"We don't want WalMart or Lowes" (price, store, Home Depot)
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This is one for all the people who are sick of hearing NIMBY's fight against any kind of development near their little McSubdivisions. The local residents in this case succesfully fought the developer from putting in a Walmart and Lowes Home Improvement store in an area zoned industrial. So, he put in an industrial business that is driving the locals nuts! Ah, the irony...
Big shocker here that this story emanates from my area, the land of urban sprawl. Residents in one subdivision near me protested the impending construction of a BANK because it would "ruin their quality-of-life," and residents of another rapidly-expanding community are burning bridges with those at an existing industrial park about noise.
Well, I don't like shopping at Wal-Mart. Too crowded, non-existent help, etc. etc. etc. However, about once every month or two, my wife and I make the pilgrimage to stock up on some things selectively.
That being said, I always love this moralizing about Wal-Mart. You know. Wal-Mart ruins small businesses. Wal-Mart has predatory practices. Wal-Mart is responsible for the Holocaust, etc. etc. The Indignation Brigade gets absolutely shrill about the entire thing.
Well, I have this to say to that. If you hate Wal-Mart, then don't shop at Wal-Mart. If you don't like Lowe's, don't shop at Lowe's.
We have Wal-Marts and Lowe's o'plenty. At the same time, we still have the local grocery and the local hardware store. And, yes, there is life for the local retailer after the Big Box store waltzes into town. How?
Have inventory that's easy to find. I can't tell you how many times I searched in vain at the local hardware, looking for a gadget among the chaotic shelves.
Learn how to provide good customer service. At another local hardware store, the owner is absolutely rude to the customers. I don't mean not saying "Have a nice day." I mean insulting them. He never helps you find anything and, if you have a question about the product, he says, "Well, if you don't know how to use it, why are you buying it?" On the other hand, I found another local hardware store run by the nicest guys in town. They take their time, will go out of their way to help, and they'll always get my business before I drive another three miles to shop at Lowe's or Home Depot.
Be reasonably priced. Now, you don't have to match Wal-Mart or Lowe's. You just need to be somewhere close. But when I walk into the local sporting goods store to buy my son's baseball glove, and it's twice as much as the same glove at Academy, then I'm getting in my car. But if you can just get the price within 10-15% of the Big Box guys, then I'd rather buy from you than spend the extra time and gasoline.
Market yourself. Good grief. What with permitting and construction and everything else, you know the Big Box retailer is coming to town a good two years before it actually opens the doors. So why aren't you getting out there in your community to reinforce your own position in the marketplace? Build some customer loyalty.
Sorry. I just had to rant. The pious Anti-Wal-Mart people love to rant about it, but they never really think about the benefits big box retailers bring to buyers in their respective communities.
That is because the unions are anti-wal-mart. It is their target since they are the biggest retiler in the US and growing all the time. Ypou have enemies you are a target of alot of proganda from them. If the truth be told most of these upper class areas don't want wal-mart because of teh peole that it will attract coming onto their area.
Imagine how great a sound wall a Wal-Mart would have been inbetween that shredder and the neighborhood! A huge solid concrete block building bouncing all that noise back to the plant.
Well, it could be worse. It could have been a papermill. Then, every time residents went out to the mailbox, it would smell as if the entire neighborhood farted.
Oh boy;smelt that before.Talk about stink. Not sure if that or a stockyard smells worse.
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Residents in one subdivision near me protested the impending construction of a BANK because it would "ruin their quality-of-life," and residents of another rapidly-expanding community are burning bridges with those at an existing industrial park about noise. 
