Some time ago, Mount Vernon told WalMart they were not wanted or welcome in that fine city. As any intelligent business would do, WalMart simply moved up the road a bit and built in Burlington, another fine city who was more than happy to have the retailer in their taxing district. Now, all those citizens in Mount Vernon who want the products and services WalMart offers simply spend their earnings, and leave their tax dollars in Burlington, and Burlington laughs all the way to the bank.

I continue to be amazed at those who refuse to learn from the mistakes of others, or who fail to understand the most basic principles of economics. When a municipality is unfriendly to business, business leaves when it has the opportunity to do so. We have seen a host of such business exits in recent years, many of them giving specific citation to Bellingham's unfriendly business climate for their exodus. Just as happened with WalMart in Mount Vernon, WalMart in Bellingham/Whatcom County is looking at alternate locations.

Now, the astonishing reality for me is, when WalMart built the store on the North Guide Meridian, everyone knew that they planned an eventual expansion of the store, in order to offer a substantial line of grocery items to their product offerings, and everyone seemed fine with that. Then when the time for the expansion arrived, all hell broke loose, at least as far as the Bellingham City Council was concerned, and they enacted an "emergency moratorium" to stop the expansion we had known was coming for roughly 10 years. The planned 40,000 square foot expansion was in compliance with current zoning, and was in an area annexed by the city specifically to generate commercial zone revenues far beyond what residential zones generate.

What was the emergency? I have no idea. This emergency was declared against the advice of the Planning Commission who recommended studying the issue first. It was declared in the glaring absence of any local economic impact analysis, and with no public discussion or debate. It was simply shoved down our (public) throats by in a 4-2 vote of the arrogant Bellingham City Council. The action was labeled as a "big box store ban," but the sheer timing of it makes it abundantly clear that this was an "anti WalMart" ban.

In contrast to this, Costco did an expansion, and no one blinked an eye. Fred Meyer built a huge, beautiful new store on Bakerview while expanding its store on Lakeway, and everyone was fine with that. WalMart decided it was time to implement an expansion of an existing facility, an expansion we had long known about, and the Bellingham City Council blew a gasket!

All the cliché reasons were offered up in support of the ban, such as support of local business, reducing traffic congestion on the Guide, and preventing sprawl, but these don't hold any sway, and I don't see that the WalMart ban is going to have any positive effect on these issues anyway. Even if we razed the current structure, none of these issues would be addressed by that action. Other big box stores continue to exist, the zoning of the WalMart property has not changed, and traffic on the Guide is still a nightmare.

Let's be brutally honest here. This is not about traffic, buying local, or sprawl. This is about union. WalMart is not union, and to their shame, the Bellingham City Council caved to the union pressure and the efforts of Whatcom County Jobs with Justice, a local arm of the liberal organization bearing the same name at the state and national level. In succumbing to this pressure, the city has denied itself untold millions in revenue from sales and B&O taxes, not just from the WalMart fiasco, but from every other store that is now limited to 90,000 square feet of floor space, including Bellis Fair Mall.

Some are concerned that, not only will the WalMart Superstore be built on Lummi land, but that the existing store will be closed. I met with the former interim manager of the store, and he stated that such is not the case. The current store will continue to operate. However, as the business climate continues to be hostile, I suspect this could be subject to change.

Hmmmmm, I may have misspoke, but I understood that Mt. Vernon rejected WalMart, and they ended up building in Burlington. If not, then yes, a better example should have been used, but as you said, the point still stands, and I believe the City of Bellingham has made a significant miscalculation here.

Actually, come to think of it, this WalMart is visible on the East side of I-5 just prior to crossing the bridge when headed North on I-5.

VERY astute observation. I'd not made that connection. Thank you for pointing it out.

This story is back in the news, just as we have been saying it would be.

Folks, nothing happens in a vacuum. When we make decisions, whether in private life, or public life, the ripples from that decision expand in concentric rings around us affecting all those we interact with, and even some we don't.

Here the City Council (2007) made a decision because they don't like WalMart. I know, I know... I can already hear the horrified gasps and cries that it was not a WalMart decision, but it's just too easy to call B.S. on that, so I'm not even going to waste the time. This was an anti-WalMart move, and now, as we all suspected would happen, it is affecting non-WalMart corporations. The concentric affect has taken just slightly over a year to ricochet back at the council. Costco wants to add some square-footage to their refrigeration area which would allow fewer truck deliveries to the store. This is a good thing; reduced traffic on Meridian, reduced emissions from diesel tractor-trailer rigs...

Interestingly enough, once again, it is Stan Snapp who has taken up, and embraced an issue that I whole-heartedly embrace, and one I brought up repeatedly in the campaign last year. Stan is saying he thinks it may be a good idea to reconsider this issue and let the expansion move forward. If this keeps up, I may have to contribute to Stan's re-election campaign!

But here is where this will get interesting. Let's play this out. As I suspect will happen, the ban will be modified or lifted in order to allow Costco to expand. If I were an official with WalMart Corporate, I'd have my drawings made up NOW, and jump on that wagon as soon as I could. What's going to happen then? Oh, come now friends, you know as well as I do! All Hell will break loose. The non-Union Evil Empire (WalMart) is looking to expand. You watch. I've put my stake in the ground here. It will happen. Costco will get the green light, and WalMart will be next in line, and I'm going to be watching very closely to see where that outcry comes from, and who responds in what ways when it does.

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Have you spoken with them personally? I have, and I've yet to find one that feels abused. Those employees I have spoken to are very proud of where they work, and enjoy it very much. They don't believe they are being treated unfairly. Now, I grant that this is anecdotal, but I throw it out there for consideration.



It's admirable that you take that approach.



Understood, and I do that same when I can. Like you, I do go to Costco from time to time, but it has to be a planned outing because it is SO hard to get in there, and more often than not the lines at checkout are quite long. Then getting the items from the car to the house is difficult because of the way it is packed... I just find it a hard place to shop, but be that as it may, we go there on occasion. Can't beat the Polish and Coke deal!!



That's fair. Likewise, there are concepts and approaches that I don't favor, but as you say, they have their place, and I don't like overly-restrictive government; local or national. In all candor, I rarely shop at WalMart either, for the same reasons I rarely go to Costco. It's just too hard to get to.



That's a fair rebuke, and I accept it. We cannot know the mind of another. However, I look at the actions and the timing, and it speaks volumes to me. When WalMart built that store, they did so with the understand that they would expand it one day. Everyone knew that and we went on our merry way. Other local retailers expanded existing stores and built new ones. Costco did an expansion of their facility. In all of this, no one blinked an eye or raised an objection. Then when WalMart went for the expansion we all knew was coming, the council responded with an emergency moratorium. If this was not an anti-WalMart move, then the timing was astonishingly coincidental. Councilman John Watts wrote a scathing rebuke in his op-ed on this issue.

At any rate, as you said, it will be interesting to watch the Planning Commission over the coming weeks. And I appreciate your common-sense approach to this.

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I'll have to ask my son about that. I recognize the name.



Thank you for the link. I've taken a quick look at it, but haven't gone in-depth yet. We have a deadline at work right now, so I'm looking at long days/compressed schedules/little sleep!

I'll take a look at it though.

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