Brief by Allen Best
Commerce – February 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
For some towns, having a big box store is a sign of homogenization, a repulsive emblem of Anywhere USA (or Canada).
Not so Leadville. After years of seeing everybody spending their money at Wal-Mart and Target stories in Frisco, Silverthorne, Avon, and Salida, the town will soon have it’s own bigger box variety store, an Alco.
Brief by Allen Best
Commerce – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Crested Butte Town Council has withdrawn its ban of new real estate and other offices on the ground floor of the Elk Avenue business district. The council adopted the ban in August, but in response to opposition had allowed existing uses to be grandfathered. Faced with a special election initiated by citizens, the council backed away entirely, reports the Crested Butte News.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Commerce – December 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
MY FIRST JOB at a commercial newspaper, as opposed to a school or underground newspaper, came in the spring of 1972 at the weekly Longmont Scene. By and large, the Scene was an excellent excuse for repealing the First Amendment, since it seldom printed anything worth reading. Its one distinctive policy was that it refused all advertising from outside of Longmont; unlike the Longmont Daily Times-Call, we carried no ads from Boulder, Niwot, Lyons, Berthoud, Lafayette, or anywhere outside Longmont. The owners of the Scene believed in “shop local.”
Article by Marcia Darnell
Commerce – August 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
ALAMOSA, like most small towns in Colorado, tries hard to put itself on the tourist map. Small businesses and individuals work to showcase their local attractions and natural wonders. Districts and boards, associations and directors, struggle to turn a trickle of tourists into a steady flow of dollars.
Column by George Sibley
Commerce – October 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE WAL-MART WARS have come to Gunnison. Down in Bentonville, Arkansas, the current masters of the universe have decided, for whatever reason, that Gunnison might be ready for a SuperCenter. This so inflates our sense of ourselves in the valley of the Upper Gunnison that we hardly know what to say, although we are trying out lots of statements on each other, as well as on Wal-mart.
Letter by John Rokosz
Commerce – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
It’s not an obscenity, it’s a matter of fact
Editors:
Wal-Mart Sucks!
This is not an obscenity or a slur, it is a fact. Wal-Mart does, indeed, suck. Like an enormous economic vacuum cleaner, it sucks the labor pool dry, it sucks traffic from other shopping areas, and sucks dollars from the local economy.
Brief by Central Staff
Commerce – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Wal-Mart already gets about 25¢ from every retail dollar spent in Salida, and it stands to increase that share soon when it opens its new 24-hour 7-day superstore now under construction.
Kenneth E. Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University in Ames, has been studying the effects of Wal-Mart Supercenters in Texas, the state which has more than any other.