Feb. 4, 2004: GPBC opposes “Big Box Superstores”

This is the text from a speech by Marilyn Ditmanson.

The Green Party of Butte County opposes “Big Box Superstores”, Wal-Mart being a prime “bad” example.

The Green Party supports community-based economics, recognizing that it is essential to create an economic system that creates jobs that provide a decent standard of living. Big Box Superstores hurt local businesses and destroy more jobs than they create. Superstores generate no new business. They take business away from existing local businesses that anchor neighborhood shopping areas. For every superstore that opens, two supermarkets close. Big Box Superstores like Wal-Mart pay most workers minimum wage with no health benefits. Jobs at most supermarkets pay a livable wage with health benefits. The cost of a Big Box Superstore is borne by all citizens. In addition to the tragedy for the workers who lose their jobs with a supermarket closing or downsizing, is the cost to the taxpayer who must pick-up the tab for the fallout – unemployment, Medi-Cal and food stamps.

The Green Party espouses Ecological Wisdom, in that we must utilize resources in such a way that future generations benefit, not suffer from the choices we make. Big Box Superstores consume huge amounts of open space, including parking lots five times the size of a typical supermarket. The Institute of Transportation Engineers, whose traffic estimates are considered authoritative by local government planners across the country, has determined that large scale Big Box Superstores generate substantially more traffic on a daily basis than typical neighborhood-serving supermarkets – over 4000 additional car trips a day. Big Box Superstores impose higher costs on the local area in the form of increased traffic congestion, increased air pollution, strained roadway infrastructure, and loss of open space, without generating additional tax revenues to fix the problems that can be fixed.

The Green Party contends that local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our “quality of life”.

The Green Party of Butte County opposes ALL Big Box Superstores, in particular Wal-Mart.