Poll: Acres for America

[Ron Wenrich]

Expires 5-8-05

[Jeff]

It makes no difference to me. The way I look at it, its purely another marketing gimic to try to humanize a very large corporation. Certainly there is potentially a good side, but that is incidental. The reason it is being done, at least in my mind, is the bottom line. Trying to give the consumer that warm and fuzzy feeling towards something they are involved in.

I guess time will tell how this program evolves. It will be interesting how it is ran, actually runs it and what benefits this "conservancy" gives and to who.

[Cedarman]

So they use 100 acres for a building and parking lot and they conserve 100 acres.  They buy 100 acres of scrub land for 500 bucks an acre and set it aside. Lots of advertisement for 50 grand a store and makes them look good.
What if they donated  a couple 100 grand a year to the state park system for upkeep?
Cheap gimmick.

[Chris J]

This program doesn't make me feel any better about the affect WM has on local Mom & Pop shops, their policy of using lots of part time workers to avoid providing benefits to full time workers, the lies about Made In America products,  & the ripple effects of their policy of squeezing manufactorers for the lowest possible price.

Also, lately they seem to be spending a lot of $$ on 'why you should feel good about Walmart' ads.  Makes me even more suspicious than I was before.    Yes, WM provides discount prices, but at what overall cost?

[EZ]

Sounds like another big tax cut for them.
EZ

[Kirk_Allen]

Walmart, No way would it make a difference. 

Lowes or Home Depot, might make a difference.

I HATE WALMART!  They have pushed out more local business owners in our area than you can imagine.  The part that really sucks is that they are now the ONLY grocery store for 40 miles in any direction. 

[pigman]

Makes me feel " warm and fuzzy" just thinking about it. :

[DanG]

Makes no diff to me.  Good ad gimmick, but sounds like an empty promise to me.  I'm no Walmart fan, but they ain't the problem.  I'd as soon buy Chinese products from them as anybody. :-\

[etat]

Truer words, DanG, Truer Words.  :-\


I got my new tires on the back of my the old John Deere.  Ten ply and a size bigger than what was on the back of it.  I did have 15.5 by 38 six ply and I replaced em with 16.9 by 38 ten ply.  Rated of course. I 'wanted' a set of firestone radials but I discovered they were both 'unavailable until further notice', and even if they were they was gonna be way way more than I wanted to afford.  So I priced a set of regular R1 tires from em, still way expensive.  'So, I ordered em from DC tire. I noticed the dangest thing when I was looking at em in person.  Never even thought to ask when I ordered em.  Didn't even enter my mind.  'Made in China'.  Hundreds of dollars less than the Firestones and still good looking tires.

They did not come from Walmart.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Sam Walton started the business with good intentions. AS SOON AS THEY COULD VOTE HIM OUT, THE DIRTY DEEDS BEGAN.

  Marketing plan and nothing else. Same as the Eco-nutz and animal lover societies. Buy land cheap, under the guise of humanity, and then, sell at a high profit, later on.  Can't remember the biggest named scam right now. Too much on my mind.

[bull]

Better get the boots out folks !!  They will be building on good ground farmland or forest land and then they will save a swamp.....or other non productive rock pile..
Houses are eating up all our good land here and they are starting to run out and now are building in locatiopns that weren't buildable 5 years ago !! And all the builder are giving the surrounding wetland and ecosensitive area's to our Conservation Commission,and the other members think this is great. Horse****!!
Vernal Fools *( not misspelled)*...... Save our open space say no to malls and force cluster zoning for housing.... Nothing wrong with a trailer park especially in a bedroom community......  Save the local stores and mom and pops. Support local economy......  And if you ain't from here don't move here. We do allow visit's and vacations, bring your wallets we can empty them and keep your money!!!   Thanks
sorry for ranting !!!   Down w/ Walmart,Homecheapo,Lowes,and any other not so super 2nd store......   Its cheaper because its junk minimum standard.......

[gary]

It is just a crock of dung, This is in responce to all the negative press they have been getting from the smarter towns and cities trying to keep them out of their area. I will shop at Wal Mart but only for items I can not get from a locally owned store. KEEP YOUR DOLLARS IN YOUR OWN AREA WHEN EVER POSSIBLE

[Gunny]

I guess no one around here shops WalMArt--at least the slant of the responses indicates so. 

Frankly, I'd just as soon WalMart bought all the wetlands on the planet and placed them in a conservancy before watching them (the wetlands) be destroyed by the very few idle rich who feel they can make them more "productive" by backfilling them and building condos on them.  Wetlands are amongst our most important ecosystems, aren't they?

This discussion could quickly lose track of the issues: who else is going to do it?  I'm linked with the USDA's "Back Yard Conservation" program--now that we've sold the tree farm--and firmly believe that if we don't reverse the plunder-and-pillage approach so often used, our kids and grandkids may well miss the opportunity to enjoy some of the natural pleasures which should remain their heritage. 

Maybe the active members of this forum should band together to follow the lead of those participants who at least make a seemingly viable effort to effect change.  I've been chopping at timber over 30 years and have hunted and fished for most of the last 50. I'm neither a "tree-hugger" or a member of PETA.  But I've certainly witnessed the devastation which greed can bring upon what were once pristine lands. 

Whether the bad guys of this world are wearing designer silks or CarHarts, it's always a good thing to stand against destruction.  After all, when the few take all the timber there is left to be had, just about everytbody within this forum will be sitting home wondering what happened.  Here in west-central Michigan, the scores of ghost-towns ring that bell so very true.  Just a hundred years ago, or so, had anybody had the brains or the courage to mention that there might not be any White Pine left for the plundering, those jobs and families and pioneer-types might have been able to stay put on their lands.  Instead, once the resources were plucked, the barons sat and counted their $$ while the towns and villages went belly-up.  Of course, the passing of several generations does allow for a certain amount of "reforestation." 

If StuffMart would like to place our wetlands into their conservancy--provided they could never be modified, sold, or transferred without my signed approval--I'd be delighted to let them pick up the tax burden we now bear to help in whatever way we can to provide that small safe haven to those who choose to use it.   It's a legacy my wife and I can not ignore.

Again, rather than use our energies to berate a major corporation, why not investigate ways we can each work, individually or collectively, to make this Earth a better place to be for all inhabitants.

[redpowerd]

i dont shop there merely due to the music they play and the fact its a treasure hunt looking for prices on items.

good points there gunny.

id say wallyworld soaks up about 20-40 acres a store. what burns me is when they build them in cornfeilds.

how many stores wallyworld got?

[Tom]

Part of the response, I'm sure, has to do with "trust".  I'm not talking about the kind where you save some of your stuff for later generations.  I'm talking about the kind that allows you to turn your back on someone with whom you just shook hands.

So many of these  "feel good" conservation/preservation  efforts are forgotten later when the company or the country undergoes an administration change or someone comes along with enough money to over-ride the rules.  It's kinda like when your Great-Granddad planted the garden on the side of the house so that the family could have fresh vegetables.  Then your Granddaddy parked his truck there and your daddy "beautified" it and planted grass.  Now, you've just sold it to man that wants to build a house.  No body is considering what Great-Granddaddy intended for the property.

Just wait a few years and all this phony Wet-lands" mitigation bank stuff will get robbed and the Forests that were "saved" from the mill will be developed as condominiums by the same families that are sitting in the trees.

Wall Mart doesn't fool me.  They are just advertising. :D :D

I guess I'm turning into a cynic. :-\

[Buzz-sawyer]

As i read your post two thoughts come to mind
One, the Barrons your speak despairingly, lobbied congress, got aproval made deals bought land , exploited its resources, pretty much completly inside of the laws laid down  which we all live by .....Times change gold runs out timber is cut cities move.....all over this country.....Does that mean the ghost towns in Colorado are a sign of exploitation of resources (Silver)....??????

The second thought is, when you said,"But I've certainly witnessed the devastation which greed can bring upon what were once pristine lands. "
The only way for these types of things to stop occuring is for HUMAN nature to change...and it will not in this life.
I am all for big trees , I like to look at them.........And I like parks and reserves, but I believe we are here to be stewards of the earth who take from  it, with respect
I guess I am just not in agreement with the whole concept of, ANTI greed =making money,
fat cats, corprate is bad socialistic thing....It rings of class envy and scape goating.........

I view it as a wonderful dream to be American....... to be able to legally buy property and do what you like with it..hopefully that includes improvement....but maybe thats the next owner who will no doubt buy at a discount :D :D

[Jeff]

I dont see anyone here denying that conserving nature is a bad thing, long as that is actually what is being done. The question at hand was will it change the way I patronize Walmart stores. Nope. It won't. All it does now is make me suspect thier motives. Its all based on the buck, not on what is right,  from a social and envinmental point of view

Ask me again 20 years from now.

[Gunny]

Tom:  

Actually, doesn't the word "cynic" mean a good thing when translated from the old Greek?  I remember (I hope!) reading somewhere not too long ago that the word actually means "One who sees things as they are."  Most of the negative surrounding the use of the term these days is that an awful lot of folks don't like to know or hear from those who "see things as they are."  

I try very hard to find that tiny glimmer of hope for humankind but often "see" things--mostly through recorded accounts of history and personal life-experiences-much as you seem to do.  We've recently acquired several properties that not long ago had been big parts of an elder's dreams but were abandoned to rot and crumble by those heirs who'd been left to care for them.  

You're right on regarding "trust", much the same as those who said "trust me/us" on the 401Ks and State Education Funds, Union retirement pensions/health care, etc.  But that still doesn't deter me from trying what little I can to make this a better place to be.

You and I could probably share a zillion experiences each which could justify our abilities to "see things as they are."  But it all comes down to this for me: do i want to join ranks with those who destroy or do I not?  Two of the most notable structures I ever built back in the '70s (one of our geodesic domes and our octagonal log cabin) were bulldozed into pits because the absentee owners got tired of paying the property taxes on them but wanted to hold onto the land they'd been put on--honest!

Again, I'm glad to meet another "see-r".  Never any harm in trying, though.

[Buzz-sawyer]

I think in 20 years walmart will be GONE the same place K-Mart went and its discount predecessors..They are slowly letting go of Sams customer service values for the bottom line, and soon a new %%%_Mart will out SERVICE and discount them out of the market.
If that happens you WILL see some condos. ;)

[Jeff]

My point taken.

Walmart is a private company. That may or may be here in the future. Now, if you tell me that Walmart is buying property and turning it over to the parks service where it will be a national protected resource and not a corporate asset I may be less cynical. I am using the word here as it is used in our language of today, not for its root origin.

[Jeff]

Buzz, K-mart is still here. :D 

[Buzz-sawyer]

 :D :D :D :D
Well, I guess my point is weakened by that :D :D :D :D :D
Thats funny, They have been choked out all together in this area.

[Chris J]

Re things going downhill after they voted out Sam Walton.  Didn't some of the stories about the Made In America lies come out when SW still had some say at WM?  And wasn't WM killing off local shops long before SW was reduced to a figurehead?

Maybe if WM was my only convenient choice, or I had house full of kids to look after, I might feel differently.  If WM is doing something good for the environment I'm all for it, but it's not going change my overall negative view of WM.

[OneWithWood]

I agree with Jeff.  If Walmart were to publish management plans for those properties I would be more inclined to believe there to be some sincerity for natural habitat and resource management.  Absent that it is just another investment in land that happens to have a tax advantage and allows them to fill current biologically active wetlands to build a store.  They can do this under the latest rendition of the wetlands act if they set aside another property as a wetland, regardless if it is biologically active or just a storm drainage.  
I don't shop at Walmart because I hate big stores where you can't find anything and the service staff are clueless.

[Rockn H]

Why did yall have to mention Wal-Mart.  It gets me worked up. >:(  I heard trust mentioned and was always taught trust should be earned, not given.  I know and I'am glad for the "American Way" - to start a business, to succeed.  But if you look at the way they do business, the way they "Take Over" a smaller company and keep selling the products under the original name, the net is full of news articles with these stories, it makes it hard to trust.  Look at all the small towns that are dead except for a new wal-mart outside of town and a small strip mall.  Like I said earlier, to succeed is good, but look at their tactics.  A corporation large enough to cut their prices until they have starved the smaller stores out and then raise their prices back to regular price.  Not to mention they then carry only what products the head office deems fit.  I can't tell you how many times, now, we have to go out of town to buy what we used to be able to get here.  This also makes it hard for me to trust their motives or their agenda.  This is all just really fresh on my mind, as we just got us a new Super Center outside of town, complete with red light and all.  The hardline and softline part of the store carries less than the old store, but the grocery side is fully stocked with its own bakery. Our grocery stores are about to go under.  Funny thing is, no one will say they buy groceries at wal mart. ???  With that said, setting aside land, any land, is a good thing.  It's just not enough to justify the means for me.