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Several have said exactly that...that though Walmart is an aggressive, cutthroat and not overly generous retailer, one who buys from overseas suppliers that pay less than generous wages in harsh working conditions, so are Walmart's competitors, making the demonization of Walmart without also chastising Target, Academy, Kroger and HEB, disingenuous at best, and a lie at worst. And, targeting their faults while ignoring the benefits is only telling part of the story. Since Walmart's entrance to Yale Street is assured (if they choose to build there), as there is no viable way to keep them out, I'd much rather see my fashionable neighbors direct their efforts toward a fight they can win...demanding that Walmart spend a bit of their considerable construction budget on a more attractive building, with better landscaping, and efficient traffic patterns for its formidable parking lot. At least this way, they would not be as offended when they drive past it, as we know they would never shop there. Pragmatism has served me well over the years. It may work well here.

Sure, it's a smart business move to locate in an unincorporated area so as to avoid paying taxes for things like the local public schools. And sure it's a smart business move to hire folks just short of full-time. And sure it saves the company money to not offer health care to a huge % of their employees. It is also cheaper to produce goods in China (70% of Wal-Mart's non food product comes from or has Chinese components) and be the countries 8th largest trade partner (experts note that Wal-Mart does more trade with China than RUSSIA AND ENGLAND)! Heck, you can even save money by building newer and bigger stores often times right next door to your old one that you just leave empty and leave to scar local communities because it's the cheap thing to do. But, you know what else is a smart move? To not support such companies. I am sure that Wal-Mart isn't hurting because I don't spend $75 bucks there every few months, but it sure does make me feel better.

It would not be ever-lasting. It would only need to drive competitors out of business. This is most certainly in Wal-Mart's long term interests. Anyway, there is no doubt in my mind that people can come up with business models that can make money selling things. It was not my point to say that there weren't. What I was trying to show by posting that link is that s3mh's ideas about Wal-Mart's motives and reasons for building are as valid as anyone else's. And in addition, I find it funny and a little bit sad that people think H-E-B could ever outbid Wal-Mart on a site, that not shopping at a Wal-Mart could *ever* make it close, and that things like "governance" and "laws" could ever prevent multi-billion dollar corporate entities from doing whatever they wanted wherever they wanted for whatever reason they were capable of coming up with.