Boulder seems to enjoy behaving in ways that make us cute and lovable. Like our endless commitment to making prairie dogs feel welcome in our community, even though the things we do for these cuddly creatures make some of us feel like our constitutional rights are being taken away. They aren't and we've earned a great reputation for loving our local rodent population. Makes you proud to call Boulder home.

Right now, we're having one of these cute and lovable moments. There's a rumor going around that Walmart might be trying to sneak a store into our town. Everyone who has lived in Boulder for a few years knows that Walmart is really just a bunch of bad guys who exploit workers, children, and puppy dogs to sell us products that are unnecessary, usually dangerous, and that probably all cause global warming somehow. A cute little town like ours has no choice but to rise up against this phantom Walmart and do all that we can to stop this evil in its tracks.

In true Boulder style, protests have been staged in the media and on our city streets. These protests were, to be sure, founded on noble intentions - by fighting the phantom Walmart, we are supporting both the working man and our own local businesses and, in so doing, seeking social justice while saving the world from rampant capitalism. Nice.

There are some problems, though, with these lines of assault on the world's largest retailer. Sometimes there's a thin line between "cute" and "silly," and it might be worthwhile to consider these accusations against Walmart a bit more carefully.


First, with respect to helping the working man, if Walmart is such a bad place to work, we should have no trouble finding Walmart employees screaming for changes in their working conditions or who can't wait to change jobs. Isn't that what we saw in the Walmart protests across the country this past week? Not quite. These protests were organized by a subsidiary of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and almost none of the protesters were Walmart employees but, more often, people affiliated with Occupy Wall Street, local unions and activist organizations. Additionally, Walmart gets over 1 million job applications from former Walmart employees every year, so people who leave Walmart employment seem to want to return.

What about all those sweatshops overseas that Walmart must be exploiting to get their low prices? I searched for Walmart's sweatshops but mostly found people talking about Apple's sweatshops, not Walmart's. Walmart does sell Apple products, so maybe that's worth protesting over, but probably not in Boulder.

So, I'm having a hard time conjuring up a case where Walmart is particularly bad for the working guy.

How about the argument that Walmart sells products at such low prices that our local businesses won't be able to compete, causing them to lose sales to Walmart and maybe even disappear? On the face of it, this starts out as an odd argument since it suggests that we could all love Walmart a bit more if they would just raise their prices -- not the typical American retail perspective that celebrates competition and the better products at lower costs that come with it. Still, it's good to be concerned for our local businesses, though I'm not sure we need to be. Our local businesses toughened up long ago when they faced the assault of other ambitious not-so-locally-based stores like Target, Whole Foods, Home Depot, Staples, Macy's, and Safeway that have been grabbing the lion's share of Boulder consumer dollars for years. Walmart in Boulder will hit these national chains hardest and I'm struggling see how protecting them does much to contain capitalism run amok.

Is Walmart really so much cheaper that their presence will change the local retail landscape? To answer this, I conducted a Highly Scientific Study comparing Walmart and local store prices on the standard-issue Hickenlooper Party Pak of Cheetos and Goldfish. At Walmart these items cost a total of $4.37 whereas at a local store they cost $4.16 -a surprising edge for the home team. Based on this research, it's pretty clear that Walmart competition is not going to empty out 29th Street. More likely, Walmart will just be one more place to shop in a town that might appreciate a few more retail options.

Boulder is a cute town, and nothing will change that, even if we do get a bit silly sometimes.