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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you have a big store locate inside DC, it will drive out some of the smaller stores. Like if a Home Depot relocated to Gtown, Glover Park Hardware would close. [/quote]

OK but that's an issue of protecting small business.  They are being duplicitous in saying that they are protecting the wages of retail workers.[/quote]

No, the Council is not being duplicitous. Trying to make this a small business/Big Box issue is missing the bigger picture. There is actually a divide between big boxes on this issue. Giant and Safeway are unionized and collectively bargain with their employees over wages and benefits. Costco already pays fairly generously. If Walmart shows up opposing unions, paying low wages, and not offering benefits, it puts downward pressure on those businesses (probably not Costco, which can handled it). Giant and Safeway will be forced to go back to their unions and offer them lower pay or fewer jobs in order to compete. So, Walmart will drag down the entire large retail wage scale. 
[/quote]

I get the "if".  But while Walmart is not union, I don't believe they pay low wages and they seem to have pretty good health care options.  Do you disagree?[/quote]

Yes, I disagree. It is my understanding, supported by several sources, that Walmart's wages are quite low, that a large number of employees are limited to less than full time so that they are not eligible for benefits, and that the healthcare benefits for full-time employees are so expensive that many choose to pass.

See this in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/business/wal-mart-cuts-some-health-care-benefits.html

Or this from PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html

"This pay scale places employees with families below the poverty line, with the majority of employees' children qualifying for free lunch at school. ... One-third are part-time employees - limited to less than 28 hours of work per week - and are not eligible for benefits. "

"Full-time employees are eligible for benefits, but the health insurance package is so expensive (employees pay 35 percent - almost double the national average) that less than half opt to buy it."

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