I think the "battle" you speak of in NE Oklahoma had a similar plot in Decorah, IA where I went to college. When I left in 1998, the city still hadn't decided on whether to approve the Wal-Mart SuperCenter or not. It was quite controversial as their downtown was absolutely thriving compared to most Midwest towns of 8 to 10,000 people. > -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Ben Stallings > Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2002 9:12 PM > To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > Subject: [TCLUG] [OT] Wal-Mart "worse than Microsoft" > Well, imagine if you will all of Microsoft's anti-competitive > tactics applied > against the business districts of small towns all across America. > Here's the > game they played in northeast Oklahoma while I was in high school > there. All > dates are approximate, and I don't claim 100% accuracy on the details. > > 1979: Put in a Wal-Mart in Bartlesville and one 20 minutes' drive away in > Nowata. > 1980-1990: Suck the business out of both downtown districts by offering > artificially low prices. > 1990-1992: Now that downtown Bartlesville is dead and the nearby > Kmart is on > the verge of closing, raise prices in Bartlesville. Continue to nurture > Nowata's dependence. > 1992: Threaten to move out of Bartlesville unless the city > council subsidizes > a Wal*Mart supercenter on the one remaining piece of virgin land > a quarter > mile away from the existing store (so you don't have to close the > existing > store during construction... besides, the old parking lot -- the > largest in > town -- isn't big enough for a supercenter). If citizens > organize against > the new store, pooh pooh their concerns about traffic, noise, light > pollution, parking lot runoff, etc. If they persist, buy the newspaper's > silence by becoming its biggest advertiser. > 1993: Open the supercenter. Bribe (with "donations") the local > high school > to get the band members out of class so they can play at the > grand opening -- > makes good publicity! > 1993-1994: Hire half as many people as you told the city you > would, and work > them twice as hard. Treat them like criminals. If they ask for > time off to > pick their sick kids up from day care, fire them. If they ask to > rearrange > their work schedules to take community-college classes, fire > them. If the > security cameras in the break room catch them complaining, fire them. > late 1994: Close the store in Nowata, since obviously those > people can drive > to Bartlesville to shop at the new supercenter! > > Still not convinced? See if you can find the Doonesbury comics on the > subject from late summer & early fall 1994 -- if Gary Trudeau > wasn't writing > specifically about Bartlesville's battle, it was a suspiciously > similar one. > --Ben > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. > Paul, Minnesota > http://www.mn-linux.org > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > https://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list