I'm sure I'll burn in hell for this, but...
A new Wal-Mart
opened in my neighborhood, yesterday, and I'm happy about it. I know there are reasons I should hate Wal-Mart, related to their employment/hiring practices, etc, but I look at it this way: they just brought a ton of jobs to my crappy East San Jose community, which desperately needs them.
This particular Wal-Mart is not a superstore. Even if it were a superstore, I doubt it would affect the SaveMart across the street, or the huge Vietnamese grocery at the end of the block. It won't affect the other twenty or so businesses around it: nail salons, Vietnamese & Mexican restaurants, a taco bell, a togo's, a blockbuster, etc...there's room for all of them. So, that argument against it goes out the window. The other three Wal-Marts in the area, each within a 20 minute drive, are always packed...as are the businesses around them. So, the argument about Wal-Mart hurting local businesses doesn't fly, at least not in my neck of the woods.
The employment/hiring practices—their issues with discrimination, not being unionized, things like that, sure, that's not good. But they do pay their workers the "Bay Area" premium...it's not like the folks out here get paid the same as the Wal-Mart workers in my central-PA hometown. That would completely suck for them. But like I said, there are probably hundreds of people that have jobs today that didn't have jobs yesterday, or lost their jobs when the SuperKmart (which was what this building was before Wal-Mart stepped in) closed a couple of years ago. Jobs are a good thing.
So, at the same time that I'm thrilled there's a Wal-Mart a mile from my house, I'm similarly thrilled that I found
Bluefly, where I can get Calvin Klein/Diesel/Lucky Brand (and more!) shirts and pants for ridiculously low prices. $17 Lucky cargo pants? I'm all over that.
