Let’s hear it for Wal-Mart

In response to your item ["Whoa, Wal-Mart,” Everybody’s business, June 26], I would like to ask a question and make a statement.

When are the people in charge of granting building permits going to get it through their heads that Wal-Mart does not now nor has it ever put any small business out of business?

Sam Walton was a genius! Primarily because he chose to build his Wal-Mart stores out in the rural towns all across this country, and furthermore because it was his intent to keep his profit margin to the bare minimum!

More people should find and read his life story, as I have. Then all those people who keep telling lies about Wal-Mart could see once and for all that Sam and his Wal-Mart stores gave us consumers the opportunity to buy thousands of quality products at reasonable prices, unlike all those small businesses that for years had the market cornered and could carry whatever they felt like and charge whatever exorbitant prices they chose to because we had no alternative.

Since the advent of Wal-Mart, they lost that edge, and now those people do their utmost to bad-mouth Wal-Marts wherever they try to build. Common sense has prevailed, though. People always have and always will shop where they can buy the most goods at the lowest costs.

I recently read an article about Wal-Mart wanting to build a store in Paradise, and a spokesperson for that town said, “There is a Wal-Mart in Chico and in Oroville, and those people are not going to come to Paradise to shop at their Wal-Mart.” Of course not. The people of Paradise are going to shop at that store! Paradise and every other small town keep crying about all the tax revenue they are losing, then someone like Wal-Mart offers to build in their community, and the little businesses start right in bad-mouthing Wal-Mart, and the politicians take the side of those small businesses and shut Wal-Mart out. But people will travel the distance to shop at Wal-Mart.

Last year Wal-Mart Corporation became the No. 1 retailer in the entire world, beating out General Motors. Just 40 years since the first Wal-Mart opened, it is now the world leader in retail sales.

One way or another, Wal-Mart will get its superstores in California, and its competitors will continue to get their fair share of the market because people will always want the option of shopping other than Wal-Mart.

So, please stop bad-mouthing Wal-Mart. If you don’t like Wal-Mart, then do not shop there. Wal-Mart gave us another choice, but it doesn’t force anyone to shop at its stores!