Thursday, August 13, 2009

Prominent voices for Wal-Mart

Two local business owners who just so happen to be members of our local chamber of commerce, Chatham Business Association, discuss the Wal-Mart issue last month at the Farmer's Market at the Chatham Market Shopping Center in videos from the Wal-Mart Chicago Website.

Two vids should be your focus for this post, Traffic and Politics.
Joseph Caldwell is the owner of Tailo-Rite dry cleaners and is a board member at Seaway Bank. He was in both of the videos that you can see over at Wal-Mart's Chicago Community Action Network website. In the Politics video, he refused to address the political aspects of this issue. In the Traffic, vid he spoke as a businessman,discussing some positives he could find in the issue of a potential increase in traffic.

So it could be the thorn in the side for those who are concerned about Wal-Mart coming in (the theory that Wal-Mart puts small businesses out of business). Perhaps his comments prove that bringing in a Wal-Mart could be more of a benefit than a detriment. Especially if local business people are able to adjust to the new environment.
William Garth owns The Citizen newspaper group. He also talks in the Traffic vid about the traffic that could result from a Wal-Mart. Most of what he said isn't much different than what was said in those arguments in support of a Chatham Wal-Mart such as people won't have to leave the neighborhood to visit another Wal-Mart.
Cliff Kelly is a radio host at WVON-AM. He mentioned explicitly in the Politics vid, that it was wrong to not allow Wal-Mart into Chatham, but force everyone on the south side to go just across Chicago's city limits to visit the Wal-Mart in Evergreen Park on 95th & Western.

What do you think about the comments made by these gentlemen?

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