Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Battle-Mart 101

The Service Employees International Union, the creators of Wal-Mart Watch, have teamed up with Wal-Mart "slam-dunker" Al Norman of Sprawl-Busters.com to create a "Battle-Mart" site. Battle-Mart is aimed specifically at those wishing to "battle" a Wal-Mart in their community, complete with a "Battle-Mart 101: Tips for Fighting Wal-Mart" PowerPoint presentation.

The presentation is fascinating and infuriating at the same time. PARD has been following Norman's playbook to the letter. I won't get into the "7 Step Plan" yet, as I am saving that for a post-mortem of PARD showing how they failed

A few other things mentioned in the presentation do, however, give some valuable insight into PARD's tactics:
Wal-Mart is never a “done deal.”

Gosh,that sounds familiar.

Time is on your side. The longer the delay, the better chance Wal-Mart will leave.

Now you know why PARD is dragging things out and why their attorneys were pushing for a September hearing date.

If you don’t fight, you have a 0% chance of winning.

And that sums up PARD's motivation for continuing this pointless battle that is costing Pullman taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
I hope this further disabuses anyone of the notion that PARD is waging a "grassroots" struggle. It is being scripted, choreographed, and funded by forces outside of Pullman.

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