Yes. Let's step up the plastic crap from China and the processed foods. Might as well get it all over with.

Don't use WalMart often, but when I do it is a good experience. And, oddly, their employees are much better at customer service than Freddy's.

As a district native, I say let them in with a welcome. With one catch ... No permit unless Wal-Mart signs an enforceable agreement that promises that their big box will not be vacant more than 30 days once operations commence. There are few small businesses for Wal-mart to kill in many parts of DC, so the size of the operation of a Wal-Mart will be impossible to replicate with another retailer... They occupy a huge footprint in a city whose plan was made in the 1700s, when the concept of such stores was unknown.

The last thing the district needs is some empty Wal-Marts, and the company has a pretty bad track record in that regard.

Walmart sure helps stretch my pension check a lot farther than other hip places. Walmart also provides a longterm job for my neighbor who seems fairly happy. What's wrong with some competition. We sure love it when it's like Celtics versus Lakers, Steelers versus Packers, or Ducks versus Trojans. We should have more competition in the K-12 education sector, for instance, rather than the protectionism of the public school monolith. And competition is hardly only around price.

George, I think the DC Walmarts are planned to be a somehwat down-sized urban variety. The company is running out of growth opportunties for the really big boxes. Walmart has built one of these off Route 1 about a mile south of the Beltway (Hybla Valley, Alexandria section of Fairfax County) if you want to go take a look.

Unions hate Wal-Mart, which is another reason to support the company. Moreover, they do a lot of "promotion from within". I have an acquaintance who began working at a Wal-Mart part-time; she was rather quickly promoted to department head.

As for the plastic crap from China, I prefer not to shop IKEA.

Oh, and Sam Adams also hates Wal-Mart; another plus in my book.

Mr Bog, DC really needs something like Sam's latest:

"Other initiatives Adams will propose include a new governmental arm called the Office of Equity and an initiative to explore ways to make grocery stores financially feasible in undeserved areas such as Cully or Lents."

From his city club speech - I can just see him ordering the PowerPoint software for 3 new staffers. Amy Ruiz is going to look like she knows what she is doing by comparison yet.

This ought put a whole new spin the definition of equity.

BTW - Over/under on Sam's odds of a photo-op with Obama.

All right-minded lefties know that there is something "bad" about Walmart, even if they can't articulate what it is, so we block them at every turn.

Target is considered Walmart's main competitor (in the non-grocery area), selling the same stuff from China, but Target is considered more hip, so we're courting them for downtown.

Actually, the most sustainable activity is to NOT buy any of the stuff for sale in any of these stores, unless you really, really, need it. Already have 18 pair of jeans - why do you need to buy another pair? But, sigh, retail activity keeps the corporate merry-go-round spinning.

Interesting point Umpire. Since I spend my Saturday mornings eight months out of the year on the yard sale circuit, that makes me a libertarian model of sustainability. But please don't let the progressives know, they'll figure out a way to regulate that out of and away from me.

I had only been in a Wal Mart once in my life before moving to Pendleton. It is less expensive for some of the groceries I buy regularly and last summer I bought a new vaccuum cleaner that really sucks pet hair for about 75% of the price I could find anywhere else.

Pendleton shoppers seem to use the store, but not to the point that seems to be cornering markets; perhaps it did that when it first came to town.

What troubles me about the place are the persistent stories I hear about part-time workers without benefits losing their jobs for dubious reasons just before they are to be promoted to full time with benefits. It seems that lawsuits have been a useful vehicle for keeping employee exploitation in check-and should continue to be.