On July 12, I wrote to Delia Garcia, Wal-Mart's Senior Manager of Public Affairs for Arizona. Not receiving any response, I wrote again on July 30. Finally, on Aug 31, I received an answer-----not a response, but a "boilerplate" reply.
Checking further, it was determined a number of other Oro Valley residents had written Ms. Garcia. They all received the same "form letter" reply.
We thought we'd share our correspondence with our readers. Please click below to read it, and see if you don't agree: Wal-Mart shows a totally callous attitude toward Oro Valley residents.
http://www.letorovalleyexcel.com/pdfs/garcia.pdf
As always, your comments are welcome.
Art
2 comments:
What is a good neighbor? Does a good neighbor run a business that is open 24/7? Not in my book.
With the announcement by Vestar that Wal Mart will be the anchor store of our "unique" shopping center all hopes for something different or nice has faded.
Wal-Mart, shop there if you must,but why share our sales tax money with a developer who seemingly has too many ties to Wal Mart. please Vestar and Wal Mart can we have an answer to the question of what happened to those unique stores that were promised for 23.2 million?
This whole issue and possibly cover up of details could possibly be called VESTARGATE.
The following comment is from Kathy Pastryk.
Art,
Thank you for sharing your multi-month correspondence with Delia Garcia, Wal-Mart Executive. You have persuaded her to look at some of the issues she and others close to the problem have willfully chosen to ignore.
Your responses to her inattentive form letters are right on the mark. That your perseverance succeeded in getting a response from her at all (!!!) -- is in itself commendable. Many of us have not been so fortunate.
You are right -- it is Ms. Garcia's obligation to inform the higher executives at Wal-Mart about our
serious oppostion. We are discerning shoppers and our preferences deserve to be addressed
by Vestar. Otherwise, we will shop elsewhere.
Those who choose to look at us as an "under-served" population so hungry for consumer goods
that we will snap up anything offered us are treating us like animals.
Oro Valley shoppers are not bereft of stores to shop in. Many of us will go out of our way to avoid
supporting a developer that foists a Wal-Mart on us after flaunting and boasting about an upscale mall.
Unsavory facts about Wal-Mart can be found in the news just about every day, and the internet
abounds in factual information. Recent financial trends forecast hard times for Wal-Mart --much
of it unhappily brought about by their own practices.
Vestar's own hubris has alienated many people. How long will it take them to realize that our
shopping dollars are not going to rescue them from a ill-planned business decision? Any developer
who refuses to serve the people certainly doesn't deserve their sales tax revenue.
Art, thank you again for helping to facilitate Wal-Mart's withdrawal from the Marketplace. The day that
actually takes place will be a happy one for many shoppers in Oro Valley.
Kathy Pastryk
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