From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: New Oakland Wal-Mart Thronged

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New Oakland Wal-Mart Thronged

September 19, 2005

With a hat-tip to Thomas Lifson of the fine online publication, The American Thinker, comes news that a new Wal-Mart has opened in Oakland, and is proving quite popular. To which I say: Today Oakland, tomorrow Berkeley. Here's more from Lifson.

The new store is located at the freeway exit one takes for Oakland Airport (and also the Coliseum), so I go by it with some regularity, and I have actually stopped in to buy small household items a couple of times. It has been so jammed with shoppers seemingly happy with the bargain prices that finding a parking spot has taken some cruising around.
The East Oakland neighborhood houses many blacks, Hispanics, whites, and a growing Asian population. I take it as a very good sign that the welfare of the general public in the form of low prices is outweighing the special interest of the unions. Even in Oakland.

SF Chron columnist Chip Johnson writes about the Oakland Wal-Mart today, as well. In "Sometimes, Wal-Mart Can be A Good Thing," Johnson observes:

Many people take issue with the labor and employment practices of Wal-Mart stores, the nation's largest retail chain, but you'd have to look hard to find criticism from Oakland residents who live near its new store off Hegenberger Road. For most of them -- and people who work in the area -- the new shopping plaza, which consists of about a dozen other stores and restaurants in addition to the Wal-Mart anchor, has provided an instant benefit, never mind the politics.
..."I don't care for their corporate attitude, but I think this is a benefit because there was nothing out here,'' said Mike Breuner, 51, of Oakland. The store's trouble with labor unions didn't stop more than 11,000 people from applying for about 400 jobs at the new store, or the throngs who flocked to its grand opening last month. Traffic was at a standstill and wound around the corner and up Hegenberger Road. There were so many cars that city traffic engineers had to adjust traffic signals to give motorists more time to turn left and exit the store.

...."I think this is just great,'' said Robert Turner, 35, of Oakland, as he sat down to eat lunch with a friend. "Out here, where people are struggling to find work, a job at Wal-Mart is better than no job at all. In an area like this that's been deprived for so long, it's a start.''

...It's a great thing to develop locally owned businesses and provide opportunities to local entrepreneurs, but to argue over the color of the dishware when there's no food on the plate seems like a pointless exercise.

...And I'd never criticize someone for taking a job at Wal-Mart to support themselves and their families, because everybody has to start somewhere. Thirty years ago that place was McDonald's, where about 35 percent of the nation's workforce began their first jobs. In 2005, that place is Wal-Mart.

Hegenberger Road hasn't reached the shopping status of Oakland's College Avenue, but if the consumer demand out in that part of East Oakland is a barometer of growth, get ready for another set of chain stores to come knocking real soon.

The other big refrain about chain stores is that they destroy local business districts. Which is a way of endorsing a sort of moralistic protection racket and trying to quash the free market. But rather than vilifying Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Blockbuster Video, neighborhood and small town business districts - and their longtime supporters - need instead to focus on adding to the mix when bigfooted competitors arrive.

If selection and prices are better on certain consumer goods at a Target, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe's or Home Depot, that's where I'm going to go, and a lot of other shoppers will, too. Neighborhood business districts in places like my home of West Seattle hopped aboard the Cluetrain at least a few years ago. The opening of suburban malls led to a long, slow slide of our traditional local retail hub, the Alaska Junction. But over time, The Junction recovered. Old departed department store and grocery store chain outlets have been replaced with more niche-oriented businesses. The last few years in West Seattle's Alaska Junction have been jumping; we've seen the opening of cool new restaurants, clubs, and other businesses selling everything to rubber stamps to fresh fish and seafood to yoga classes. It's alive, and much safer at night now, too, which certainly wasn't the case when my wife and I moved to West Seattle from Chicago in 1994.

Local business districts are only as good as their tenants are smart. And the entire Wal-Mart debate serves as a political wailing wall for social engineers. You don't like the company? Simple: don't shop there.