Re: Office Depot

[Tom Lamar <lamar@pcei.org>]

Bummer, I was hoping the old Ernst site would be converted into a
rollerskating/blading rink.

Tom

>I too was dumbfounded by the decision of Office Depot to occupy the
>former Ernst site. Of all the business that we need in this city, that
>is the worst one, and to top it off, we already have a office supply/eq-
>uipment store here in Moscow! What kind of thinking allowed this? While
>I can see the two universities, Pullman-Moscow business and indivduals
>shopping Staples (although we do have a downtown business already
>established in the same offering), we now need TWO office supply
>outlets? And we have the ones just down the road in Lewiston too. Why
>didnt.the CofC and the Palouse Mall people get a business in there that
>Moscow really needs? Did the building sit so long that they jumped at
>the first interested party, regardless if it duplicates an already
>existing business? And if one of them knocks them out of the city in
>competition, there will be a empty building once again, and the owners
>will once again have to find another tenat. Just not make sense at
>all!!                                              To answer C> Burke's
>question, I would like to see both large companies and small mom-pop
>businesss here in Moscow. I work in a local grocery store and I met
>people from a wide area of the Palouse, St. Joe and Orofino region that
>come into town to do business and shop. Moscow-Pullman serves a service
>area that although it overlaps the Spokane service impact area and
>Lewistons' own, should be able to attract business and shoppers on its
>own merit by offering services without having to travel to those two
>cities. And more importantly, it keeps money spent that would be spent
>elsewhere here in the local economey. We have a very diverse population
>here--more so than other communities in that we have university staff
>and students, along with farmers, loggers, townspeople, rural residents,
>retirees, etc. that live here. Let's have Moscow-Pullman devolp a
>business climate that meets the need for this population for the next
>century. But lets not screw it up like the Office Depot-Staples
>duplication and leave out a business that meets our needs..