Wal-Mart controversy swirls at USU; protests in the works

By Brad Plothow

September 8, 2005 | When what are expected to be hundreds of local protesters gather at 4:30 p.m. Thursday near a proposed site for a Wal-Mart at the south end of Logan, Jay Price plans to be part of the crowd.

Price, a graduate student in Utah State's College of Natural Resources, is one of myriad residents who are upset by the prospect of a 200,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter moving to town. While Price admitted Wal-Mart's low-priced goods are enticing to college students, he said he refuses to support the corporation as a matter of principle.

"From a college person's perspective, the thing that irks me the most is (Wal-Mart's) cut-throat corporate strategy," said Price, who attended a public meeting in August regarding the proposed store. "Yes, they are lowering prices, which probably drives inflation down. But they also drive out other businesses. They are really taking money away (from Cache Valley)."

The proposal for a second Wal-Mart in Cache Valley has yielded mixed reactions from students and faculty at USU. Some, like Price, believe Wal-Mart is a corporate cancer, taking advantage of outsourced manufacturing networks to squash smaller retailers. Others see the $285 billion company as an economic boon, a place to find cheap groceries and jobs with flexible hours -- the latter especially enticing in a community where about 16,000 students are vying for work.

Print journalism major Jeremy Wilkins became an opponent of Wal-Mart while serving an LDS mission in Kentucky and Indiana. Wilkins said residents of Washington, Ind., told him that their small-town economy fizzled once Wal-Mart set up shop.

"Wal-Mart was the central theme of the town, and everything else was just dying. Downtown Washington was almost non-existent," Wilkins said. "If it were Shopko doing it, it would be the same (problem). Big box retailers just come in and monopolize."

Wilkins worries the same might happen in Cache County, which already has one supercenter and a Sam's Club, which is owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wilkins has taken to his own kind of advertising: white T-shirts that read, "Wal-Mart can Go to Hell: Not to South Logan." Wilkins said he's already sold about 60 of the shirts, which also feature Wal-Mart's smiley-face logo, with devil horns added.

Employment at North Logan's Wal-Mart has kept public relations major Kenny Caldwell from having to find summer work. Caldwell said his pay has risen by nearly $2.25 -- to about $9 an hour -- during his two-year employment, and his positions as clerk, parking lot attendant and sales floor associate haven't interfered with his class schedules.

"(Wal-Mart) has been good about letting me go early if I have a group project or something," said Caldwell, who typically works 24 to 32 hours a week. "I don't plan on staying at Wal-Mart (after graduation), but for a student job, I don't think you'll find a better one in Cache Valley without training."

But while Caldwell plans on shedding his blue vest at some point, others make careers at Wal-Mart. In a letter to the editor published in the Herald Journal on Sept. 7, Utah State alumna Danell Mortensen said she "chose to stay with Wal-Mart for the benefits, pay and the flexibilty."

Part-time employees are eligible for health insurance after two years, and pay raises are given at regular intervals, Caldwell said.

Dave Wind, Amnesty International's Utah coordinator and an active critic of the proposed Wal-Mart, said Wal-Mart's corporate policies raise ethical concerns. Wal-Mart's low prices are made possible in part because low-wage workers produce some of its goods in foreign factories, Wind said.

"I've spoken with some of the workers in China (and) they tell me (the working conditions are) horrendous. They're almost like gulags," said Wind, who is also the author of an anti-Wal-Mart Web site, http://www.stoploganwalmart.com. "I don't think Wal-Mart is interested in torturing people, but they are interested in low prices, and they'll do almost anything to get them."

Human rights issues aside, a new Wal-Mart could be a shot in the arm for Cache Valley's student economy, said USU Professor of Economics H. Craig Petersen.

"It's clearly beneficial for students. It provides a source of consumer goods at a lower price, and it provides jobs that accommodate student schedules," Petersen said.

Petersen added that Wal-Mart's retail dominance doesn't constitute a monopoly, since everything that Wal-Mart supplies can be purchased elsewhere. If consumers don't want a Wal-Mart, then they shouldn't shop there, he said.

Price said students who patronize Wal-Mart are compromising their long-term job security, just to save a few bucks in college.

"Your chance of having a professional job in the U.S. will be a lot harder if Wal-Mart keeps growing," Price said. "We have to take the big-picture view. For every job Wal-Mart brings, 1.6 jobs are lost nationwide."

But USU Professor of Economics Chris Fawson said that actively lobbying against businesses such as Wal-Mart is a slippery slope.

"You get in the situation where the community determines what we can and cannot buy," Fawson said. "In terms of economics, I don't see how Wal-Mart's presence (in the community) could generate a net loss, as long as there's no under-the-table subsidy."

A study sponsored by subsidy watchdog Good Jobs First reported in May 2004 that Wal-Mart and its distributors have received about $1 billion in state and local subsidies, usually in the form of tax-increment financing, subsidized land, income tax credits and property tax breaks.

The Sept. 8 protest is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. near U.S. 89 and 1200 South in south Logan and end at the Logan city building, where the Logan Planning Commission will be hearing architectural plans for the proposed store.

MS
MS