Monday, November 9, 2009

Well here's an account on the Wal-Mart forum

Via Examiner.com. And I did see this guy up front during the portion of the townhall on Saturday for questions and comments. Mr. Theodore Seals outright condemned Wal-Mart for not showing up at the townhall. While I may not use his strong language on this issue Wal-Mart and the PR people did make a mistake by not taking some time to come into the community to make their case.

For right now let's excerpt some of Mr. Seals thoughts from that afternoon:
The usually cordial, but occasionally stormy forum, held at St. James Lutheran Church, 8000 S. Michigan, also heard from  Rev. Booker Vance, from the Good Jobs Chicago coalition, and from Elce Redmond, from the South Austin Coalition, on the West Side, home of the only Walmart store currently within the city limits, as well as numerous comments from attendees in a forum best charcterized as split almost evenly between people sympathetic to Walmart, people hostile to it, and those on the fence.


   For those who want the Walmart store the case for Walmart is summed in one word:  jobs, some 400 to 500 of them.  For those against the store, the case against Walmart is summed up in one question:  at what price?
...
Ald. Brookins, speaking almost four times as long, because he was the only clear-cut Walmart supporter among the main speakers, spoke passionately of the economic desperation of his ward, aggravated by what he called "racist thinking" on the part of other major retailers he's tried to entice onto the open site at W. 83rd and Stewart.  He accused Whole Foods Market of refusing to come onto the South Side because it thinks, he claims, South Siders are not educated or sophisticated enough to appreciate its health conscious, organically grown products.  He accused Costco of simply refusing to even consider expanding to a South Side location.  He said Target refused to consider the site because it already has a store in its Chatham mall, between E. 85th and E. 87th. Sts., in Ald. Lyle's ward.
That portion in bold, heh, I definitely wasn't the only one who heard that. :P

Seals even noted that he was one of two who condemn Wal-Mart for failing to attend this townhall.

Still I want to write my own report and assuming Seals is a resident of Chatham, I think his blog, The Tedzone, should be added to the neighborhood blogroll.

BTW, read the whole accounting that quotes both Ald. Brookins and Ald. Lyle. Also refer to the listed reasons to support or to not support bring Wal-Mart into Chatham.

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