Wal-Mart's big gain is big loss to Palmer

June 3,2005

Spectrum/Darin Markwardt

Palmer is to become a Wal-Mart town. We are to become a place ruled by a giant scavenger, whose insatiable appetite for money, has left tens of thousands bereft of work. A company that destroys one-and-a-half jobs, for every job it creates.

But at least Palmer will get the Wal-Mart tax. We can say goodbye to any current feelings concerning Palmer as a peaceful Alaska town. Palmer's Super Wal-Mart will be the largest Wal-Mart in the state. The store will be in a horse pasture, directly behind Palmer High School, and adjacent to Valley Pathways.

In the ultimate of ironies, we will erect a concrete temple of instant gratification, mocking the very principles taught to our children. The lack of foresight was embarrassingly evident at the Palmer City Council meeting on May 24.

Four people detailed their reasons for embracing instant gratification. A predominant sentiment prevailed among these citizens: The seven-mile drive to the Wasilla Wal-Mart is too long. Sixteen people spoke against a Palmer Wal-Mart. One women stated that 40 percent of Wal-Mart workers work less than 40 hours per week. The average Wal-Mart employee works 26 hours per week. Their health benefits are a joke.

Another man told of his job as a meat cutter. He implored the City Council to stop Wal-Mart from coming to Palmer, because such an action will close Carrs/Safeway. He will be one of hundreds of Palmer citizens who will need Palmer's financial assistance when Wal-Mart comes to town and strips them of a job.

Other people - myself included - spoke of the rampant, unplanned growth that has occurred in Wasilla. We are surrounded by the most beautiful scenery on earth; we are turning our Valley into trash.

When the council finally began to "debate" the measures concerning a large retail center, the council members assumed a grave air. Mr. Pippel bemoaned Wal-Mart's rampant globalism. The other council members all somberly declaimed Wal-Mart as greedy, bad, evil.

To their credit, council members made a great show of telling how their hand was forced; how a Wal-Mart invasion of the East Valley was inevitable. If Wal-Mart does not reside within the city limits, they warned, Wal-Mart will camp right outside the boundary, where they will not be beholden to regulations. We might as well - sigh - get their tax money.

I understand the council's decision. It would be very difficult to travel the one mile from council chambers to the Borough Building, to call Mayor Anderson and say, "Mr. Anderson, the people of the East Valley overwhelmingly oppose a Wal-Mart. Let's listen to the people, and together preserve the East Valley from becoming like … trash - both economically and aesthetically." But … Wal-Mart equals tax, which equals short-term money - and long-term loss.

The men on the Palmer City Council, however, are middle-aged men who will not have to live with the negative consequences of their actions. In a few years, these men will be retired, snow-birding to Florida, while myself, my generation, and our children will be left with the shrapnel, the carnage, left by Hurricane Wal-Mart.

Palmer Mayor Woods called the decision regarding Wal-Mart a "No-brainer." The people of Palmer could not agree more. Too bad the "no-brainer" decision, concerning Wal-Mart, was made in just that way.

Darin Markwardt is a Palmer resident and college student.