I think it is utterly ridiculously for people to think and criticize the City Council for wanting to pass the “Big Box” ordinance. These are companies that don’t have thousands of dollars nor do they have millions of dollars – they have billions of dollars.
The Wal-Mart Company makes millions of dollars a day in sales. The company’s owners, the Walton family, are worth double figure millions of dollars! And people are saying that they can’t afford to pay 100-150 employees, possibly more, $10 an hour!!! Ludicrous!!! I know how much the company brings in because I am a shareholder to the company, and every shareholder knows this information.
The aldermen are afraid that this will run the businesses away. Of course, it will not. The companies are aware of how much money the residents in “low income” communities spend. They have done years of research. They will not just throw it away like that. “Business is in business” because they want to make money, and not having Wal-Mart in the city means losing millions of dollars.
The aldermen are saying ‘don’t force Wal-Mart to pay 150 (or possibly more) of their employee’s $13 per hour plus $3 in benefits, which will come to $78,000 (or more) a week and $156,000 (or more) every two weeks, as opposed to the Wal-Mart Corporation making millions of dollars a day?
Someone is giving out the wrong picture here. How else are the people going to get ahead and have medical benefits, buy homes and pay taxes for the aldermen’s’ salary?
We should not ask people to settle for less when we will not settle for less ourselves. And this response goes for the Target Corporation as well. We must see the bigger picture. These companies make billions of dollars a year.
Donna Greer
Bellwood
