[Oe List ...] Wal-Mart

Wed Apr 9 11:53:00 EDT 2008

I bet you're right Terry.  The long term total costs are hard to  
measure because there's such big time gaps of accountability.
But intuitively we know that poisoning/polluting the earth makes no  
sense and will have a high
impact cost. The eventual price of the clean ups on tax payers are  
hidden from the initial consumers and industries.

I would guess most of us prefer to buy local and organic.  Farmers  
markets are increasingly popular everywhere and on the rise even in  
the urban.
Many restaurants also buy locally grown food.

Cincinnati Civic Garden Center sponsors 12 neighborhood gardens  
throughout low income neighborhoods.
My garden club does a number of projects with low income school kids.

There's a whole movement around getting children outdoors more often.

These efforts help with sustainability but also spirit.  It's about  
beauty and appreciation of nature and being connected with the  
natural world.

Carolyn Antenen

On Apr 9, 2008, at 11:21 AM, McCabe, Terence W wrote:

> Hello,
> I find this conversation very interesting. Two things come to mind.  
> A chain such as Whole Foods stores buy a significant percentage of  
> produce and vegetables from their region. On the other hand, the  
> market (as we see it here in the US) has a very short range vision.  
> Is coal really cheaper than solar in the long run? Is broccoli from  
> California cheaper than local area farmers in the long run? I spend  
> higher prices at our local farmers' market because it is organic  
> and more sustainable. I admit that I choose my local farmers based  
> on the quality of their products and the charm with which they  
> market their produce. (By the way, the spinach in our garden is  
> spectacular.)
> Terry McCabe
> From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net on behalf of Carolyn Antenen
> Sent: Tue 4/8/2008 5:08 PM
> To: Order Ecumenical Community
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass  
> destruction
>
> Fascinating study. My entrepreneurial mind wonders:
>
> Why did the chain store win over the customers of the original 3  
> stores?
> What needs or wants did the 3 smaller stores not fulfill?
> Were they innovative and responsive?
> Did they take out too much capital and not reinvest in resources?
> What did 1 chain store do better than 3 different local stores?
>
> Cincinnati has local groceries that compete very well with Kroger:
> through better quality products, better service, better displays,
> better prepared food deli, and many other
> creative approaches.
>
> Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have gone to national scale because of
> superior innovations over Kroger and Safeway.
> Now the creative local stores have become the latest large chain.
>
> Carolyn Antenen
>
> On Apr 8, 2008, at 5:34 PM, Bill Bailey wrote:
>
> > Ada, Oklahoma (1974) the Chamber of Commerce & the OKC house did a
> > joint
> > study of what happened to Ada's economy over the past 10 years. In
> > 1964 Ada
> > had three local owned grocery stores; one on the north side, one on
> > the
> > south side, and one in the town center. Each of the three stores
> > was owned
> > and operated by two local families. Each store provided summer and
> > afternoon
> > jobs for high school kids.
> >
> > In 1968 a large grocery store chain opened owned and operated by a
> > firm
> > headquarter in Dallas Texas. The managerial staff of the store
> > lived in
> > Oklahoma City and commuted to Ada on a weekly basis. The new store
> > hired
> > local workers from Ada at minimum wages, but none of the managerial
> > staff
> > participated in the economic, political, or cultural structures of
> > Ada. The
> > goods for the super market all came from the outside and the
> > profits were
> > sent out of state.
> >
> > By 1972 all three locally owned grocery stores had closed, but the
> > super
> > market still provided some jobs for after school and summer jobs
> > for a few
> > high school kids.
> >
> > The Chamber concluded that Ada had lost the economic, political and
> > cultural
> > benefits to the city of:
> >
> >       1. Six residential families,
> >       2. A market for some locally produced food items,
> >       3. A down turn in citizen's presence in town center, and
> >       4. A small number of summer jobs for high school kids.
> >
> > This was just one simple story of what can happen when the chain  
> (box)
> > stores come to town. Instead of circulating locally, the money and
> > business
> > decisions no longer support the quality of life and economic growth
> > of the
> > local community.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Bill Bailey
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net]
> > On Behalf
> > Of David Dunn
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:16 PM
> > To: OE Community
> > Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass
> > destruction
> >
> > On 4/8/08 1:04 PM, "Marianna Bailey"  wrote:
> >
> >> Let's not forget the economic principles that we used in human
> >> development
> >> projects.Money should circulate 5 times before it leaves a
> >> community. When
> >> Wal-Mart comes into a town small family owned businesses that have
> >> been
> > their
> >> for several generations go out of business. The family owned  
> business
> >> circulated the money 5 times and use to pay living wages. Wal-Mart
> >> pays
> > low
> >> wages and the money leaves the community everyday. What we gain
> >> short term
> > by
> >> low prices does not reflect the long term consequences of our local
> > economy.
> >
> > This is the story of Burna's hometown, Ironwood, MI--on the decline
> > because
> > of a whole system of factors, but Wal-Mart didn't help. The
> > downtown has
> > been dying for many years.
> >
> > David
> >
> > --
> > David Dunn
> > dmdunn1 at gmail.com
> > 720-314-5991
> > Skype: dmirror
> > www.mirrorcommunication.com
> >
> > -- Please note new "GMAIL" address --
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OE mailing list
> > OE at wedgeblade.net
> > http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/oe_wedgeblade.net
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OE mailing list
> > OE at wedgeblade.net
> > http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/oe_wedgeblade.net
>
> Carolyn Antenen
> cantenen at mac.com
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OE mailing list
> OE at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/oe_wedgeblade.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> OE mailing list
> OE at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/oe_wedgeblade.net

Carolyn Antenen
cantenen at mac.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080409/bdaa848b/attachment-0001.html 