Too Big is not a Reason

I have heard this before and today in the Daily News I heard it again. The reason why Wal-Mart should not come to Pullman is that it is too big. The company is too big. That is the silliest reason I have heard. It would be like saying their company colors are ugly.

Leilani Alamillo was the writer of the letter to the editor in the newspaper. After after claiming that WalMart was too big and powerful. He made a claim that WalMart forced businesses out of business without offering an evidence. Then he said look at the figures of Tom's lawsuit values. WalMart has 172 million in lawsuits whereas Rite Aids is only 25 million.

Look at his statement that WalMart is so big, so big in fact that it should not be allowed in Pullman, I decided to compare those numbers with the company Income statements. I went to the 2005 financial statements for yearly income for each company.

Then I compared the income to the lawsuit value as reported by Tom Forbes. This gave me a figure. I am sure a few people will be shocked. But in terms of Income, Starbucks, is almost five-times worse than WalMart.

COMPANY - INCOME - LAWSUIT VALUE - PERCENT OF INCOME
Starbucks - $6,369,300,000.00 - $18,000,000.00 - 0.28%
Rite Aid - $16,816,439,000.00 - $25,000,000.00 - 0.15%
WalMart - $287,989,000,000.00 - $172,000,000.00 - 0.06%

Anyway, I just had to say something. I could not sit back while people make statements like "WalMart is too big, therefore we don't want it in Pullman."