The town of Yelm, Wash., has banned the use of the words “Wal-Mart,” “big-box store” and “moratorium” at its town council meetings. Anyone who says these words is immediately silenced.
Wal-Mart has applied to build a superstore in the town, which had a population of 3,289 in the 2000 census.
It’s the council’s meeting. They can decide what they want to hear and what they’re tired of hearing. You can understand if you’re barraged for two months at meetings — the same people saying the same thing. — Brent Dille, municipal attorney
Er, maybe the reason they keep saying the same things is the town council keeps completely ignoring its citizens? This is a complete violation of the right of redress of grievances, and the ACLU of Washington has sent a letter to the town council warning that the ban is unconstitutional.
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KAM
Jul 09, 2005
I know it is trendy to be anti-WalMart, but this is just silly. This is when you know for sure that your politicians are completely out of touch with the society that they represent.
This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve read since that flap over the city council rep who fired a parks department employee for refusing to remove his hat, even though another council rep was also wearing a hat and wasn’t asked to remove hers.
J Caddell
Jul 17, 2005
I lived in Yelm as a child. I recently heard that Walmart was coming in. Don’t let them. Big corporations are building and sucking the small towns dry, ruining the economy. Fight them. J Caddell
KAM
Jul 21, 2005
I disagree with this statement. Wal-Mart and other big businesses can only “run a town dry” if the citizens let it happen.
I’ll cite my own town of Mt. Sterling, KY. Wal-Mart came here in the early 80s and established a small retail store, and they did so when the town was in a huge economic slump. The slump came because there was a huge push in the late 1970s for Westinghouse (GE) employees to go union. The vote came up, the employees voted to go union, and Westinhouse decided to shut down the plant and move their operations to Mexico. Several other large factories followed suit before the unions could even look to them.
Wal-Mart, able to employ a hundred or so people and with a very anti-union (or, “pro-employee” in Wal-Mark speak) was very welcomed.
In 1996 Wal-Mart wanted to expand by building a new Wal-Mart SuperCenter, with grocery facilities and operating 24/7. There was little resistance here, and it successfully opened.
So, what was the result? It prompted Kroger to replace it’s sagging, old and crumbling 30 year-old store with a new modern Kroger Center with expanded strip mall for several other businesses to move into. The new strip mall attracted GNC (nutritional supplements), Radio Shack, Dollar Tree, Goodies (retail apperal) and a few other regional retail stores who were looking to move to larger and more modern facilities in the town.
Kroger also switched from 7am-11pm hours to operating 24/7, and it also installed an on-site bank and pharmacy, just like Wal-Mart had. With Kroger and Wal-Mart both offering 24/7 grocery shopping, within two years it did force Winn-Dixie and Food Lion to reduce their hours and eventually close stores. Not a huge loss honestly since those stores were also very run-down.
When Kroger and Goodies moved out of the strip mall they were in to the new center, it prompted the Coast-to-Coast Hardware store to expand its facilities by taking over the section Goodies previously occupied. With Coast-to-Coast moving a few doors down, Dollar General decided to move its store from downtown – also run-down AND with a lack of parking spaces – to a newer building with plenty of parking. Kroger’s space was quickly filled by Big Lots, who had been looking for years for an affordable property to move into.
When Wal-Mart left its old digs, JC Penny immediately signed on to take its place and move down the strip mall from its much smaller space. JC Penny’s slot was filled by another regional retail store. The three other stores that left the same strip mall to move to Kroger’s new strip mall were also filled by new vendors providing services not previously here, including a party supply store, a nail salon, and a Curves fitness facility.
The former Food Lion still sits empty, but it has been leased out for large weekend events off and on. The former Winn-Dixie was renovated and replaced with a new regional non-emergency medical center and doctors offices, which also included several specialists that previously were not providing services in the area. With new activity in THAT strip mall, Applebee’s built a new restaurant, and a large building that was abandoned by the Piggly-Wiggly grocery chain nearly 20 years earlier was filled by a motorcycle/ATV/offroad equipment dealer.
And, to bring this full circle, with all of these modern stores and amenities filling the area, it brought a rewnewed attraction to the industrial sector of the town. New industry flocked to the industrial park, and demand was so great that a second industrial park had to be built to accomodate KDMK (parts manufacturer), Chef America (Hot Pockets, now owned by Nestle), Cooper Tire & Rubber, and dozens more employers.
What about all the mom & pop stores that Wal-Mart ends up devouring? Well some did shut down, but most of them are still here today. The florists, the bookstores, the video rental stores, the smaller botiques remained in-tact. Shopper loyalty did not switch, because consumers were not pressured to do so. Those that did shut down did so because the owners retired, or occasionally you had a store that could not or would not compete. No whining about Wal-Mart taking away thier business, the bottom line is that in a free-market society consumers voted with their wallets and feet – and not always to Wal-Mart.
I understand that this isn’t always the case everywhere, but it is unfair to state that Wal-Mart is killing small-town America. Wal-Mart cannot do what the citizens are unwilling to let it do.
To end this, FWIW, the new Wal-Mart was set on fire in 1998 after some kids in the paint department ignighted several aresol spray paint cans and the paint department caught fire, burning a small part of the store but causing massive water damage to all of the store. In the 4 months that the store was shut down, the media outlets in the Lexington are contiually ran stories about how our town was hurt by not having our 24/7 Wal-Mart and that residents were surely inconvenienced and were suffering without one. They too had assumed that Wal-Mart was the only thing happening in this little town and nobody else had survived. We all had a good laugh at that. Even if we were hurt, it was nothing to travel 15 minutes down the road to the Wal-Mart to the west or east of us in the next towns over.
Dave
Jan 07, 2006
The only promise is that “Free Trade” will be america’s epitaph.
john hansen
Jul 29, 2007
I was considering moving to Yelm. People have told me theres no shopping real good shopping. You must travel 30 miles to find good shopping. Now your shooting down Wal-mart, I’m reconsidering my move.
Chris
Dec 10, 2007
We all should keep in mind that the top one hundred corporations control what is said in the media due the fact that they fund 75% of the advertising . Just think of all the inventions that have been held back . Oil crisis after oil crisis, health care costs, etc…. We have big gov. telling us that we have a War on Terror, after we had War on Drugs, a War Cancer, and remember the War on Poverty . Each time it was about the quick, and long change of society for the entrench layers of government whom have no open budget process . There is 70 trillion in trust funds that could stop a lot the mess we are in . Check out Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) .
By the way the faster money turns the more money it creates (Alexander Hamilton) . Maybe that helps explain a little bit of what went on in that New York town .
City councils whom have an oath on file with a bond do not have the power to ban words that in the Commercial trademark class of Corporate Names . Ask an linquinestic for the proper meaning of the 1st amendment .
To Freedom !!!
Thank You….
Nambla Neil of Qwest
Nov 25, 2009
I like to go to walmart and vandalize random items. It costs the company in returns from customers and in returns to the maker. I would say to everybody to go out and do this at walmart. They suck and their benefits are to forces walmart employees onto the taxpayer. F.O. walmart and I will keep on vandalizing.
KenXP
Jan 21, 2010
I currently live in Yelm, WA. This news is old; the Wal-Mart has been built there.