This KBCI-TV story was jammed full of misconceptions about WalMart - faulty logic not the fault of the reporter, but in the minds of the people interviewed.
The story concerns a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sam's Club to be placed in Nampa. Several people quoted were cheering it on.
"I think it's going to be cool because there's not many other places to go shop that are quick and easy to get to," says Nampa resident John Murphy.
Actually, there already are even by including WalMart in that definition - Fred Meyer, KMart and the stores at Karcher Mall are just a few of those in Nampa. But what makes a megastore "easier" to deal with than a smaller one?
A Nampa city spokesman remarked that "what it does is it helps to lower the tax burden for everybody who lives here it brings in a development and that development itself brings in jobs." That's jaw-dropping. There will be some plus, to be sure, in the property taxes on the store buildings, and in the wages paid the construction crews. But the rest constitute a loss. WalMart's low wages/benefits make a joke out of the "all the new jobs" line of jabber: The rest of the community winds up picking up the cost for people who aren't earning a living wage. And the idea that a WalMart coming to town represents an economic expansion is pure illusion. Just think for a moment: WalMart is in the business of selling a variety of goods to consumers. Unless you want to argue that people will be spending more money just because WalMart came to town - an absurd notion - you're stuck with the reality that WalMart's arrival represents a displacement of someone else. That means those low-wage jobs at WalMart are displacing other jobs - possibly higher-wage - somewhere else.
Some people get that point. The KBCI story does quote Debbie Hovde, owner Ma & Pa's Smoke Shop at Nampa, as saying, "if everybody can go to one store and get their shopping done, what's it going to do to us little people."
I think we know the answer, Debbie.
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