Chain Stores

[Doug Krehbiel <krehbiel@moscow.com>]

If we vote with our shopping dollars, then has not the public spoken? It
appears to me that we should expend our efforts in getting the powers that
be (Walmart) to provide the services we expect at the best price. 
I doubt we will ever "throw the bums out".  I personally despise our
local warehouse stores.  They seldom have exactly what I want and
the service is horrendous - but the price is low.  At locally owned
stores, I seldom find what I am looking for in their small inventories
and I seldom get a smile or kind word in return, (I consider myself a friendly
person, but maybe not) and the prices are not so low.  Bad
service, poor selection and price.  There is something less than satisfying
about voting for the least worst, but I am guilty.  Does this make
me a bad person?  Someone who is out to destroy our neighborhoods
and take the bread out of the mouths of the local crying babes?  I
think not.  There are enough examples of businesses that continue
to compete with the chain stores to make me believe that it can be done
with the right business know-how and luck. Those of you who are financially
or intellectually superior enough to label the thousands of shoppers (voters)
that patronize Walmart 'short-sighted and non-community oriented' please
look at the way many of us 'unclean' struggle from day to day to make ends
meet.  That extra 10 cents here and there this week may just help
pay the doctor next week.