In any case, the fish tanks were "sloshing" due to the shaking of the quake. I watched for a few seconds and than asked my wife if she thought the fish would get sea sick from heavy motion in the tanks? She just roared, it really hit her funny bone. So got some humor while appearing stupid on my part. Humor can many times be free and bring a smile/ laughter to another. Try it- it works.
Wal-Mart: It Came, It Conquered, Now It's Packing Up and Leaving
Shannon Pettypiece spettypi January 25, 2016 — 5:00 AM EST
The Town’n Country grocery in Oriental, North Carolina, a local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors in October after a Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three months later -- and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived -- the retail giant is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery store and no pharmacy.
Though mom-and-pop stores have steadily disappeared across the American landscape over the past three decades as the mega chain methodically expanded, there was at least always a Wal-Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts are disappearing, too.
“I was devastated when I found out. We had a pharmacy and a perfectly satisfactory grocery store. Maybe Wal-Mart sold apples for a nickel less,” said Barb Venturi, mayor pro tem for Oriental, with a population of about 900. “If you take into account what no longer having a grocery store does to property values here, it is a significant impact for us.”
Oriental is hardly alone. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Jan. 15 it would be closing all 102 of its smaller Express stores, many in isolated towns, to focus on its supercenters and mid-sized Neighborhood Markets. The move, which will begin by the end of the month, was a relatively quick about-face. As recently as 2014, Wal-Mart was touting the solid performance of its smaller stores and announced plans to open an additional 90.
That’s a big problem for small towns, often with proportionately large elderly populations. For the older folks of Oriental -- a retirement and summer vacation town along the inter-coastal waterway -- the next-nearest grocery and pharmacy is a 50-minute round-trip drive.
Wal-Mart says it is sensitive to the dislocations its business decisions are causing.
“In towns impacted by store closures, we have had hundreds of conversations with elected officials and community leaders to discuss relevant issues and we are working with communities on how we can be helpful,” said Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick
Wal-Mart has been under increasing pressure lately as sales in the U.S. have failed to keep up with rising labor costs. It’s also been spending more on its Web operations. In October, the company announced that profit this year would be down as much as 12 percent. The outlook contributed to a share decline of 29 percent during the past 12 months.
“It is more important now than ever to review our portfolio and close the stores and clubs that should be closed,” Wal-Mart’s Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said in a statement on the company’s website.
Shuttered Stores
Towns like Clearwater, Kansas, and Merkel, Texas, are among those hit by Wal-Mart closures. In Godley, Texas, with a population of roughly 1,000, Wal-Mart opened a small store just a year ago. Within months, the only other grocery store in town -- Brookshire Brothers, part of an employee-owned regional chain -- shut its doors. Now with Wal-Mart gone, the closest full-service grocery store is about a 20-minute drive away.
In some cases, closed businesses may reopen now that Wal-Mart has left. In Merkel, the Lawrence Brothers grocery store, which closed two months ago, is planning to reopen now that Wal-Mart is packing up, said Jay Lawrence, head of the regional chain in Texas and New Mexico.
Residents of Oriental, where some city officials originally tried to block Wal-Mart from opening, are hoping for a similar outcome now that the megastore is gone. But for the moment the damage has been done, they say.
Renee Ireland Smith, who ran Town’n Country, said the store immediately saw sales fall by 30 percent once Wal-Mart opened in May 2014. Whenever her store cut prices, Wal-Mart would reduce its prices even more. Smith’s mother, who owned the store, invested $100,000 in savings into the doomed effort. But by October, the family decided to cut its losses and close the business.
“They ruined our lives,” said Smith of Wal-Mart. “They came in here with their experiment and ruined us.”
Way back when the late Sam Walton was alive and running the show, Walmart was a "Buy in the U.S.A.), company guy. Believed in this country while pushing a new type of shopping concept. Yes, some of the smaller mom and pop's got hurt and hurt bad. But once Mr. Walton passed some years back, the business model changed to a questionable aggressive take no prisoners behavior? Small stores as noted above fell by the wayside by the 10s of thousands if not more. There was no way they could compete on price/ selection versus old town customer service. Many times it has been said Sam must be rolling in his grave at how the store chain changed? Uncountable jobs allegedly lost to overseas sourcing as the price was all that mattered?
Now this appears to have come home to roost and the latest experiment has fallen by the wayside? I don't know about you and will not try to speak for you; but pricing is not as good as some years back? The costs up and quality from overseas has been falling for years and the must raise wages syndrome in the U.S appears is costing them dearly? Are there other chains like the Dollar Store, Target, Kroeger that might come back into those small towns and many others that were all but questionably raped and pillaged for every possible sales dollar? I hope so, no small town should have to drive almost an hour for a gallon of milk or to fill a prescription. We are a good and great Country in many ways. The survival of our smaller towns should be kept as much as possible. I am NOT blaming all the woes of small towns on the Walmart Chain; many businesses were shut down and moved offshore. Some possibly to the very aggressive purchasing policies of Walmart? But many plants/ factories shut down because of our economic policies that encouraged the U.S to being non-competitive.
Gotta say, I finally got my Sunday Paper and even my Saturday one. I noted earlier the unbelievably excellent customer service on Sunday morning when I called the paper. When the lad said no papers were delivered Saturday, I asked if when the guy did my Sunday, could I get the Saturday too?. He said he would ask the delivery person (regular or special at that point I did not know to give me a Saturday one). Again, I got both; this paper CAN be a credit to the Community IF it wants to be? Such a far cry from the arrogance and hard headedness of the Editorial side.
I am going back to comment on Ms. Myers 17 January "Their Opinion" column. In it, she was commenting on Ms. Haley, Governor of South Carolina who in her comments versus Mr. Obama's "State of the Union" speech took a swipe or so at Mr. Trump. He is as most of you know the favorite villain of the both the Democrats and the Elite Republican establishment.
Now, one can lump the local media(TV and the paper), in the above sentence as either a Democrat (Progressive Liberal), or a Tea Party advocate (Elite Republican establishment)? I would guess if you put one or more of each in a room; turned off the lights, you could not tell the difference? Both may grumble openly, but are joined at the hip in any case. It is about control over the people, not to help the people. Better dumb than fed/ clothed/ sheltered with living wage jobs. One is NOT going to see any Halos (Mr. Rapp) or burning pitchforks in that darkened room. Probably just hugging and kissing if the Truth were to come out?
Bringing this closer to home, Ms. Meyer commented "But it would be a terrible thing if we tried to erase those differences, if we decided extreme voices must be silenced. (Disregarded once we have heard them, maybe, but not silenced)".
Now this is where Ms. Meyer went off the rails as usual. See, her comments are two fold:
1. (Disregarded once we have heard them, maybe, but not silenced)". This is an absolute falsehood by her as a representative of the so called paper. Her personal opinion, I have no problem with due to a former U.S. Amendment in Vienna that has also been done away with: The First Amendment, commonly knows as "Freedom of Speech".
2. As an "Official" voice for the paper, it becomes highly likely that the paper DOES silence "extreme voices"? In the MOV, I am an EXTREME VOICE. My constant going after the very questionable and sometimes illegal behavior of the City/ Mr. Rapp is not to be tolerated by the Establishment on either side of the aisle? Why am I so extreme?
a. It is not acceptable in holding the Taxpayers of Vienna upside down in the air so high their noses bleed from the height as their pockets are picked clean with every possible Tax the City could do in the last 12 years as a minimum?
b. It is not acceptable in spending every possible Tax Dollar because they are there to be spent. As I have noted time after time, the City will Budget INTO every possible dollar it expects to receive. I have watched this year after year for the past 8 years. This while doing so little as a whole for the City Residents/ Taxpayers
c. It is NOT acceptable to eliminate the First Amendment as the City has practiced. Sure IF one is a "fair haired one", that can get permission to speak at a City Council meeting. No matter if a "Special" one where no one except the Council is supposed to speak; or a regular one where by prior asking, one can so speak.
d. it is NOT acceptable to ignore or rewrite Laws to meet the special agenda of anyone in the City Government to avoid complying with any Federal/ State Law.
Hopefully, some of you have heard of the First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act Law (FOIA)?
For the above, I am an "EXTREME VOICE" and am fully silenced THEY think.
As long as I am able and YOU folks are willing to read my blog, I am going to go after not just the lack of Morals, Ethics and Integrity in the City of Vienna Government; I am going to point out those items that go against Federal/ State Law. That is why there are now two (2) Civil Suits in Wood County Circuit Court against Mr. Rapp and the City for violations of the FOIA Law.
Have to ask but that if a filed Candidate for office (be if Federal, State, County or City) is writing letters to the paper or getting some coverage on the TV for his supposed accomplishments; is that unfair or illegal to other Candidates by not giving them equal time? Both of these without noting in The letter to the Editor or on TV that they are running for office? Must point out, both are "fair haired boys".
So yet again, I ask that you read, think and comment to your friends, neighbors and family on my blogs. I don't care if you agree or disagree. This is your right and all I ask is you protect YOUR rights.
And equally important YOUR hard earned dollars. ' nuff said.