Vermont and WalMart (Again)

I've posted here before about the National Historic Trust's placing of the entire state of Vermont on its endangered list because of plans by WalMart to open seven (7) superstores here in the supposedly near future.

Art Woolf, a UVM professor, has an op-ed piece in The Times today sneering at concerns on the part of many of us here about the WalMart invasion. I authored a rather pointed reply in a letter to The Times editor (I doubt they'll publish it) in response.

But here are some stats I dug up. Do you know that the average income for a WalMart clerk is a whopping $14,000 a year? Or that studies show that for every just-over minimum wage job created by WalMart in a community, three (3) livable wage jobs are lost? Livable wage probably means 2-3 times what WalMart pays for that one job, too. Or that states often have to pick up the burden of providing health care to at least the children of WalMart employees? In Georgia, WalMart kids account for the largest population on their children welfare list?

I've been in a WalMart store anywhere all of once in my lifetime. I do not expect to ever shop there again. I'm hardly an elitist. While I've made very good money in my career, right now I'm scraping. But so are lots of my friends and neighbors here in Vermont. And we still choose not to shop at WalMart, even when in this region, WalMart's only general merchandise competitor went out of business nearly two years ago.