[Jewelry making - Article 00164] - Re: [Orchid] BlueNile Vs. "wholesale"

[Stones]

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>        And they can, the people are knowledgeable and helpful. I
>     haven't seen that at Home Depot or Wal-Mart.  Big Joe's has
>     differentiated themselves and I'm willing to pay a little more at
>     Big Joe's. And "Big Joe's Has survived in the face of Wal-Mart and
>     Home Depot. 

    I live in a small city in southern Colorado.  The population of the
    entire county is less than 40,000.  I was on the City COuncil from
    1991 through 1999 and went through the process of trying to preserve
    and protect the downtown area.  We had a "regular" Wal-Mart until
    the late 1990's at which time the company built a Super Wal-Mart -
    there was much opposition to it but there was no legal way the City
    COiuncil could have prevented it.  The store was built and the
    downtown businesses have been diein off ever sinc. 

    At about hte time the store was built here, I attended a number of
    meetings of an organization of 21 countines from souther Colorada -
    this covered a very large area.  During one of the meetings, the
    representatives from each of the twons and cities were asked to give
    a report on what was happening in their communities. At least 90%
    got up and opened with "Wal-Mart is building a Super Wal-Mart". 

    Wal-Mart is not the only company that targets the small communities.
     In hte last year, Home Depot purchaed land less than 1/4 mile from
    the best ACE hardware store in the area and is building a Home Depot
    center.  I am sure this will kill the Ace store ( and probably the
    other hardware store in town.  We had a True-Value until the
    announcement of the Home Depot project - it just completed closing
    down (It will become Walgreens- which will probably hurt the small
    Drug Store down the street).  It is a never ending cycle. 

Glenn Vaughn

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