Dear editor,
I just read your opinion piece on the new Costco in Nisku. Let me start out by first saying I agree with most of what you have written.
As a person whose family owned a business in Wetaskiwin for 53 years I certainly agree that these types of businesses make it much harder for the small local business person.
The part of your piece that disturbs me though is the defense of Walmart. Lets be serious, Walmart is probably the the largest culprit for the destruction of local business over the last 20 years. They have decimated the local business community in almost every community they have built in. They move in and supply minimum wage positions that don’t even come close to the amounts of people and income they take out of work and the family businesses they destroy in the community. They contribute very little to the community in any tangible way.
You won’t head down to the local hockey rink or ball diamond and find youth sports sponsored by Walmart. You won’t see Walmart supporting the homeless or contributing to local charities. What you will find is a large corporation that sends most of its profits south of the border and makes the Walton’s richer by the day as they bleed small communities across north America.
So, if you are going to call out one bad apple please call them all out and don’t offer them a veiled defense for the destruction they bring. Walmart played a major part in making Wetaskiwin a town of of liquor stores and pawn shops.
Gone are the many other local businesses that contributed to the building of the city, the supporting of its activities and charities and to its tax base. Walmart can be held at least partially responsible for a city that has few services, an ever increasing tax burden on homeowners, and a lack of funding for community events and organizations.
As I said, please be sure to call out both companies for what they are, corporate entities with no concern for anyone but themselves.
Kent Roberts,
Wetaskiwin