Posted on 01/20/2006 6:33:21 AM PST by sickoflibs
PRINCESS ANNE // Folks around here aren't too sure about the politics of Wal-Mart up in Annapolis, but there is one thing that pretty much everybody in this Eastern Shore county seat can agree on: 800 jobs at a mammoth retail distribution warehouse would be a boon.
And another thing: $12 an hour is not chump change in Somerset County, Maryland's poorest jurisdiction, which for decades has seen a steady decline in the traditional stalwarts of the local economy, farming and seafood.
Now, a week after the Maryland General Assembly overrode Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of a bill requiring Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care, residents are waiting for the other shoe to drop - wondering whether the controversy might push the world's largest retailer to put its big distribution center someplace else.
"We have a labor force who work with their hands, and there is absolutely no question that Somerset County needs the jobs," says Sharon Harris, who with her husband, Bill, runs a hardware store here and another in nearby Pocomoke City.
Wal-Mart officials have been talking for more than a year about building a 470,000-square-foot distribution center outside Princess Anne. But last spring, after the General Assembly passed the health care bill, the company said it might wait an additional two or three years before buying a 170-acre property a couple of miles south of town. The company has remained tight-lipped since Democrats overturned Ehrlich's veto last week.
"Right now, we are weighing our options," Wal-Mart spokesman Nate Hurst said after the vote. "This bill certainly sent a message to the business community, and companies like ours are taking a step back and wondering how business-friendly Maryland is." Hurst would not say when the company would decide whether to go ahead with .....
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Recently I needed to purchase a gift and saw silver butter spreaders in a Neiman Marcus catalog, so I ordered them.
When they arrived, each butter spreader had a little sticker that read, "Made in China."
You're right.
You're right.
"Then why did Wal-Mart build it's Super Centers in MD not DE? The Salisbury Store is only three miles from DelMar.... "
Because its on a tourist route. So what. Nearly all of the rest in the country aren't.
The big question here is whether Walmart should tell MD to stick it and move their Somerset distribution center elsewhere. Moving that distribution center won't cost them one slim dime, but it will cost your area immensely.
Things to do at Wal-Mart while your spouse is taking their sweet time:
1. Get 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in peoples' carts when they aren't looking.
2. Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. Make a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms.
4. Walk up to an employee and tell him/her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares and see what happens.
5. Go the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&M's on lay away.
6. Move a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. Set up a tent in the camping department and tell other shoppers you'll invite them in if they'll bring in pillows from the bedding department.
8. When a clerk asks if they can help you, begin to cry and ask 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
9. Look right into the security camera; use it as a mirror, & and pick your nose.
10. While handling guns in the hunting department, ask the clerk if he knows where the anti- depressants are.
11. Dart around the store suspiciously loudly humming the Mission Impossible theme.
12. In the auto department, practice your Madonna look using different size funnels.
13. Hide in a clothing rack; when people browse through, say PICK ME!
14. When an announcement comes over the loudspeaker, assume the fetal position and scream "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!! And; last, but not least!)
15. Go into a fitting room and shut the door and wait awhile; and then yell, very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"
...wondering whether the controversy might push the world's largest retailer to put its big distribution center someplace else.
Socialism/fascism is as fascism/socialism does.
And your point is...what, LucyT?
The problem is that the facility was going into an area of MD with few employment possbilities, and that would hurt the most conservative people in the state.
I doubt it as well. Just like the interaction between WalMart and the local merchants here, it is not a local thing, as you have expressed it happening where you are-------and we're not exactly next door neighbors!!!!
champing
Wal Mart needs to scrap plans for the distro center and layoff just enough employees to have 9,999 so they no longer qualify for the law. That will show them.
Nope - it's still $6.15.
VA is also most likely to pass a Wal-Mart law as well.
Not this session according to the legislators I've spoken with since this happened.
Of course had they moved it to Delmar they would have lost much of the Route 50 customers.
You don't know the people or the dynamics of this region. Walmart prices are higher in Delaware than in Maryland. had they built in Delmar, people just over the line would have still shopped in Salisbury.
The average person falls for the "no sales tax" propaganda of Delaware because they only look at the bottom line of the receipt....5% added in Maryland, but not in Delaware. The number they should be looking at is the price per product.
I can truly believe that :)
I have always been a big proponent of shopping at local businesses and will never stop, but when I can get a product that can be bought nearly anywhere cheaper in WalMart - well, I guess you can call me cheap because I'm going to buy it where it is less expensive.....especially when I need a lot of it.
Keep on, keepin' on........
I think that is exactly what was intended. This entire thing is politically motivated.
That was my point.
More expensive to build in DE than in MD. Doubt the Health Care bill will make that any different.
It's not necessarily more expensive to build in Delaware, just to shop there.
Then why did they put it on hold after the bill passed last year? If I remember correctly it was originally scheduled to open this year.........it hasn't even been started yet - in no small part, I'm thinking, because of this.
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