Poor Wal-Mart can't catch a break. It's attacked by labor unions and Democratic politicians, and now it's even being disparaged by people who wanted it to come to their neighborhood:
Fort Wayne NAACP president Michael Latham said Wednesday he will call on shoppers to boycott the new Wal-Mart at Southtown Centre when it opens next week if the store doesn't remain open 24 hours like every other in town.
[. . . ]
Latham said it smacks of discrimination. He plans to relay his concerns to Wal-Mart officials and picket next week's grand opening if they don't address his concerns.
“It is sort of a slap in the face to the customers who live on the south side of town,” Latham said. “I believe the stand we are about to take is the right stand, and if I have to stand alone I'll stand alone.”
If the boycott actually happens, what might the result be? Well, Wal-Mart might not make the money it wants to and cut back hours even further. Maybe it will even discover that the decision to locate on the southeast side wasn't such a good one after all. It is being asked to behave not as a business, which operates by providing a good or service people want and making a profit in the process, but as a government or social service, which must always make sure it is being "fair" by treating each client (rather than customer) precisely equally.
Where does such a kooky idea come from? Partly from city government, which moved heaven and earth to redevelop the decaying former Southtown area. If southeast-area residents are told by the city that they are not merely customers who have the ability to spend their money where it does them the most good but clients who have the right to have quality shopping in geographic proximity, how can we blame them for demanding even more?
I hasten to add that all of us, including me, are inclined to occasionally support things -- even push them -- though common sense and our normal philosophical inclinations might suggest otherwise. One of my blind spots is downtown. The memories I have of walking through it during open-lunch hours in high school are such an important part of my Fort Wayne experience that I tend to support anything I think might bring downtown back. Same kind of issue anywhere else, I'm likely to be more rational and less emotional about it.
Comments
The good Rev is going off half-cocked with his "victimological" rhetoric again...not surpringly.
The Wal-Mart hours (as well as no more lay-aways and no self-checkout) are being implemented in ALL of their newest 27 stores throughout the nation...not just HERE.
Menards isn't even open 24/7.
And why would Wal-Mart be discriminatory anyway? Doesn't the SOUTHEAST have the 2nd HIGHEST buying power (drug money aside) in the whole of Ft. Wayne?
It's about crime...and those who wish to keep store shrinkage to a minimum so they can better serve EVERYONE. Having worked with Loss-Prevention, I can say THAT is the real "bottom-line". High loss means higher prices to ALL consumers. The Rev needs to go back for some remedial "common sense".
Don't be surprised if all Wal-marts employ the same policies in ALL the stores soon enough.
B.G.
Why should a private business stay open 24hrs if they don't think they can make money doing so? A boycott here is silly. A more effective campaign would be to urge people to talk to the store manager and let him know that they would likely shop during 3rd shift hours. If there's enough demand then I'm sure Wal-mart would respond...
Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth....
Tim:
That WAS "looking" a gift horse in the mouth...and NOT KICKING it in the mouth, right??
;)
B.G.
I think he'd kick a horse when it was down too......
Leo, I'm glad to see you realize your (and others') longing for the bustling downtown of yesteryear is an emotional rather than rational one. I'm emotional about it too, and for that matter also yearn for the Allen County of old where fields and forests were free of the clutter of crappy Lancia homes; where Southgate and other inner-ring strip malls were fully populated with first-rate retailers; where neighborhoods were neighborly with stay-at-home mothers and children playing kickball in the street all day long.
As I've said before, I think all this emphasis on downtown is misplaced. Everything around here has changed, not necessarily for the better. But the fact is our downtown these days is relatively safe and clean and unshabby. Other parts of the city, however, are going to hell fast and our city leaders would do better to focus on how to keep these areas from falling into decline.
What's happening at the former Southtown location is beyond what I would have expected. South siders should be happy it's there at all, and the demagoguing Reverend should quit pretending that this is somehow the same thing as the busses in Birmingham in the '50s. Evidently he's also quite emotionally attached to a past that doesn't exist anymore.