to make Polson a better city than it is now.
4. Wal-Mart would have more jobs. Wouldn't you want to keep these people living in our communities instead of them having to move to another locality for a job? Face it, the smaller businesses do not offer the incentives to keep them. I am talking about wages, insurance, and retirement. No, they will not get "rich" working for Wal-Mart, but they will have insurance and retirement. I have talked to some of the employees and that is the response I got. Can you offer them anything better? If so, why haven't you?
5. Yes, there are a lot of us on limited income. There are some stores in Polson with really nice and expensive clothes. I can't afford them, so why shouldn't we have a choice? If we want to buy at Wal-Mart, does that make us wrong? I get tired of my clothes; instead of wearing them out, I donate the to families with children my size. If I had bought them at one of the "elite" stores, I could not do this. Therefore, Wal-Mart will get my business. I do not have problems with the quality of what I buy. Maybe they are made overseas, but because of the wage regulation, Wal-Mart would have to charge the same "high" prices as some of the other stores.
6. What happened to free enterprise. Everyone has the right to open a business and hope it succeeds. Some of them will, some will not, but you cannot blame Wal-Mart everytime a business goes under. Just maybe the store did not have a product that the public wanted or needed, or it could have been poor management. Wal-Mart has what the public needs and wants, it has good management and excellent employees to make us feel happy and wanted. So, let Wal-Mart offer a bigger selection so we do not have to go to a another city to shop. Let's keep our money in our communities.
I, too, have my favorite stores to shop in Ronan. Just because a new Wal-Mart may be built does not mean that I will stop shopping in the other stores.
As a said, these stores have what I need: Good management, and excellent employees that take care of me.
I will continue to patronize them, but I also want the option of being able to go to a bigger better, newer Wal-Mart.
I moved to Montana from North Carolina. In my former city, there are now seven Wal-Mart supercenters and a distribution center. So I say, "Let the building begin."
Glenda L. Walton
Ronan