The rumor is that WM is looking to build in Keizer. Very interesting information.

There are many reasons to dislike and oppose the world's largest retailer.

There are many reason to like the world's largest retailer.

1. My prescription prices have gone down by 2/3rds because my pharmacy has to compete with them.

2. Buying from them on line they ship faster and cheaper than Amazon.

3. Thier prices are really really low.

4. Without them there wouldn't be the website "People of Walmart."

In Portland, what Safeway wants, Safeway gets.

Sam the Scam got $500 from Safeway.
Nick "Legend Jr." Fish got $1,000 from Safeway.
The Scone got $2,500 from Safeway.

Then there's this from a Daily Journal of Commerce interview with Greg Goodman in 2006: "Look at Pioneer Place - that wouldn't have happened without eminent domain. It's something you have to take very seriously; you can't be haphazard about it. The Eliot Tower that's up right now and the Safeway project wouldn't have happened."

Safeway paid Adams the least because of his history of financial and ethical bankruptcy. Plus, it wouldn't take much to turn him from developers' lap dog to anticompetitive pit bull.

I have a friend who lives in Oregon City, and tells me that one of the leaders of the successful fight to prevent a WalMart going in at Molalla and Beavercreek was the Danielson's Thriftway mall across the street, which hired high-priced lawyer help to do it.

It makes me think that the real "victims" of Walmart are not mom and pop stores, but rather the other big retailing chains, and I don't see why they particularly deserve our sympathy.

The "victims" of Wal-Mart and other big box stores are all of us. We all pay higher taxes and the expenses for the health care, lost jobs and the loss to the local economy, of buying from China and other places with so called cheaper labor.
I refer anyone who is interested to read Stacey Mitchell's book, "Big Box Swindle" The True Cost of of Mega Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses.

if you can't compete, then run an anonymous smear campaign...way to go safeway...

Portland native, Sure, Walmart is bad for buying from China. But did you know that Ikea, the good box that Sam and Randy endorsed for the transit oriented Cascade Station (ha), has over 40% China product sales? And did you ever notice the numerous China food products on the shelves at Safeway? There's so much Hypocrisy that it could be sold on the shelves around here.

"Big Box Swindle" is a great book. It really dives into the details of how Walmart is killing America. Their tactics in dealing with their suppliers and their employees are repugnant.

Well maybe Safeway and the other big box stores should lower their prices and learn to run inventories better.

If I recall correctly lower prices help low income people and Wal-Mart's pharmacy is certainly beneficial to the elderly who buy prescriptions there. However I learned a long time ago progressives don't give a damn about low income people in Portland. All talk and no action.

They're doing a study: "Why don't nonagenarians ride bicycles?"

Why are our stores importing food from China?
Read the labels!

I thought the reason we were being contained within a UGB was so that we would save our farmland?

Hi! Sam Adams here. You might have seen me Mens Room Romance III or Letter Stuffers IX. I'm taking a break from Twitter to tell you about my newest program to help you, Portland.

To keep poor people out of Walmart, we are going to use $20 million of sewer money to fund organic food stamps. These Sam Stamps are good only at Whole Foods, New Season, or Trader Joe's.

Why sewer money? Simple, my crack staff found an article in Mother Jones that says organic food produces smaller stools. Can you say "sewer savings?"

But there's more. Sign up for a new credit card at the Bank of Sam. If you spend $1000 at Whole Foods or New Seasons, the mayor will take credit for donating a can of organic corn to the Oregon Food Bank.

Yes, lw I am aware of all of those things, and I do not support Safeway or other retailers for buying from foreign sources or domestic ones that engage in what I might consider bad corporate practices.
There are plenty of examples of hypocrisy.
As for the well being of low income people, Wal-Mart is slowly improving it's employment practices, and benefit availability for its employees.
All I am saying is that low paying, part time, no benefit jobs do not benefit the local economy and that those jobs eventually cost all of us in tax money that is used for social services that supplement the folks who work at those jobs.
Are you sure you are really saving money?

PS: I have called IKEA "the Swedish Wal-Mart" for years

This is a perfect example of a situation where the market should sort things out. Nobody is hog-tied and dragged into Wal-Mart. People go there because they believe it is in their self-interest. Those who dislike Wal-Mart are free to shop somewhere else.

Symmetry does not exist when WM or other companies are not allowed to do business in a certain area. When competitors keep WM out, people who want to shop there do not have the ability to make that choice, while those opposed are free to shop elsewhere.

The correct response by opponents is NOT to deny consumers an opportunity to improve their standard of living. It is to convince those consumers that it is not in their best interests to do business with the store in question.

"All I am saying is that low paying, part time, no benefit jobs do not benefit the local economy and that those jobs eventually cost all of us in tax money that is used for social services that supplement the folks who work at those jobs."
===

Exactly correct!!

That is why I hope Salem continues creating more high paying, full time, high benefit jobs. The more government jobs created, the more middle class workers there are to pay more in taxes, which in turn, pay for all the government services we know and love. Government and health care (is there a difference anymore?) were the only job growth sectors over the last couple of years, and those sectors will lead us out of this Great Recession.

Symmetry does not exist when WM or other companies are not allowed to do business in a certain area. When competitors keep WM out, people who want to shop there do not have the ability to make that choice, while those opposed are free to shop elsewhere.

Or we just drive further using more gas, and take our money to a different jurisdiction. I bet Vancouver and Wood Village love that Portland won't let Wal-Mart open more stores.

This is a perfect example of a situation where the market should sort things out.

Markets are great, aren't they? But then there's the inconvenient aspect of externalized costs. When Wal-Mart employees need food stamps or Medicaid to get by, or when Wal-Mart sells products made overseas in sweatshops or with unhealthy materials or using processes that harm the environment, the market is distorted. Markets distorted in this way seduce us into the wrong choices.

Government and health care (is there a difference anymore?)

OK, Harry. What have you done with Louise?

"All I am saying is that low paying, part time, no benefit jobs do not benefit the local economy"

They sure give a lot more benefits than no jobs at all. Our crack govt is working on that one.

Allan L. ... What about the externalized costs at other stores, whether they be small local retailers or competing big boxes?

Have you examined the provenance of the foodstuffs and other goods sold at Safeway, Fred Meyer, Costco, or even the local hardware or clothing stores? How much of it is made with environmentally unfriendly processes or by low-wage foreign labor?

And what about the wages paid to those who work at those stores? To listen to Wal-Mart opponents, one would think that employees at these stores are all getting "family wages" and great benefits.

Over time, Wal-Mart will have to adjust its business practices. If there are perceptible differences in quality, consumers' calculations of value will change. We will--at some point--get to single-payer health care (with some tweaks unique to the U. S.), and their employees will be on an equal footing with almost everyone else. In the meantime, however, the poorest and least able among us are damaged most by an inability to access lower prices and better value.

Yes, the Portland area has other Wal-Marts, not to mention a wide-range of value shopping opportunities. (Though my experience is that it's not exactly a hop, skip, and a jump from Forest Grove or the west side of Beaverton to Wood Village.) However, this isn't the case everywhere in the state. My arguments have more to do with those more rural locations.