Unfair competion can be deadly
Dear Editor:

I am the former owner of Dale & Son Supermarket Inc. in Albion, New York. Dale's Market as we were commonly referred to was founded by my great grandfather in 1940. It was the first self service supermarket in Orleans County.

In June 2006 Wal Mart opened a 150,000 sq ft Supercenter in our small village of approximately 6,000 people, bringing the total of supermarkets in town to 4, including our store a 47,000 sq ft Tops, and a locally owned Sav-A-Lot. Shortly after Wal Mart opened the 2 locally owned Jubilee Foods stores in nearby Holley and Medina were forced to close. In February 2007 we were forced to close our doors for good after 66 years in business. At the time we closed we were still doing the most dollars in grocery sales of the 4 stores in town and providing the best customer service in town. But WalMart had taken 30% of our sales. In a business where your bottom line profit is only $.01 on every dollar, any loss in business could be detrimental. Unfortunately, our loyal customers would still shop with us for our high quality meats, fresh produce and fresh baked goods but would shop at WalMart for their low price dry grocery items. WalMart often sold these items for less than I could purchase them from my supplier. I am a businessman who has always believed that competition is good and helps make you a better business person, but unfair competition from a huge corporation is deadly.

I was forced to lay off over 80 employees, most of the 30 full time employees had worked for me for over 20 years. Several still have not found jobs and some were forced to take minimum wage jobs at WalMart and are struggling to pay their bills.

I would like to recommend to the Planning and Zoning boards in Bath , New York to please do your homework before letting WalMart come to your town. I would encourage you to visit the several small towns thoughout New York and the country that WalMart has already ruined. Talk to the people in these communities, don't talk to the politicians but talk to the business owners and other taxpayers for their input. Do your own research, do not rely on the propaganda that WalMart will supply you with.

What makes a strong community is the people not big companies. The people who own small businesses are the backbone of small communities. They quietly support the local communities in more ways than you will ever imagine, unfortunately they do not go around bragging about what they do. Most small businesses give a huge percentage of their profits back to their community. Companies like Wal Mart give back a very small percentage of the billions in dollars they make ever year. The local people do that because they live and raise their kids in their community and they are proud of their community. Many WalMart Managers will not even live in your community and will most likely be transferred to another store within a few years. Yes they will come in and throw some big money at a few organizations in order to get their picture in the paper, but after they eliminate most of the competition they will raise prices and quit giving to the community. I am not some economist speculating about this, I have lived this first hand.

Thank you for listening to my thoughts on this matter.

Yours Truly, Mike Pilon Albion