Oh, So Now Wal-Mart is Bad

The tribe's PR coordinator, Lynne Harlan, has a zinger of a piece bashing Wal-Mart in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Not that I disagree with the assertion that tribal members shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart, but her piece, as I've become accustomed, only looks at the issue from one point of view and makes an entirely false assertion, "Our community was disappointed." No, the Cherokee community's opinions were mixed. Some suppported it, but others opposed it.
Harlan is once again towing the line of her bosses, who never sought public opinion to see whether people in Cherokee actually wanted the damn store. It's not only basic marketing, it's basic public relations.
What would be nice is to see why so many businesses don't want to do business in Cherokee or on tribal land. I won't hold my breath waiting for that column from Harlan because it shines a negative light on her bosses, for whom her columns in the Asheville Citizen-Times have puffed up.
Many businesses don't want to operate in Cherokee because they have to seek permission from politicians, and it's from politicians who have a reputation for not playing fair.
That likely has more to do with why Wal-Mart didn't locate in Cherokee, not as Harlan suggested, that money spent by Cherokee people isn't valued. That's not to mention that for those who support Wal-Mart locating in Cherokee in the future, which Wal-Mart has not ruled out, Harlan's piece just may have ensured that the mega-store giant will bypass Cherokee for any future locations.
And for the record, I feel that Wal-Mart would've ruined Cherokee. I opposed it.