Yes I do shop at Wal-Mart

[Undertoad]

The other stores are gone anyway, and often they sucked harder than Walmart does. The best way is to shop at Costco where they avoid unions the right way: by paying their employees better than almost any other retailers, including great health coverage.

[richlevy]

What I resent is the givebacks and incentives that local politcians give to Wal-Mart. For a supposedly free market economy, these stores seem to negotiate some sweetheart deals.

If it makes economic sense to open a Wal-Mart somewhere, just do it. Be prepared to pay the taxes it will take to support the fire department as well as the police department that will have to respond to two or three calls every day for traffic, shoplifting, vandalism, etc.

It's not because I hate Wal-Mart, but because I don't want my elected official to be dumb enough to sign me up for a bad deal by giving tax breaks that would not have been given to the ten smaller stores that could have gone into the same space in exchange for low-paying jobs which might not be even filled by local taxpayers and increased traffic and demand on fire and police.