Wal-Mart and an Ohio developer run a successful campaign to overturn a Vermont town's local ordinance governing large-scale retail stores.
Wal-Mart's developer "spent thousands of dollars on a blitz of radio spots, full-page newspaper ads, lawn signs, multiple mass mailings, and a push poll." The poll asked people to agree or disagree with statements such as, "I am in favor of Wal-Mart because they offer low-cost products which benefit senior citizens and residents with low incomes." Wal-Mart and its supporters repeatedly branded "those in favor of the law as rich elites, derisively referring to them in newspaper articles as 'doctors' wives and all those trustee people.'"
Thanks to Stacy Mitchell
Read the full story: Wal-Mart Money Trumps Land Use Process in Bennington, Vermont
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One Hundred Miles
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
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