Walmart downtown?? We should encourage it more than you think

You know as much as so many are against Walmart in the downtown Broadway district, one has to stop and think about back when downtown was successful actually. I mean when our downtown was at its highest what was down there??? Hmmm if you can't figure it out, it was major retail stores before they moved out to the suburbs.

The death of downtown Green Bay started many decades ago even back into the 1950's. The whole port plaza mall killed downtown Green Bay actually went back into the 1950's and took decades for them to actually try to move forward with that plan. It wasn't the mall killed downtown, downtown was already dead they were just trying to do something new and the "in" thing at that time to hope to revitalize our downtown.

Big retail doesn't kill downtown's, the lack of them makes it harder for the mom and pop shops to be even more successful. If you bring a Walmart that could lead to a Target or to others and more big retail. In return small business opens up near big retail to piggy back off them, isn't that what we usually still see now, wasn't that how it was at malls and still to this day? The better the anchor retail stores the more successful a mall can be, or any location for that matter.

I mean you don't think people who would shop at Walmart downtown wouldn't be interested in stopping in the other places to shop or to get a bite to eat? Those business owners down there complaining, I highly doubt you would be complaining when your bottom line increases, then you will be praising the increased traffic and bodies spending money at your places.

Now myself personally, I think what we need downtown is a year long market type place downtown. I thought the old mall would have been a great place for this. A year round farmers market open everyday, with food and other vendors also there to sell their goods. After I visited Japan and saw these covered street "arcades" that was blocks of stores that people could walk down no traffic on them, shielded from the elements but yet still outdoor/indoor. I thought you know places like broadway or washington st could use an idea like this. If you have never seen these type of places look them up, they are great.

I also thought you know a place like a woodman's would really do a great job downtown to serve not only the "poor" people in the area downtown, but it would also do wonders to influence other people to want to move downtown. Seriously a close good priced source of groceries should be one of the fist things one thinks about when they move somewhere. The poorer you are the more important this should become to be honest, yet unfortunately it isn't the case.

Plus let us be honest, despite the initial low wage hiring at Walmart, the place will bring jobs to the area. jobs bring income, which in turn boost local economy. It may not be much at first, but if other places piggy back on Walmart being there, they will need to hire more and if they are not like Walmart then they can hire their new needed employees at a good living wage right??? I mean what is the average wage of the employees at these places already downtown? Are they already paying their employees like $12 an hour? If they are not then they should really shut their lips since they are not any better than the big box places too when it all boils down.

Really when it comes down to it, what are people so afraid of? I mean isn't it better to have someone like Walmart and take  a chance on them actually making it better for everybody long term than to not have them at all and wonder did we make a mistake on what could have been. Too be honest I think Walmart has more at stake to lose here than any of the existing shops.

My mother and her husband are thinking about moving back to Green Bay, and they have been eyeing up downtown places. My mom believes like me that right now is the time to move downtown, the revitalization is happening right before our eyes and those who move down there to live will be the ones who help shape the direction things grow. My sister doesn't want my mom to move down there, but I think as long as there is the things they need are close by then living downtown could be a great place for her and her husband. You should have all the conveniences close by within walking distance or a short bus ride when you live downtown, if you don't then your downtown is in need of repair and not good for living still.

They have made great strides over the past decade or so downtown, let us keep this rolling and build it into something we all can be thankful for.

Just my 2 cents

US Championship Cheese Contest

US Championship Cheese contest part that is open to the public is very lacking. The samples were not many, and not many varieties. Should have had plenty more to sample and more than the usual kinds we already buy. Need to open up people to other varieties out there.

With that being said the Emmi Roth USA Monroe, WI Vintage Van Gogh aged Gouda was fantastic

  Lovera's Cheese Krebs, OK Aged Caciocavera Provolone was great too

I know a lot of it is judging the cheeses, and not much the public can do about that but I think it should be much better organized on the public end of it. It is the US Championship Cheese contest and we are Wisconsin, we should know how to put out some cheese to sample...lol In my opinion they should have made available samples from every entry and had a public vote too. Then there could be a people's champ in every category and overall too. That is just my two cents but hey I don't run the show.

There is no wealth inequality!

A friend on Facebook posted a link to a YouTube video about wealth inequality in America.

Now I watched this video and OK yes I can totally understand the statistics it shows, but one thing I can never figure out is what is this so called "Wealth Inequality"? Is the success of others albeit a small % really making it that it is not equal for the rest of us to have a piece of the pie too?

I mean look poor people are not poor just because a small % of wealthy people are just that, wealthy. That small % of wealthy people are not really stealing peoples money and preventing them from rising above that poor level, granted  there obvious cases of theft of this nature from the wealthy to the poor and everyone in between looking to cash a fast buck.

If you watch the video the narrator says exactly why there is such huge gaps between the very successful and  everyone else, the rest of us simply do not save and invest enough. 

You know it isn't because people can't afford to save and invest, it isn't because of their color, or any other excuse they want you to believe. I think the main reason is that most of us simply can't live within our means and too much of a got to have it now instead of later attitude.

Let us take someone who is not wealthy, doesn't matter if they are poor or middle class really. How much has this person bought lets say on credit? How much money is thrown away on the interest from the borrowed line of credit? How much of that stuff on credit was actually something that was an emergency purchase compared to simply can't wait to have it? What if that person saved money and bought it with cash, maybe even got a better price, and didn't pay any interest now? Automatically that is extra money in their pocket they didn't spend, now considering they would have just thrown it away before why couldn't they instead transfer that to some sort of savings? Wow amazing how just by being patient and waiting to buy something when they can actually afford it, they saved money that can in return be in saved or invested. 

Now lets look at groceries. Why not make a small investment into a chest freezer, then make larger grocery shops so you are going to the store less often. Less times to the store means you are saving gas, which means you are both saving money and using less gas which is better for your pocket book and environment. Look for as many coupons you can use, find when you can double them up, look for in-store specials, and so on. You don't have to get coupon crazy but even just some simple coupon gathering and looking for the best deals you can save countless money or get better value for the money you spend both of which are savings to you. All those save $.30, $.50, $1.00 buy one get one and so on will add up.

What about luxury items such as internet, cable or satellite TV, cell phones, and so on? How many of these could you really afford to live without, or lower your plans to save money? 

I would have to imagine even a poor person could easily end up saving a couple $1000 a year by doing these things. Sure it might not seem like a lot, but now if you keep saving that year after year and not touch it you can start to build a nice little nest egg. You get enough you can take it from savings and move some of it to investments and yield a bigger return on your investment. Another wow moment because you are putting yourself into position to start having your money make money for you, this is basically what wealthy people do isn't it? You might not be making millions, but any free money made is good money. If you do everything right you could easily put yourself in a position that you will be complimenting your income enough to put you above being poor.

Why don't we also do more to promote investing and saving to our youth? Why not initiate school savings programs, make it easier to open savings accounts with very little money at our banks, or even open special savings places where not only kids but even the less fortunate can have it easier to save even the smallest amounts. Other nations do this, and places like Japan it is so common for people to just put money into their savings. 

We need to start waking up and learning to be responsible for ourselves again. Why should be mad at the "1%" I mean really shouldn't we be mad at ourselves instead? We always want to blame someone or something for our failures. The way these people make it sound the "1%" are sitting around plotting this out or something. The only thing they do is take advantage of the opportunities and are capitalizing on them. You also have to remember those who invest also have failures too that lose a lot of wealth and money, you never hear about that though. That is a big difference between them and the rest of us, they are willing to take risks and chances to get ahead. 

Really the "1%" should be the people we look up to. We don't need to reach the "1%" but rather be inspired by what they do and what it takes to reach that. I mean really do you want be inspired by successful people or people who do nothing to bring success? As they say there is always a million excuses not to do something, seems to me blaming the "1%" is just another one of those excuses.