Wal-Mart has hired a company to call everyone in south Austin to ask them two questions about Wal-Mart:

1) Do you shop at Wal-Mart ?

2) Would you like to shop at a Wal-Mart Supercenter close by ?


If you answer ''No'' to the first question, they don't want to hear any more from you.

If you answer yes to both questions, they will ask for your name and address.

Apparently they don't feel that this is Tele-Marketing, else they would have respected your NO CALL request.

This is NOT a market survey. They are creating a network of prefered customers - finding out where their ''friends'' are and they will target those households for store promotions, advertising, and perhaps even direct marketing. This is just how they operate. After the store is open, they will not advertise in the local paper any longer, although they may buy tons of advertisting at first. They save money by not paying for advertising.

Once you get on their list, however, they may ask you to come and help cheer for new Wal-Mart issues at the City and County, planning commission, and future Town Hall meetings.

They are persistient as well as obnoxtious. They have heard from the community and they say they don't care - but their home office is growing concerned.

Wal-Mart has blocked certain email, ignored most of the letters sent by US Mail, and as you may have noticed, they have funded a very large and loud ''Pro Wal-Mart'' TV add barage. Look for them to encouraging their employees to volunteer services around town and if you have a charitable cause, this is the right time to ask Wal-Mart for a sizeable donation. Apparently, they have money to burn !

I guess it's a good thing that none of us have local business. None of the Oak Hill businesses that I freqent seem to be concerned, either, but their Business Association has invited a Wal-Mart rep and a person from OHAN to speak at their next meeting.


Oh, one more thing, there is a new more comprehensive Austin web site:

http://SaveAustin.com

We ALL Ought to be concerned..


I talk to business owners all over Texas (unrelated to Wal-Mart) and one thing I can say is that EVERY one I have mentioned the Wal-Mart issue to say the same thing...

As soon as Wal-Mart came into town, ALL the small business closed up.

Matter of fact I just spoke to a business owner in Georgetown who has the misfortune of being across the street from a big box store coming in. Not only have they already taken her parking lot (emanate domain) to widen the street, but she is afraid she'll loose everything because they will shop at this chain box store to save a buck. The elders in Georgetown (she referred them to the good old boys) told her ?“just think about how much your land is now worth?”. Of course her land is worth more, but she will also be unemployed & going to work for a big box retailer to support her family on minimum wage. Read the article in The Austin Am. Statesman, at the end of it the lady mentions how her husband lost his job @ Dell and they only shop Wal-Mart to save money. Wal-Mart is NOT always the low cost leader. Compare it to HEB, Target or another retailer and you will find there are other options and many times better prices. And if people really buy into the hype that we will bring in MORE tax revenue better think again. We will just pull it from another town or another store. It will somehow effect us all, city to city crossing these invisible lines it pulls down everything in its path. Look at the wonderful jobs that were created by the strip mall (that used to be a forest) on Brodie Lane & Slaughter, most of the restaurants are fast food, and other stores are also low paying jobs. Across the street is another forest to become a strip mall to continue to homogenize Austin. Regarding the business owners in Oak Hill, Wal-Marts sells eyeglasses too! They will be out of business. Of course the ACE Hardware will also suffer when the Loews Home Improvement moves in next to Home Depot. Austin is loosing its character and starting to be homogenized just like every other town in America. I travel, and I see it. Every mall has the same retailers. Is this really what people want? Maybe it is. Maybe we all are like the Serta sheep! What a shame that we are allowing these corporations to dictate so much in our lives. These jobs created by these ?“chain?” stores certainly won't pay the mortgages on most of the homes in South Austin!