Would you or wouldn't you? The Anti-WalMart movement

[Mr. Bloom]

Interesting idea (I've not heard of it before). Do you think this is a good idea or not?

Two neighborhoods in Milwaukee are considering printing their own currency, which could be bought with U.S. dollars, but would be only accepted at local businesses, in order to encourage people to shop at home instead of Walmart.

It's not a new concept — the Chicago Tribune says that lots of towns and neighborhoods relied on their own local currency during the Great Depression. It's also perfectly legal.

So what's the advantage for shoppers? Well, the currency could offer incentives — trading $100 US for $110 in the local currency would give shoppers a 10% bonus, for example.

What do you think? Would you use a local currency in order to support your community? Or are you going to shop at Walmart until they pry the cart from your cold dead hands?

[jobob]

It's already being done in Berkshire County in Western Mass.

http://www.berkshares.org/localcurrency.htm

[Flybye]

Honestly, it is so much cheaper to shop at Wal-Mart than local stores that I can't justify 10%.

If I lived in a bigger community, there might be more to intrigue me.

For clothes we have two thrift stores that receive donations of clothes that are generally worn to death before they hit the thrift store. We have a CAL-Ranch, but I don't wear Wranglers or western style clothes, and Wal-Mart. While I don't love their clothes, they come in handy when I don't want to drive 30 miles to purchase clothes.

For food, we have a very small independent grocery store with a very small selection of food that is catered more toward the elderly population. We have one other grocery store that is okay, but their prices are about 20-30% more than Wal-Mart.

I don't LOVE Wal-Mart, but for feeding/clothing a family of 5, I am very happy that they offer low prices.

I don't see how buying local bucks when money is tight would be to my benefit.

[Zen]

How many times can we go down this road? It's not as simple as "anti-Wal-Mart"

[Eden]

If you want to see what a Wal-mart can do to a small community watch the documentary Wal-mart: The High Price of Low Cost sometime http://www.walmartmovie.com/ It is very interesting.

Somehow Seattle has managed to shut Wal-mart out. We have none within the city limits. I'm not sure why though I suspect its because the city won't give them the tax breaks they demand....

[smilingcat]

didn't vote.

My stance is no to local currency. And no I have yet to spend a penny at Wal-Mart.

In a long run, Wal-mart hurts the community by draining the money out of local community. And there is the argument of cost shifting where due to the low wages and not allowing full time employees, many who do work at Wal-mart on a part time basis require welfare support and free health care from the community.

Yes on a short term, I'm stupid for not shopping at Wal-Mart. but they do not carry what I like. I am decidedly not part of their targetted demographic.

Smilingcat

[Bruno28]

How many times can we go down this road?

+1 from me

[Mr. Bloom]

Although I've not made it clear, I'm not trying to make WalMart the issue. What I see is:

• an orchestrated effort presumably targeted at a single retailer - in this case walmart...but it could just as easily be the socially sensitive and more popular TraderJoes competing against the local grocery coop.
• a bias to giving a 10% discount...why don't the stores simply lower their prices 10%? Frankly, because they don't have the margin...so they're cutting off their nose to spite their face

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door". This just seems inherently wrong and short sighted to me...

[ridebikeme]

This is a great idea! I have supported the local shops/business in my area for years. AS many have pointed out here, more money is in the community, more funds for road repairs etc...

I also want to use this as a reminder about your LBS! I realize that many of you are learning to maintain your bikes, and I think that's great! However, remember when your LBS did something for free, gave you a discount on something that you purchased? WEll, the reality is that unless we all support them, they may not be there. So think of them this holiday season and buy LOCAL!