Concerns with the presence of Wal*Mart

Dear Editor:

I was very pleased to see the extensive coverage you gave in your last edition to the problem of Wal*Mart's proposed expansion of its Rohnert Park store into a SuperCenter. I think this is a really important issue, one which affects the University and its students tangibly; it also raises a host of important academic issues centered around politics, sociology, city planning, the environment, poverty, corporate power, etc. It is a matter of grave concern to anyone who lives in the Cotati/RP area and has many academi connections as well. In particular, your editorial made a very articulate case for the "shop local" movement.

However, there are many other reasons to be concerned with the presence of a Wal*Mart in our community, especially an even larger one than exists now. Wal*Mart is a mega-corporation that is fully capable of destroying a local economy, that pays its employees poverty-level wages, that actually encourages its employees to apply for food stamps and other programs for the poor, that puts pressure on its third-world suppliers, that is viciously anti-union, etc. I think we must educate our community about it. Sure they have low prices, but these come with a high cost; in Rohnert Park's case, that will undoubtedly mean driving some local markets out of business (e.g., Pacific Market, Oliver's Market), and bringing the attendant blight to the shopping centers which they anchor.

There are always trade-offs, of course. Lower-income shoppers probably like having a Wal*Mart nearby. And it does create jobs, although they are predominantly "junk jobs". The net effect on the community is a decided negative. There is no net gain in jobs, and the quality of available jobs decreases. Wal*Mart workers are among the "working poor", who receive subsidies from taxpayers because they don't get paid a living wage. Across the nation, on the average two grocery stores fold in a community for every Wal*Mart SuperCenter that goes in. Shopping centers that these grocery stores anchored tend to enter decline, and urban blight increases. There is no enhancement of tax revenues to the local jurisdiction since groceries are not subject to sales tax in California. Finally there is the issue of Third World sweatshops where goods sold in Wal*Marts are manufactured. There is an ethical issue about supporting the exploitation of low-wage workers in other countries.

~ Rick Luttmann, PhD, Professor of Mathematics