By Staff
The headline in Sunday's Brewton Standard read &#8220Brewton bags Supercenter.” It should have read &#8220Brewton bags a disaster.”
Why would Brewton allow Wal-Mart to put up a Supercenter? The one we have now is enough. We don't need a bigger one. Along with a bigger Wal-Mart will come a bigger price for the Brewton community to pay. It's an offer we need to refuse. Some of the major businesses here are already hurting. It's not like the prices are so much cheaper. You might find a deal on dry goods but by the time you pay for their vegetables and meats, you haven't saved a dime. It seems like we are cutting off our noses to spite our faces. If a Supercenter comes to town, Brewton businesses can forget about all of the business they get from the people in the surrounding counties. The people in Conecuh County, for example, will simply stop at the Supercenter on U.S. 31 and when they finish with their shopping, they will turn around and go back home without even driving to town. And what about all of the travelers that come through town going to Florida? They won't have any reason to stop in town for anything after they stop here first.
Have we really though about how this will impact our community? A supercenter will carry food, clothing, bakery items, flowers, gas, tires, optometry business, beauty shop, tax refund center, furniture, appliances, etc. So on what businesses will a supercenter have a direct impact in Brewton? All of our gas stations, our optometry shops, our grocery stores, our dollar stores, our tire shops, our auto parts stores, oil and lube shops, our drug stores, our flower shops, our barber and beauty shops, our fast food restaurants, our furniture stores