• For Costco • Against Costco • Schiavo case For Costco As a part-time Kapa‘a resident based in So. Calif., I must take issue with the Viewpoint writer’s opinion on Costco. He is certainly free to wax nostalgic re: the
• For Costco
• Against Costco
• Schiavo case
For Costco
As a part-time Kapa‘a resident based in So. Calif., I must take issue with the Viewpoint writer’s opinion on Costco. He is certainly free to wax nostalgic re: the good old days of Ma-and-Pa retailing on Kaua‘i. However, his sentiments ignore the realities facing working families in this admittedly Edenic community. These include high prices, higher taxes and a sense of entitlement to the status quo by local retailers. Who can forget the cries of tainted milk and economic pillage when Safeway “invaded” Kaua‘i over a decade ago?
What happened is that Safeway forced Star, Foodland and Big Save to modernize and today, all four are thriving.
So it will be with Costco. Its proposed store is just another step towards bringing the cost of living in Kaua‘i closer to Mainland standards. For this reason, it is inexcusable, and downright libel, to falsely accuse Cost-co of shoddy business practices. They did not achieve retailing prominence by cheating customers.
In fact, the laments are predictably akin to those echoed by local businessmen in, say, Wichita, Kansas, some 100 years ago when a new kid came to town. Its name was Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Stephen R. Hastings
Kapa‘a
Against Costco
We are here for a three-month visit. Getting started by going to one area and looking it over. On Tuesday we went to Anchor Cove area where we saw the cruise ship leaving, had some lunch and visited the stores. Spoke to many of the sales people and saw a number of items I want to go back and buy for this years Christmas presents (I especially was welcomed by Laurie at Kruzin’ Kauai and a number of others, I did not get the names of). Now had I gone to Wal-Mart or the other big box companies I would have spoken only to the checkout clerk, and learned little of her family or the surrounding community. Nor would I have seen anything I could not get in my Canadian K-Mart, Home Depot or Vancouver’s Chinatown. I would not have contributed to any money that was staying in Kaua‘i nor be taking home a bit of Kaua‘i’s art.
Keep up the fight to keep the little stores of Kaua‘i in business. They are what I will remember at the end of the trip, and I still have two and a half months to buy a few new outfits as well as Christmas gifts!
Maxine Geddes
Vancouver B.C.
Schiavo case
Regarding the Terrie Schiavo case in Florida, I have these two questions and I would love for someone to elucidate me on the subject. What if the Doctor in charge says “I can’t pull that feeding tube, because it will be murder”? What would happen ? And what if Terrie’s estranged husband then pulls the feeding tube. Could he be charged with murder?
Dr. Gordon “Doc” Smith
Kapa‘a
