Wilkowski urges Kroger to reconsider closing of Manhattan store
This in via e-mail from the Wilkowski for Mayor campaign:
Wilkowski Supports North Toledo Residents Bid to Save Kroger
Urges Kroger Officials To Consider New Incentive Package from the City
Toledo, OH – Democratic Mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski will join north Toledo residents on Wednesday morning as they board a bus for Cincinnati, in an effort to postpone the closing of the Manhattan Plaza Kroger store. Wilkowski will be there to show his support as the residents prepare to hand deliver a letter to Kroger CEO David Dillon.
Who: Toledo Democratic Mayoral Candidate Keith Wilkowski
What: Shows his support for North Toledo residents effort to save the Manhattan Kroger store, as they depart by bus for Cincinnati
When: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 6 a.m.
“I urge Kroger officials to consider the incentive package put together by the City of Toledo’s Economic Development office and delay the closing of this location,” said Wilkowski. “I respect Kroger’s right to make the best decisions for the company, and I hope the door is not closed to considering ideas that could keep this store operating and making a profit.”
The Manhattan Plaza Kroger store is scheduled to close this Saturday, October 10.
Why doesn’t he urge the patrons of the store to stop shoplifting?
October 6th, 2009 at 10:18 pmThis seems silly to me. If Kroger was profitable, they would stay open so this “incentives” package will be what?
(sarcastic) Maybe the recycling coupons will only be usable at this Kroger…
October 7th, 2009 at 10:38 amThat store is losing $5,000 per week.
How about we urge Wilkowski consider surrendering 5000 votes in the November mayoral election?
What? He may need those votes to survive? Hmmmm…
October 7th, 2009 at 10:58 amSo if the store is losing 5,000 a week the only incentive from the city will be tax break or loans equalling $5,001. Let’s see the math on that: $5,001 X 52 = $260,052. Yep, Toledo can afford that.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:34 amChump change. The city can borrow it from the chinese, like obama does.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:01 pmHere is a grand idea….
October 7th, 2009 at 12:06 pmInstead of trying to bash Kroger’s for making an economic decision, why not negotiate the transfer of the store to a non-brand entity that is more equipped to operate in that demographic. For example, the Seaway Foodmart on Cherry does a nice job in that community. The operator also maintains three stores (with his partners) in Dearborn and Hamtramack. Offering incentives for future income tax credit to his employees and business tax credit for maintaining operations for a period of 10 years would cost the city nothing (versus having an empty building) and would provide a valuable service to the community.
Take a business approach to the problem, as opposed to a Socialist approach….novel concept!
N.A. (#6): Last I checked, it was Bush who racked up the debt with China – a debt that Obama is now beginning to address ….
Tax Time (#7): Good idea, one actually supported by logic and working examples – something unfortunately in short supply in this blog.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:44 pmCorrect, obama is printing money to pay back the debt. Can you say hyperinflation? Believe it or not, but that is exactly what obama wants, regardless of the hardship it will cause the people.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:57 pm#6 I was also wondering why there hasn’t been more of a push to bring in another store to that location. If Kroger doesn’t want to be there, why force them?
October 7th, 2009 at 2:00 pmThis must be George Bush’s fault too! If anyone doesn’t think that President Teleprompter isn’t racking up debt, then they must be severely mentally handicapped.
Look Toledo is in a huge economic crisis, this store is in a poor part of town, where obviously the citizens of this part of town are hurting, there is nothing that they can do about except shut it down. Tax time (#6) I don’t think its Krogers obligation to find another tenant for this building or part of this community. However, if an opportunity arises, it would be in Krogers best interest to negotiate a deal for someone to take over that store.
October 7th, 2009 at 5:38 pmIt seems as if they were not interested in just delivering the letter – but according to the Cinci media they protested where Dillon was speaking today.
That doesn’t seem to be the way to build bridges…
October 7th, 2009 at 10:25 pmCreating all this drama over a failing store. No, it’s not like it’s a thriving business looking to move to a more hospitable climate, it’s a grocery store that has utilized it’s own solution to the “problem” because it’s failing in it’s location.
A location that is within the confines of a dead neighborhood.
So they offer a solution out of their own pocket. Free bus rides three days a week to it’s customers.
You really should be more selective in the battles you choose to involve yourself with, Keith, the egg won’t be so gooey when it explodes…
and NotAgain, your one-trick show pony has a leg that’s lame. It’s going in one long boring circle, over and over.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:45 amAre you feeling guilty for voting for obama maxson?
October 8th, 2009 at 8:05 amLet’s stay on topic…The bus tour and protesters made the AP wire and was even picked up in Houston.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:15 amThis “protest” was arranged by Lagrange Council and many of the members of United North. A waste of gas and a bad idea for Kieth to join it. Too bad they couldn’t have taken a hot air balloon down there, Terry Glaser and his friends would be able to provide enough hot air for the whole trip. Then Kieth could definitely get behind it, because it would be “green”
October 8th, 2009 at 11:31 amJust to take note of the anti-Obama bashing…
October 8th, 2009 at 9:23 pmFor 8 years we put up with the W supporters blaming every problem the nation faced on Bill Clinton, who had one of the most successful presidencies in history. Obama has only been in office for a little over 8 months, and everything is his fault? We Obama supporters still have 7 years and 4 months to go!! We can blame W forever!
And don’t delude yourself, by 2012, things will be moving in the right direction in this country and we’ll have 4 MORE YEARS!! Try again in 2116. Won’t Chelsea be old enough to run by then? Doesn’t that idea just give you goosebumps!?
Just looked it up! Chelsea will be 36 in 2016! She could run! I wonder if she can see Russia from her front porch?
October 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm^That makes me barf! If it wasn’t loud and clear to the Clintons when his VP lost in 2000 then hopefully its clear to them when Hillary lost in 2008. Disappear! America does not want you anymore!!!
October 8th, 2009 at 10:00 pmLet us get back on topic folks, please.
In light of wilkoski’s failed bus trip down south, I would hope the folks will see him for what he truly is, an anti business socialist.
Only an incompetent would expect a company to maintain that location while continuing to lose money. He certainly can’t control the company. Who does he think he is, obama?!?!
October 9th, 2009 at 7:05 amKeith Wilkowski has done more for this area than any of you “nattering nabobs of negativity” (that’s a quote from former Vice President, Republican, Spiro T. Agnew) can even imagine. He will be elected mayor, and he will be a great mayor!
Keith IS NOT a Socialist, but, let’s see…Socialism is working well in Japan, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc., etc., etc. The Chinese are burying us right now, and they’re outright Communists (revolutionary Socialists)!! The [bleeping] Commies that all recent Presidents, both Republican and Democratic, have set up with one-sided trade agreements, only own at least $1 trillion of our debt that W, his father, and Reagan piled up.
Bill Clinton balanced the federal budget, and had significant surpluses his last two years in office!! Bill Clinton gave us eight years of economic prosperity, no major wars, and budget surpluses that everyone had predicted could never be done. Clinton had us on the road to paying off the national debt!! If that’s Socialism, bring it back!!
Look at the record. Gore had significantly more popular votes than did W in 2000. Gore won the electoral vote too. Every unbiased observer knows that Jeb Bush and his cronies stole that election in Florida for his nitwit brother who failed at every business he ever ran, including the Texas Rangers baseball team, that stunk when he ran the franchise!! The Republicans on the Supreme Court anointed the worst president in the history of this country against the will of the plurality who voted in the 2000 election. And we in the Great Lakes area have paid the heaviest price of all for W’s incompetence and Cheney’s arrogance!!
Bring back the Clintons!! Chelsea in 2016!!
October 10th, 2009 at 3:05 amChad,
Hillary came closer to defeating Obama than McCain did!!!
And in case you didn’t notice, Hillary hasn’t gone away at all. She’s our Secretary of State and doing a great job!!
October 10th, 2009 at 3:11 amNotAgain,
My candidate actually won the Nobel® Peace Prize for existing, what did your hero do? Start a war because some dolt made an effigy of his father on the floor of a hotel with tiles, and the artist who created it got an award too.
A Nobel® Peace Prize for lookin’ so fine! mmmmm-mmmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmmmmm. Better than the legacy your little knucklehead created for himself lol
Sorry Lisa.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:39 am“My candidate actually won the Nobel® Peace Prize for existing”
Exactly, and common sense should tell you that something is very fishy, when all the winner has done to date, is exist.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:51 amdale 20, on the one hand you say wilkowski is not a socialist, and on the other you laud the greatness of socialism and communism. Are you suggesting that wilkowski is a communist?
October 10th, 2009 at 7:56 amNot again 25:
I guess nuances are not something you’re good at detecting. I ABHOR (deeply HATE) Communism! I find it repulsive that Republican and Democratic presidents alike have made terrible, one-sided trade agreements with a government in China that treats almost its entire population as a giant plantation of slaves!!
If people want to select, by their votes, leaders who use SOME Socialist ideas, and those ideas work, as in democracies of Western and Northern Europe, we should adopt those ideas that work…like a true national health care system. I am NOT rigidly tied to any one economic philosophy whether it works well or not. I don’t know any “pure” economic system that functions really well. The best economies are those of Western and Northern Europe and Japan, that are a mix of controlled, competitive capitalism, and socialism.
Of course the U.S. was doing quite well under this type of mix while Clinton was president. You neo-cons just can’t get it through your heads that Clinton had us headed on the road to greater economic independence: a surplus federal budget, paying off the national debt. W totally derailed this economic juggernaut in the past eight years!
October 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am