
{"id":8775,"date":"2010-01-21T10:22:59","date_gmt":"2010-01-21T18:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=8775"},"modified":"2010-01-21T13:09:46","modified_gmt":"2010-01-21T21:09:46","slug":"big-boxing-senator-shopkeepers-spar-over-costco-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/01\/21\/big-boxing-senator-shopkeepers-spar-over-costco-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Big boxing: Senator, shopkeepers spar over Costco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n Carrboro   \u00e2\u20ac\u201d  Sen. Ellie Kinnaird\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s push for a Costco for Carrboro has some shopkeepers fuming over what they say is a slight against them that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s used in making her argument.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, town officials say it is very unlikely a store will be sited here.<\/p>\n<p>Kinnaird, who met with Costco and town and county officials two years ago seeking a store for the area, has said the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pay and benefits and its corporate practices are a good match for the town. Landing one, Kinnaird says, could be a major shot in the arm for the local economy.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The only way to make our taxes less of a burden to homeowners is to increase the tax base by developing a vigorous commercial tax base in Carrboro,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton acknowledged that there have been discussions in the past, but said the company ruled out Carrboro because there were no sites near a major four-lane highway.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not talking to them, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve met with them twice at least in the last four years, but at no time in the last year or two,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said in a recent interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there are some places in Chapel Hill they could potentially be interested in, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I got from my conversation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Costco officials have remained mum on any discussions. In an email response, a spokesperson for Costco chairman and co-founder Jeff Brotman told The Citizen last week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our corporate policy is to not comment on specific markets.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The closest Costco to the Chapel Hill-Carr-boro market is on North Pointe Drive in Durham.<\/p>\n<p>Kinnaird recently revived her Costco push, asking town officials to support the effort. In making her case about wages and benefits, however, she has rankled proponents of a more locally focused economy, including members of the nascent LocalMotion organization, which promotes homegrown enterprise and cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>Wootini gallery owner Michael Maher said the senator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position is out of step with efforts to build a strong locally based economy. Maher said while he agrees that building the tax base is important, he feels small businesses and not big box stores like Costco are the way to do it. Locally owned businesses, he said, return a much higher percentage of their sales to their communities than do chain stores.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you want honest growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201d grow from within. The money and development you would use to lure a Costco . . . you could better use to create an incubator program for entrepreneurial business, enhance the artistic community, promote what is already here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Maher wrote in an email response to <em>The Citizen<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In her letter outlining the case for a Costco, Kinnaird insists that the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s small boutiques and shops shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be the basis for the local economy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153More importantly, those small businesses cannot pay a living wage or health insurance to their employees. The small workforce they hire is therefore deprived of both,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kinnaird wrote. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Costco, on the other hand, paid $18 an hour some years ago, and I suspect pays more now. Every employee, full and part time, is provided with health insurance.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She acknowledged taking heat over the issue and said she wished she had noted that the smaller shops can provide owners and small-business people with a good living.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro alderman Dan Coleman said it appears that Costco and other larger retailers are not interested in locating in Carrboro. While a diversity of opinion on economic policy is a good thing, he said, it makes more sense for the town to focus on growing and supporting its locally-owned businesses.<\/p>\n<p>PDF: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/kinnairdletter.pdf\">Kinnaird\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case for a Costco<\/a>.<br \/>\nMaher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response (available Friday)<\/p>\n<p>Beth Mechum contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Carrboro \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Sen. Ellie Kinnaird\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s push for a Costco for Carrboro has some shopkeepers fuming over what they say is a slight against them that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s used in making her argument. Meanwhile, town officials say it is very unlikely a store will be sited here. Kinnaird, who met with Costco&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8806,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775\/revisions\/8806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}