This is one, among other issues, that’s been bugging me for a long time involving our local Walmart Supercenter.
During my five-year employment at the local store, starting in summer 1998, I was intimately involved with the company’s local charitable activities, including associated volunteer programs, cash and merchandise donations, grants and scholarships, in-store promotions and community relations.
All during that time, the only people to my knowledge who’d publicly acknowledge the store’s efforts and value to the city and county were our loyal customers and supporters, not the local media or city/county leadership. It was almost as if they hated the “big, bad corporate behemoth” and didn’t want to acknowledge the company’s good works and value to the community-at-large.
It’s been quite some time since I was in their employ, so I can’t speak to how the company’s now operating. All I can tell you is that I’ve always felt Walmart should’ve been welcomed with open arms and received, at the very least, a little thanks during that time. They provided then, and still fill, a needed, reliable retail niche, not to mention helping to richly fill the local coffers with sales tax money.
It couldn’t hurt to learn to say “Thank You.”
Anita Hermosillo
Durango
