Wal-Mart? Wal-MONSTER

There’s this little bit of land up by Schnecksville that, like a lot of land up in those parts, has got some old orchards on it. It’s a nice bit. You can see it when you eat at the counter at Sam’s Bagels. The annual Schnecksville Fair nearly spills out onto it and, let me tell you, when you’re at the top of the Zipper and ready to punch the moron that invented a ride like that, there is nothing you want more than to sit on a nice piece of ground. A piece of ground not unlike that gorgeous little parcel.

Now, I’m sure you’re familiar with Wal-Mart. Oh, you’re not? Well, it’s one of those huge corporations that, through being a corporation, attracts a lot of people who are against its existence. This particular one has a habit of plopping itself down on nice parcels of land, surrounding itself with a sea of asphalt and sapping the nearby communities of their jobs and businesses and traffic flow.

OH YES THAT WAL-MART, KATIE, NOW I REMEMBER. (this is your line)

There’s not much reason to like the place, especially if you’re living in Schnecksville. Especially if you’re Paul’s Hardware, DelPrete’s Pharmacy, Wehr’s Market, Sam’s Bagels, Pooch and Kitty, Fitness Central, Wagner’s Auto Repair, Napa auto parts, or any other business that stands to lose consumers to such attractive low prices/low quality as Wal-Mart’s.

Even King’s, Schnecksville’s finest grocery store* will lose considerable revenue to a Wal-Mart Supercenter that sells groceries.

These businesses are not just buildings along Route 309, they are not even places where people go to “get things.” They are cornerstones to the community and serve as convenient centers to catch gossip while picking up needed items. They are the entire livelihoods of local families, they even have experienced experts that know their business through and through. They’re not some teenager with a summer job trying to sell you a lawnmower when he doesn’t know the first thing about them.

There are quite a few folks that have got their hackles raised over this. Over on Facebook** there’s 275 people against the Wal-Monster in a group called “Stop the Wal-Mart in North Whitehall Township.”

North Whitehall for Sustainable Development has also taken up arms and provides a list of 300 communities that have fought off the Wal-Monster: http://home.ptd.net/~nwsd/ ***

Meetings are being organized, letters are being written, rallying cries are being cried. This is the biggest thing to hit Schnecksville since they got that second stoplight. And I'm right on it.



*well, Schnecksville’s only grocery store, but certainly its finest
**I’ve been told that Facebook is where all the cool kids hang out.
***What kind of URL is that? I mean, sur’usly, you need something catchier if you’re going to get people to remember the web address.