Walmart; it’s huge, it’s well known, and it’s coming to Ventura in 2014.

Is this really a good idea?

Let us put some of Walmart itself’s problems aside for the moment and talk about why, just locally, there will be problems.

The new Walmart will be located where the old Kmart building is, in the Trader Joe’s shopping center on Victoria Ave. It will be taking up the old Kmart, along with other small surrounding stores. The traffic in that area is already congested, and the new addition of Walmart will only make it worse. 37,000 people shop at Walmart each week, 220 per hour, per store. That is roughly 220 more cars in that area per hour.

Now, onto the problems of Walmart in general.

There is a reason why Walmart has placed last on American Customer Satisfaction Index.

When Walmart comes to Ventura, it will be providing 265 jobs. It ‘s good that there will be more job opportunities here, right?

 Except for the fact that Walmart treats it’s employees poorly, like having the pay scale have employees with families fall below the poverty line, and offering benefits that most of their employees are unable to afford, one of those benefits being health insurance.

Have you ever wondered why customer service at Walmart is bad? That is not only because they do not have enough employees, but also because they barely pay their employees enough to live.

The amount of money that a full-time employee makes per hour is only $12.83. Walmart even has to hold food drives for its own employees. This just shows that Walmart is not treating their employees well, by not paying with a sufficient amount of money to be able to eat. Who would be enthused about their job at a workplace where they barely make enough for a living?

So yes, when Walmart is here, there will be more jobs. But what, exactly, is the point if they can’t make enough to support themselves, even if they were to become a full-time employee at Walmart?

Really, all Walmart is offering Ventura is barely (if at all) worthwhile jobs, which leads to poor customer service, even more traffic problems for the area, and poor treatment of their employees.

There is, however, a question on my mind. Why do we still shop at Walmart?

Is it because of the low prices? That makes sense for the people who are not able to afford food or clothing from other stores, however there are already stores in Ventura, such as Target, that offer lower prices than Walmart.

Is a Walmart wanted? Not really. In fact, residents, business owners and community groups protested against Walmart opening in Ventura. This got the City Council to limit the size of any large stores to be under 100,000 square feet along Victoria Ave. in 2009. Walmart responded by having this location only be 99,000 square feet. In other words, despite being aware that they are unwanted in Ventura, they found a loophole by making their new store only only 1,000 square feet under the limit.

Is Walmart needed in Ventura? Maybe. Between the years 2007-2011, the percentage of people below poverty level was 9.9% in Ventura, CA, although Target has on multiple occasions had lower prices than Walmart, and we already have two Targets in Ventura.

Also, think about Ventura’s culture. Walmart will not flourish here, and why would they want one of their stores in a Trader Joe’s, farmers market-loving town?

Walmart in Ventura is just a waste of time and space. All of its cons outweigh what little pros it has. Walmart exploits their employees, only creates more traffic problems in their new location, where there is already a lot of traffic, and will not even do well in Ventura.