Last week Virginia's Orange County Board of Supervisors vote to approve the building of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter within the historic boundaries of the
Wilderness Battlefield - and one of the most significant battlefields of the Civil War. The Civil War Preservation Trust has been fighting Wal-Mart on this location for over a year - seeking an alternative location and compromoise - and after last week they desperately need everyones help to stop Wal-Mart from moving forward and opening the door to further destructive development.
Even State Senator Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for Virginia Governor, has written a letter to the president and CEO of Wal-Mart pleading with him to move the location off the historic battlefield. Wake-Up Wal-Mart is helping in this fight and you can too by also writing a letter on the Civil War Preservation Trust's website and also help spread the word yourself.
More from Blue Virginia and the Washington Post below:
I watched the great movie Wall-E last night. If you haven't seen it yet, fire up your Netflix or jot down a note to hit Blockbuster after work.
If you have seen it, you probably recognized the corporate behemoth of Buy-N-Large. We have a similar, sinister company down here on Earth called Wal-Mart.
In the movie, Buy-N-Large has gotten so gargantuan and out-of-control that it has taken on every aspect of society: It peddles every possible product at its Supercenters, it sells gas, it controls the banks -- and it has even taken on the role of a quasi-government.
Wal-Mart would love to be Buy-N-Large if it could. Indeed, the Bentonville behemoth has recently attempted to grow beyond its traditional Supercenter model. It has introduced gas stations and has even tried to create a bank!
Supposedly, the company is specifically focused on facilitating the needs of mothers.
Walmart's silly, pandering, new "Eleven Moms" campaign-- consisting, no kidding, of 19 rather than 11 bargain-hunting, values-beaming women bloggers-- will probably serve its intended purpose of buoying the brand through the upcoming holiday season.
But to peel back the facile PR facade-- to examine real real stories of women's experiences at Walmart's stores-- is to see something else entirely:
Heather Silvis says she felt bullied when Wal-Mart associates told her she could not breastfeed her baby in the store on Two Notch Road.
Today's New York Times posted a misleading article that uses the relationship between SEIU President Andy Stern and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott as evidence of a "slowing down" of the Wal-Mart campaigns.
While we cannot speak for Wal-Mart Watch, everyone should know WakeUpWalMart.com has NO intention of letting Wal-Mart off the hook. None. Zero. Zilch.
Wake Up Walmart has released its first video of 2008. Walmart is a key issue for progressives to focus on -- because of their awful health care benefits, Texas citizens are estimated to be paying $134,161,466 a year in taxes to cover poor Walmart employees and their families with health care -- while Walmart is making huge profits.
Please check out this video, and let your friends know why we need to "Wake Up Walmart".
cross-posted at DK & will be at TxK tomorrow, because my home computer refuses to stay logged in to TK)
Saturday morning, the rally I've talked about in my previous 2 diaries happened and it was a great success. I was on three streets of the protest, looking for t-shirts, and from what I saw, they met the goal of encircling the mall. That's a lot of people. And about half of the cars who passes by were honking their support & waving. Seriously - if I were WalMart, I would be re-thinking this thing. Of course, the local media have massively underestimated the number of people who were there. But that's no surprise.
Hi - I haven't been posting much lately, been busy training for the Hill Country Ride for AIDS. (And yes, y'all will be hearing more about that from me.) Anyway, this Wal-Mart thing has caught my attention. Here's what I wrote at DK, slightly modified (though if you want to visit my diary over there & give me some mojo, that would also be fine - link: http://www.dailykos....):
Here is some background info. It is largely lifted from the www.rg4n.org website, with some of my own experience and knowledge thrown. I am not in any way an official representative of the RG4N organization. I haven't even been to an in-person meeting. I've just seen the news coverage, read the blog, and done some e-mailing. I have fought battles like this before. If you've lived in Austin long, you may remember the battle over the Traingle development. As much as I don't like what's there now, what they were originally going to put was much worse. So - more info below.
Walmart stores, whose voracious, all-in-one retailing model has crippled thousands of competitors over the last 40 years, is turning to an unusual business plan: helping its rivals.
The giant discount retailer, under assault as never before by critics, announced a wide-ranging effort today to support small business near its new urban stores, including the hardware stores, dress shops and bakeries with which it competes.
...
With that in mind, Wal-Mart executives created the Wal-Mart Jobs and Opportunity Zones, to be set up in 50 metropolitan areas where the chain wants to build stores.
In the zones, which Wal-Mart said are marked by high crime and unemployment, the company will identify local businesses to spotlight in newspaper advertisements and to feature on Wal-Mart's in-store radio network, which plays throughout the day.
The retailer will hold seminars that coach the businesses on how to compete with the giant discount stores — by, for example, intensifying customer service, for which Wal-Mart receives low marks. An annual report on trends in Wal-Mart's business will be distributed exclusively to those companies.
At the same time, Wal-Mart will invest $500,000 in local chambers of commerce, to be used for small business Web sites and business improvement seminars.
There's something a little bit sick about that. At the same time, it's a marvel of what our capitalit economy can create. But should we hear expect cries of Big Government Wal-Mart anytime soon?
A study conducted by several economists, and presented at a conference held by Wal-Mart, found that after the company's arrival in a county, total earnings per worker, retail and nonretail, fell 2.5 percent to 4.8 percent. One reason is that Wal-Mart pressures its suppliers to cut their costs and that may lead to lower wages for the suppliers' workers.
The policy also has to do with public drain on the company, including groups like Wake Up Wal-Mart.
And there is growing evidence that the negative publicity is hurting the company. An internal Wal-Mart report, prepared in 2004, found that 2 percent to 8 percent of Wal-Mart consumers surveyed have ceased shopping at the chain because of "negative press they have heard."
