Bottineau Walmart opening in December (Minot, Williston: house, employment, health)

[MikeyToo]

I'm a bit curious about the new Super Walmart that is being built in Bottineau, as it will be just down the road from us come next summer (Lake Metigoshe). For a town of only 2200 people, I was wondering how they are going to find 220 people to operate the new store. I've been told that everyone in Bottineau is either employed or a few that don't want to work.
I only hope they speak Engish!..lol Presently wife and I live in California, but I will be moving back home next spring, or whenever our house sells. Out here you need to speak Spanish...

[chester]

Interesting point. Considering it has about 2,200 people, and they need 220...that is 10percent of the population that would be employed by Wal-mart...I'm guessing they will rely a lot on part time, retired, and possibly bus workers in. I know they have a shortage of workers in the Williston Super Wal-mart, and bus workers in from the smaller communities in MT, into Williston...mainly Wolf Point, Montana, Culbertson...and many small towns around Williston where there are not a lot of opportunites, people will drive the 20-30 miles into Williston to work. Hopefully they have enough people or towns around Bottineau to fill the positions.

[chester]

I'm also guessing they will rely on the college students who attend college in Bottineau..I'm sure there were not a lot of places for the young people to work or choose from, but now will be able to find work at the Super Wal-mart. But could hurt other businesses that relied of the college kids.

[MikeyToo]

Hopefully, the little guys will not be hurt. Maybe they will just need to do some adjustments to compete. After all, Walmart dosn't do everything right. Their products are the cheepest, not necessarily the best. It will become a trade-off. Hopefully, people will see Wallmart for what it really is. A place to buy a few things cheap, but will still go to their local store for other purchases. Thats the way I see it here in California anyway...

Go NoDak!!!

[chester]

I kind of agre about Wal-mart...being cheap, but products cheaply built, etc... but a lot of times people use that argument...the same products you buy at wal-mart...like sunbeam small appliances and blenders, etc.. or Panasonic TV, sony stereos, etc... they really are the same product you get at the local Jim Bob electronic store... also...a lot of people put Wal-mart down, and say they always shop at Target or K-mart..but those big box stores have the same products as wal-mart...and all built by the same manufacturers. But just my opinion. I think a lot of people just plain don't like wal-mart because they are so huge and kind of move into any little town now days and run the local stores out. I'm not sure they hurt towns of 10,000 or more...but it surely has to hurt the smaller towns of 2,000-10,000. Williston has 3 large grocery stores...Wal-mart, Econo Foods, and Albertsons...because of the oil boom...they can support all 3...but if there was no boom here...wal-mart would probably have pushed one of the others out.
I wonder if the local grocery store in Bottineau can survive the super-walmart...that is what is kind of sad.

[MikeyToo]

Originally Posted by chester

I kind of agre about Wal-mart...being cheap, but products cheaply built, etc... but a lot of times people use that argument...the same products you buy at wal-mart...like sunbeam small appliances and blenders, etc.. or Panasonic TV, sony stereos, etc... they really are the same product you get at the local Jim Bob electronic store... also...a lot of people put Wal-mart down, and say they always shop at Target or K-mart..but those big box stores have the same products as wal-mart...and all built by the same manufacturers. But just my opinion. I think a lot of people just plain don't like wal-mart because they are so huge and kind of move into any little town now days and run the local stores out. I'm not sure they hurt towns of 10,000 or more...but it surely has to hurt the smaller towns of 2,000-10,000. Williston has 3 large grocery stores...Wal-mart, Econo Foods, and Albertsons...because of the oil boom...they can support all 3...but if there was no boom here...wal-mart would probably have pushed one of the others out.
I wonder if the local grocery store in Bottineau can survive the super-walmart...that is what is kind of sad.

I forgot about the college in Bottineau. They will no doubt be a resource that Walmart will tap into. Back in the early 90's, I use to work(Electronics Control Designer) for a small company in Chaska, MN called American Harvest. We made food dehydrators, jet-stream oven, etc... I remember how we got beat up trying to get our products into Walmart. Walmart buyers wanted you to almost give them the products we made. And of course, we almost did with very little profit, because we needed to get name recognition and Walmart was the best place for it. I'm sure other appliance companys got pretty beat up as well in trying to get their products on the Walmart shelves.
The businesses of Bottineau have gotten together to do some brain storming about what they can do to minimize the affect of having a Walmart around. I see there is both +/- to having them there. The city figured that if they didn't let Walmart in, they would possibly build somewhere else close by, so why not let them build in Bottineau. You draw more people, the general health of the local economy improves. Its all a matter of time to see how it all will play out.

[Roloff1976]

I agree, if Bottineau would have turned Wal-mart away, they would have picked another small community near bottineau. I also believe there are +/- to having Wal-mart in Bottineau. I am sure without the wal-mart, there is that customer drain to Minot...at least some of those people will do more of their shopping in Bottineau. I do worry about the local grocier though. I know nothing about them, but if they have a loyal customer base, and treated the customer well in the past, they will be ok. Wal-mart grocey is little to be desired in my opinion.

[bonesspike]

You people don't know the whole area well when it comes to employment. The reservation is only about 30-40 minutes away and there are ALOT of people on it, they figure about 12,000 with a terrible unemployment rate. They aren't going to have any trouble finding workers and everyone will speak english, very few people on the res speak more than a word or two of the Native languages.

The grocery stores leave alot to be desired in the area too, they're very small with little selection and very high prices.

[Roloff1976]

bonesspike...your post is maybe a good reason for super
wal-marts. Large number of unemployed people, and local stores who don't care about their customers anyway...this is where I DO support Wal-marts from coming into communities. I like shopping at Super Wal-mart, and figure they have as much right to be there as the local stores. Especially if the local stores treat their local shoppers like crap.

[Wozney]

I live in Deloraine Manitoba, and I don't know how far the closest Super Walmart is on the Canadian side, but to have one only half an hour away. Thats cool. Theres just alot of cooler stuff in the states to buy, (especially junk food) and everything is so much cheaper. With the dollar as it is, I'll be doing alot of shopping there. And i really hate Pamida, its just looks so icky. I do hope the Super pumper and Jack and Jill can survive it though