Sen. Patty Murray's Shocking Discovery - Capitalism!

"With regard for nothing but their own profits, some traders are bidding up oil prices by buying huge quantities of oil just to resell at an even higher price.

You see, these traders never plan on actually using the oil they buy. They just keep buying it to inflate the price so that they can make more and more money when they turn around and sell it. The problem is, families like yours and mine are stuck paying the bill." ~ Washington State Senator and tennis shoe wearing mom, Patty Murray on today's Democrat Radio Address.

Has the woman never even ran a lemonade stand when she was a kid? Is she so out of touch with reality that she thinks retail stores exist on thin air and good intentions? Has she never heard of Wall Street, or the phrase "buy low, sell high?" How can anyone be so ignorant of the American free-enterprise system and be elected to one of the highest offices in the land? Or perhaps she's not as much ignorant to American capitalism as she is hostile to the idea.

"Moscow officials plan to push water deal for Hawkins"

This is good news, and expected. From what I know about the pro-growth Moscow City Council members, they believe in free enterprise and are stand-up guys. Some of them even read Palousitics regularly.

Here's hoping the Hawkins water issue gets resolved quickly.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

MOSCOW - A majority of city councilors here want to keep a proposed interstate water deal with Hawkins Company on a fast track, two councilors said Tuesday.

"We're operating under good-faith here," Councilor Dan Carscallen said. "By gosh, if we're going to do it, let's do it."

Councilor Walter Steed agreed. "Ever since we took office in January, when the Hawkins project was put on our plate on day one, we have been pushing to try and provide water to the Hawkins state line project."

Hawkins wants to build a 714,000-square-foot shopping center just over the border into Washington's Whitman County. Hawkins spokesman Jeff De Voe has said his company will either drill for its own water, or tap into Moscow's waterline that butts up against the 204-acre development site.

Carscallen and Steed responded to criticism Monday by Whitman County Commissioner Jerry Finch, who said Moscow city government caused at least a two-year delay in construction by raising questions about and filing appeals over groundwater concerns.

"The previous council is the reason for that," Carscallen said. "The people had to unelect that bunch and get a new one in to make something happen."

In addition to Carscallen and Steed, Councilors Bill Lambert, John Weber and Wayne Krauss have endorsed providing water to the Hawkins development. Only Mayor Nancy Chaney and Councilor Tom Lamar have voiced opposition.

Despite the support, no deal appears imminent - unless Carscallen and Steed get their way. They said they favor meeting immediately with Finch and fellow Whitman County commissioners Greg Partch and Michael Largent to reach an agreement.

Steed questioned whether the current delay has anything to do with water. "I don't see how water, at this point, could be a hold-up. Because they've got both us working on selling them water, and I understand they have bid contracts to drill wells, which is their backup source."

Finch said De Voe told him last week well-drilling equipment would be on-site this week and drilling could start within the next two weeks.

The shopping center, with a Lowe's home improvement center as one of its anchors, has been touted by Whitman County officials as a boon to the local economy and the beginning of much needed retail development in the Moscow-Pullman corridor. Critics say, in addition to possibly draining the groundwater supply, the development represents the beginning of unnecessary retail sprawl.

"This council has not tried to second-guess developers," Steed said, especially across the border in Washington.

At this point, it appears officials at the Idaho Department of Water Resources are demanding Moscow and Whitman County establish a joint-powers agreement for water to be supplied across the state line to Hawkins.

A draft of the proposed joint-powers agreement has been forwarded to the Whitman
County commissioners and Finch said it's being reviewed.

Wal-Mart: What's Next? Part Two

This is Part Two of a series of articles that will explore what happens when a Wal-Mart Supercenter comes to town.

After a Wal-Mart Supercenter opens in Pullman, what will happen to other neighborhood businesses? There is plenty of evidence from all over the country. This from the June 23 Washington Post :

Wal-Mart opened its store in Landover Hills -- the first inside the Beltway -- in a storm of controversy last year bred in part by its reputation for running small businesses like Ramdass's out of the rural towns and suburbs that for decades were the retailer's breeding ground. There was concern that the so-called Wal-Mart effect would be replicated, if not magnified, once it moved into more urban areas, such as Landover Hills.

No comprehensive study has been done on Wal-Mart's impact on this stretch of Annapolis Road, the heart of this redeveloping neighborhood. But local proprietors and community leaders say the fears have not panned out. Some say the dour economy is a bigger threat than Wal-Mart. Other store owners credit Wal-Mart for boosting their sales, through both its proximity and community outreach programs.

Despite much union-inspired fear-mongering to the contrary, existing local businesses routinely manage to maintain their status quo antebellum or even increase their sales when Wal-Mart comes to town.

A study conducted by two Economics professors at West Virginia University, Russell S. Sobel and Andrea M. Dean, titled "Has Wal-Mart Buried Mom and Pop?: The Impact of Wal-Mart on Self Employment and Small Establishments in the United States" concluded:

...that the process of creative destruction unleashed by Wal-Mart has had no statistically significant long-run impact on the overall size and profitability of the small business sector in the United States.

As Landover pharamcist Anthony Ramdass states in the Post article,"Wal-Mart was just the big gorilla coming into the community. I think it's perception more than reality."

That statement sums up the intellectual bankruptcy and futility of the anti-Wal-Mart movement.

Monday: The first of several case studies from around Washington state

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More Fun With The Hit Counter

Looks like the good folks at Shopko corporate headquarters in Green Bay, WI, now know for sure that they will no longer have the only big-box store in Pullman.

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Hawkins 3-Fer, Part Three

As the Hawkins Stateline Retail Center gets closer to reality and a Revenue Development Area is created on the Washington side of the border, Moscow is not sitting idly by.

Brushing aside Queen Nancy's "Peace Through Sustainability" policy, the new Moscow City Council has now approved the Thompson rezone that was the point of such controversy two years ago when Wal-Mart wanted to build there.

Expect an announcement soon that Wal-Mart or another big-box store will be locating on the 41 acre property.

Instead of socialist meddling, now we have good old fashioned capitalist competition, the way it was meant to be. All we ever wanted was a level playing field

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Council OKs rezone of Thompson property; Land made controversial during 2006 rezone request now available for motor business use

A large chunk of farmland in southeast Moscow is now ready for business after a rezone request was approved by the City Council on Monday.

The Thompson Family Limited Partnership owns the 41.4-acre plot just south of the Troy Highway across from Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery previously zoned for agriculture/forestry uses. The land is now zoned for motor business, meaning it will be available for retail, professional and medical businesses, as well as bars, restaurants and other businesses.

The Thompsons attempted to have a larger parcel of the property rezoned in 2006. The controversial request stemmed from Wal-Mart's plans to build a super center on the 77-acre parcel and met resistance from the Moscow No Super Wal-Mart group.

The City Council at the time decided to reject the rezone.

Monday's approval came with two conditions: any future developer must provide a traffic impact study and make any needed traffic improvements or changes to accommodate drivers, and developers must preserve the natural area between the property and nearby Paradise Path.

No businesses are set to build on the property yet, but Susan Wilson, an attorney representing the Thompson family, said it is an attractive piece of land for retail and motor businesses.

"It seemed pertinent to give businesses some incentive to move in," Wilson said of the approval.

She said the plot is adjacent to two major arterials and near many other retail businesses, making it conducive to commercial use.

All but one City Council member voted in favor of the rezoning. Tom Lamar voted against it after expressing concerns about the city spreading its interests in too many places at once. The city's lack of direction could stunt further commercial growth, he said.

"I think we're all interested in seeing growth and development in Moscow," Lamar said. "We need to concentrate on one area."

Lamar also raised questions about public buildings like schools possibly constructing on the Thompson site. The new zoning makes it more difficult for schools to build on the property than businesses, he said.

Lamar said the timing isn't right for the city.

"This may be a great area to build on in the future," he said, adding there already are many scattered motor business zones in town that have remained vacant for years.

Other council members ultimately decided the family can do what it wants with the land. Councilman John Weber said the Thompsons are responsible developers in Moscow.

Wilson agreed, saying the family has contributed to the community over the years.

"The Thompson family is doing this because they truly believe the community needs to have something to offer," she said.

Say What?

Regarding Moscow's experience with Wal-Mart [Pullman Mayor Glenn] Johnson says, "everybody else has co-existed over there." Oh really? K-Mart didn't last long. The Emporium moved into the space that Penny's created when they left and now the Emporium is gone, leaving a major hole in the Palouse Mall (along with other mall vacancies) Winco took K-Mart's space but that did in Tidyman's. Many downtown businesses such as Myklebusts and Ken's Stationery have closed.

- Tri-State owner Gerard Connelly, "HIS VIEW: Mayor's reaction to Wal-Mart naive," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, December 16, 2004

Connelly said sales at the Tri-State in Moscow jumped 43 percent the first year Wal-Mart built its store.

- David Cole, "Experts offer Wal-Mart survival tips; When Clarkston gets a super center, other retailers may need to re-evaluate their methods," Lewiston Tribune, May 6, 2008

Gerard "The Man of a Thousand Faces" Connelly's position on Wal-Mart seems to change with regard to both the audience to whom he is speaking and the proximity of one of his stores to Wal-Mart. It does make for entertaining reading.

I'm wondering, however, why Clarkston needed a forum on Wal-Mart. There's already a Wal-Mart in the L-C Valley, as well as big boxes Costco, Home Depot, K-Mart and ShopKo and mini-box "category killers" Pier One Imports, Famous Footwear, Petco, Eddie Bauer, and Ross.

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"Hawkins planning to break ground; Company to begin work on development as soon as land dries out"

When that first shovel of dirt is turned at the Hawkins development, things will change on the Palouse forever. We will finally break the iron grip of the anti-growthniks.

Hawkins represents all that they despise: "sprawl," big boxes, chain stores, automobile-based development, crass consumerism, and most of all, capitalism and free enterprise. But the leftists in both Pullman and Moscow were infected with Wal-Mart Derangement Syndrome and Hawkins slipped in under the radar. Queen Nancy's single-handed efforts to stop Hawkins were easily undone by a single election.

Now, a shopping devleopment three times the size of a Wal-Mart Supercenter is going in and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. What a great feeling! I only hope I can be there for the groundbreaking.

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Hawkins Companies officials expect to begin moving dirt for its 714,000-square-foot retail development just west of the Idaho border by the start of summer.

"The target is June 1, but if the land dries out it will be before that," company spokesman Jeff DeVoe said. "We've got two years of moving dirt ahead, so we've got to get moving."

A ground-breaking ceremony will take place once construction equipment has arrived on site, but an exact date has not been set, DeVoe said.

Several national retail chains have expressed interest in locating at the shopping center, even in the face of a struggling national economy. However, only one tenant - Lowe's - has formally committed to date.

DeVoe said the company expects the Lowe's store to be open in late summer or early fall 2009.

DeVoe said Hawkins doesn't anticipate any issues arising that could derail the project, considering water has been secured and a deal has been reached with Whitman County to finance public infrastructure for the development.

"At this point I don't think so," DeVoe said. "We are sitting ready to go."

Whitman County Commissioner Michael Largent expressed appreciation for Hawkins and its commitment to locating in the county.

"I am very pleased. This is a culmination of a long process," Largent said. "The Hawkins group and Jeff DeVoe worked very hard to bring this project ahead.

"We are very happy to see the project proceeding."

The county will benefit directly from the development in the form of increased sales and property taxes, and indirectly from other developers planning to follow in Hawkins' footsteps. Largent said Moscow business owner Travis Wambeke - who plans to develop a 15-acre business park on Airport Road - indicated his decision to locate in the Moscow-Pullman corridor was influenced by Hawkins.

"I don't think Hawkins is the end of the story," Largent said. "We are excited about the economic development and other opportunities this will bring."

"Competition from Wal-Mart lowers prices at local retailers"

This is another story about one of those "no-duh" studies. University of Massachusetts researchers have found that Wal-Mart supercenters affect the prices of conventional supermarkets located within a five-mile radius, resulting in lower prices for consumer goods.

And of all places, I found this story at the Wal-Mart Watch website! According to the UMass Daily Collegian:

Lavoie said that from the results, she could conclude that "families that shop exclusively at supermarkets within five miles of a Supercenter can expect to save between $37 and $104 per person each year, since Wal-Mart will cause these stores to lower their prices."

Families that shop exclusively at Supercenters "can save $88 to $223 per person," Lavoie said.

For towns and cities that do not have a Supercenter nearby, the supermarket prices did not lower in response to the competition. Shoppers who are willing to travel away from these towns and cities to Supercenters can expect to save from $186 to $298 per person each year.

Plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the UMass campus recently fell through. So, insert brainwashed co-ed comment here:

"I try my hardest to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart and giving them business, because I know now how evil of a company it is and I do not want to support that."

Obviously the writers of the Collegian are not like the writers at the Watermelon, as they conclude:

Although it is a fact that some students would rather support local businesses that shop at big chains, it is also a fact that individuals and families can save money if they shop at Wal-Mart.

Refreshing. Thanks Wal-Mart Watch!Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

We're On a Mission From God

This has certainly been the week for leftist hilarity, from Lois Blackburn's chum bucket to Janet Richards' four and twenty blackbirds.

Now it seems one of the local hippies has been communing with the Almighty. Was it a warning to turn away from a a life of sin and disbelief? No, it seems the Lord doesn't like shopping malls.

From the Vision 2020 message board:

If God is an omnipotent, all knowing and all good being, God does not have a problem. Only limited beings that lack the capability to comprehend such infinite capacities have a "problem." Having said that, the problem of evil, or suffering, in a universe created by "God," as it has been parsed in the history of theology and philosophy, is a subject that it is difficult to say anything new about.

There are far more opportunities to say something new about environmental sustainability, alternative energy, the problem of CO2/fossil fuel induced climate change, and the connections to these problems with the USA's out of control consumer culture, now to hit the Palouse with an inspiration to attain even higher levels of wanton consumption, with the Hawkins Mall. If someone has something new to say about the problem of suffering, or the problem of evil, given certain assumptions about a creator "God," theologically speaking, please, enlighten us.

Otherwise, perhaps we should focus on the critical problems of how humanity is to make peace with Nature, before we slide off the cliff of species extinction, ecosystem collapse, and resource depletion, as the human population keeps expanding, as we worship at the alter of materialistic consumption as the primary goal of the human race, as anthropogenic climate change portends to remake our planet into a world unrecognizable to the current generation.

The Hawkins Mall is a local focal point for these critical problems the human race is facing. And to deny this is to deny the reality of the impacts materialistic consumerism is having on the very fabric of life on our planet.

Hey, what do I know? I just read the latest science on environmental consequences of human activity and industry, and connect the dots to what we are doing here to the impacts globally. We are all a "wholly owned subsidiary" of the Earth as a living system.

I'll be long gone when we have reaped what we sow... In the meantime, yes, I am a beneficiary of the capitalist consumer culture, so to some extent, I am criticizing the hand that feeds me...

Ted Moffett

"The Hawkins Mall is a local focal point for these critical problems the human race is facing?" BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

My Response to Roger Whitten

Roger Whitten of Oakesdale has had a letter to the editor critical of the Hakwins project printed in both the Whitman County Gazette and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. Here is my response that will run in the Gazette next week:

In a letter published in the Gazette last week, Roger Whitten argued that what we need is locally owned stores versus corporate owned big box stores.

The truth is that there is plenty of room for both here in Whitman County.

Because of the entrepreneurial American spirit, small business is the backbone of our economy. In fact, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse first started out as a mom-and-pop hardware store back in 1921 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Through hard work and ambition, there is now at least one Lowe’s in every state in the union.

But since the advent of national retailers such as A&P and Woolworth’s, the American consumer has turned to shopping at chain stores. And why not? Chains are familiar, a big plus in our highly mobile modern society, offer more bang for the buck to working families, and particularly in rural areas, provide a much larger range of shopping choices than would normally be available. They also help the communities in which they locate by bringing in jobs and increased tax revenue and help local retailers by bringing in customers from a wide geographic area.

If shoppers can’t get what they want here, they’ll go elsewhere. And that’s exactly what has happened. An economist at the University of Idaho found that in 2004, Whitman County, including Pullman, had a net loss of $158.4 million in taxable retail sales to neighboring communities with more chain stores such as Moscow, Clarkston, Lewiston, and Spokane. As far as any “decrease in sales tax revenue from the existing locally owned stores,” our severe lack of retail is the real culprit.

Whitten stated that, “Money spent in a corporate owned big box store leaves the county.” But that’s not true at all. Money is fungible. That means that regardless of whether it originates in a locally owned store or a corporate owned store, all money is the same. A dollar spent in a local store that goes towards sales taxes, property taxes, employee salaries and benefits, charitable donations, etc., is no more valuable than a dollar spent in a chain store.

Will the Hawkins development “suck money out of the county” as Whitten claims? Will there be “no net gain in sales tax revenue?” The answer is a resounding “NO!” According to the Department of Revenue, Whitman County, excluding Pullman, generated $30,774,961 in taxable retail sales in 2006. Estimates for the Hawkins mall, at a mere 40% build out, come in at $123,823,621 in annual taxable retail sales. That’s right. One shopping development will generate FOUR times the existing retail sales of all of rural Whitman County! That means four times as much sales tax revenue for the county (approximately $1.3 million a year). And more development near Hawkins can be expected to follow. Even though Mr. Whitten is not going to “go into debt to help large corporations,” $10 million for such a return is a slam-dunk calculation in any economic equation.

Some have questioned why the County Commissioners are placing so much emphasis (and county funds) into the area around Pullman. The answer is simple. If you only have a limited amount to invest in a stock, you’re going to pick the company that is growing the most and can give you the biggest return. Forecasts for area growth have the City of Pullman increasing its population by 24.49% between 2006 and 2025. Whitman County is only expected to grow by 9.37% during the same period. However, the sales taxes generated by development in the Pullman/Moscow corridor will be used not just in Pullman, but all over the county; from Hooper to Palouse, and from Rosalia to Uniontown.

For these reasons, we should all support the bold actions taken by our County Commissioners to stimulate economic growth. For their role in delivering the Hawkins project alone, Commissioner Jerry Finch and Commissioner Greg Partch deserve another term and have my vote.

Here is Whitten's letter:

In regard to the Hawkins shopping mall development, I wonder if the Whitman County commissioners are factoring in the decrease in sales tax revenue from the existing locally owned stores. For if a person buys a stick of lumber at a Lowe's Home Improvement store instead of buying lumber from an existing locally owned store, there is no net gain in sales tax revenue.

In fact, it would be an economic loss to the county because money that stays local recirculates locally. Money spent in a corporate-owned big-box store leaves the county.

It is the small Mom and Pop type of businesses that bring money into the county and keeps it here. The large corporate stores suck money out of the county.

If they follow the zoning codes, Hawkins has every right to build a shopping mall on its property. I, however, am not willing to go into debt to help large corporations take money out of the local economy. The county commissioner's decision to give Hawkins $10 million for the development of their own land is a miscalculation in the overall economic equation.