Every once in the while it's necessary to give the NIMBYs of this list a reality check and sort of put things in perspective. Cub is not the wolf that WalMart, A.K.A. the Beast of Bentonville, is. They're not the (paper) tiger Target is either. Cub is a subsidiary of Super Valu, a medium sized grocery wholesaler and to a smaller degree retailer. Super Valu was founded and is still located in Minnesota and employes thousands of well paid union members.
Every once in a while it's important to check one's facts. Supervalu is not a "medium sized grocery wholesaler and to a smaller degree retailer." From the very front page of their web site:
"SUPERVALU is the 11th largest food retailer and the nation's leading food distributor.
• We have approximately 57,800 full and part-time employees – with career opportunities throughout the country
• SUPERVALU is a Fortune 100 company – and growing
• SUPERVALU is among Fortune’s Most Admired Companies
• SUPERVALU ranks number 2 among Minnesota’s Top 10 public companies"
For fiscal 2003, retail operations represent 51% of total sales and 72% of segment operating earnings at SUPERVALU.
Now I like Supervalu as much as the next guy, but saying they are corporately small is not an argument for having a Big Box Cub in one's neighborhood. It's the Big Box, more than the corporation, that's the problem, although predatory corporations like WalMart and Walgreens make such a situation worse.
I don't see the people in northeast saying Not in My Backyard. I see them saying don't wipe out a block of successful and highly desirable businesses and homes simply to build something which is not highly needed in that specific area.
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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