INSIDe FRoNT2 Thursday, December 5, 2002

Dan SemIndex Staff

Ever since Wal-Mart firstbrought its massive selection,everyday low pricing and all-hours-of-the-day sales to the cityof Kirksville in the early 1980s,the city’s local downtown busi-ness center “is a lot less than itused to be,” said Burt Beard,owner of Beard’s DecoratingCenter.

Beard, whose business hasbeen in operation for 87 years,attributed the languishing down-town business to an uptown prob-lem: Wal-Mart.

“I could just name businessafter business that has goneunder,” Beard said. “I’m not cry-ing or moaning though, just stat-ing fact.”

Beard said he used to have aclose friend who owned a stereoshop downtown, but that businesscouldn’t survive more than a fewyears after Wal-Mart came to

town. “He’d have a stereo selling for

about $200 ... Wal-Mart would beselling the same thing for maybe$80,” Beard said. “There was noway he could make it.”

Wal-Mart drives down theprices on items Beard’s store car-ries because of its ability to buy inmass quantity, Beard said.

“They sell mini-blinds for lessthan the cost I buy them from asupplier ... I just can’t competewhen they bring in 10 truckloadsof merchandise like that,” Beardsaid. “They do have cheaperprices. There is no doubt aboutthat.”

Beard said the only way asmall-business owner inKirksville can survive is to find amarket niche, offer quality cus-tomer-oriented service and sellhigher-grade goods than thosefound at Wal-Mart. Beard saidthat although Wal-Mart makestrouble for some small-businessowners, it does make an effort to

give back to the city of Kirksville. “[Wal-Mart tries] to be fairly

community-minded, donating tothe United Way quite heavily,”Beard said.

Doug Nichting, store directorfor the Kirksville Wal-Mart, saidWal-Mart gave more than $20,000in donations to Kirksville-areaorganizations in the last year andsponsored scholarship and envi-ronmental grant programs for thecommunity. Nichting also saidWal-Mart is not necessarily thecause of downtown Kirksville’sbusiness problem. He said it’s theamount of service those business-es offer that may cause their owndemise.

“They close too early,”Nichting said. “The hours aren’ttoo convenient for working-classpeople.”

For locally owned businessesto survive with Wal-Mart in town,Nichting said it is important forbusiness owners to remember thatthey should not try to compete

directly with Wal-Mart. He saidlocally owned businesses shouldoffer products different from theproducts of Wal-Mart’s stock.

“Small businesses can’t gohead-to-head with Wal-Mart,”Nichting said. “They need to finda niche market, or they are notgoing to be successful.”

Nichting said he thinks Wal-Mart benefits small local busi-nesses drawing in customers fromthe surrounding counties. Thesecustomers may potentially shop atother stores besides Wal-Mart, hesaid.

“Wal-Mart brings people infrom 60 miles out,” Nichting said.

Alisa Kigar, the executivedirector of the Kirksville AreaChamber of Commerce, said thatwithout Wal-Mart and the smallernational-chain stores that surviveoff the business it brings to thecommunity, Kirksville would notbe the retail hub of the northeastMissouri region.

“People are drawn to Wal-

Mart,” Kigar said. “And if it was-n’t here, people would go south toColumbia to do their shopping.”

Kigar said the competitionWal-Mart offers to local business-es is a good thing.

“With competition it makesyou far more aware of yourstrengths and weaknesses ... Ithelps to capitalize on thestrengths,” Kigar said.

She said she thinks businessesare forced to reinvent themselvesand find a market they can servethat lies outside Wal-Mart’s abili-ty, and that usually leads to betterbusiness on a whole.

Kigar said she thinks it can behard to do this, however.

“In Kirksville, it can be verydifficult for a local business tocompete unless they find theirniche market,” she said.

Kigar said she was unable tocomment on whether Wal-Marthas played a hand in the bankrupt-cy of some downtown-area busi-nesses. Kigar said she thinks that

for different Kirksville residentsand business owners, Wal-Martdoes different things.

“[Wal-Mart] can be the blackplague or a birth announcement,”she said.

Herb Sieren, owner of Sieren’sPalace downtown, said he doesnot shop at Wal-Mart, but he saidhe likes it because Wal-Martbrings shoppers into the commu-nity. Sieren said many shopperswill come to peruse downtown’scollection of stores once inKirksville for Wal-Mart. He saidhe thinks there is definitely com-petition between the retail outletand locally owned stores, howev-er.

“When you get a store the sizeof Wal-Mart coming in, it takes achunk out of Kirksville dollars,”he said.

Sieren said he offers clothingbrands that can’t be found at Wal-Mart and person-to-person servicewith his customers to stay in busi-ness.

Business consultantdiscusses Wal-Mart

Car hits professor on bike

Wal-MMart Supercenter dries up local business

Newly implemented program brings formerWal-Mart executive

Natalie ChurcheyStaff Reporter

An internationally sought-afterbusiness consultant who had asuccessful career with Wal-Martvisited Truman on Nov. 21 as partof the University’s newly imple-mented Profiles in Leadershipprogram.

Jack Shewmaker’s life story isone of the American dream ofcorporate success. In 1970, aftertraveling all over the countrylooking for employment,Shewmaker went to work withSam Walton, who then owned 12retail stores in Arkansas.

“I told Sam Walton that I did-n’t want to go all the way backdown there [Arkansas] ... Andthen [Walton] said the one sen-tence that changed my life, mycareer, my attitude toward peopleand the way I do business,”Shewmaker said. “He said, ‘Willyou meet me halfway?’”

Shewmaker talked to adminis-trators and students about how toapply the new corporate experi-ence to the realm of education.He is the first fellow in the newseries, which will bring promi-nent corporate, government andnon-profit sector leaders to inter-act with the community, sharingtheir knowledge and experiencefrom their particular area ofexpertise.

Although Shewmaker came tomotivate students, some weredefensive because of the wide-spread success of Wal-Mart, espe-cially in small-town communi-

ties. Senior Todd Ruecker, who

handed out fliers titled “What’sWrong with Wal-Mart?” beforeShewmaker’s lecture, said hewould like it if Kirksville had agreater selection of smaller, morelocalized stores.

“I would like students to thinkat what costs goods are being soldcheaper ... Do you want people tosuffer so you can save a few dol-lars?” Ruecker said.

“I do not represent Wal-Mart,”Shewmaker said at the beginningof his lecture.

Shewmaker did, however, pro-vide opposing evidence, empha-sizing the positive effects of Wal-Mart’s presence in severalinstances.

He told the story of a Wal-Mart associate in the electronicsdepartment who received a mil-lion dollars from Wal-Mart’sprofit-sharing plan when sheretired.

“She was the best at what shedid,” Shewmaker said. “We alldeserve the equal opportunity toexcel at what we do.

“When you have 1.5 millionpeople in over half a millionstores, it has got to affect some-one. All of us have a differentview, and that’s not all bad.”

When Shewmaker started withWal-Mart Stores Inc., it was mak-ing $30 million a year. Now itmakes $2.45 billion.

As Wal-Mart expanded, basedupon a philosophy of “grass-rootsmanagement,” so didShewmaker’s responsibilitieswithin the retail giant. When heretired from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.in 1988, Shewmaker had risen tothe top, having served in thecapacities of president, chief

Internet class falls short of expectationsStudents concernedabout honesty, progressin online statute course

Christy DixonStaff Reporter

The online AmericanInstitutional History course seemsto be helping more students fulfillthe Missouri statute graduationrequirement, though some studentshave had trouble adjusting to theonline format.

Bob DeCoste, social scienceinstructor, is teaching the courseusing the Blackboard 5 online pro-gram.

DeCoste said he had to makesome changes in the class’s formatthroughout this semester.

“The one thing about this classis that it is the first time goingthrough,” DeCoste said. “Weweren’t sure where the sweet spotwould be.”

DeCoste said some studentsthink they need a more direct lineof communication.

Junior Wei Huang said hisbiggest problem was keeping upwith deadlines.

He said he hasn’t had a quiz forthis class in about two months and

is wondering when the next onewill be. The last quiz only coveredthrough lesson four.

Huang said he thinks the onlineformat of the class is convenient,but a more rigid schedule is neededin the future.

Senior Josh O’Hara said he didnot know that this course wasgoing to be online until he showedup the first day of class.

O’Hara said helikes being able tocomplete assign-ments on his owntime but occasion-ally has troublekeeping up withdue dates.

“This class issuffering fromsome serious poorcommunication,” O’Hara said.

He said it is hard to go onlineoften enough to find out when dis-cussion questions are active and toget them answered in the timeallotted.

Students are required to pur-chase a textbook and keep updatedwith eight lessons that are postedonline. For the first seven lessons,two to three discussion questionsare posted. Students were advisedthat if they did not post about threeresponses per lesson, they would

lose their participation points forthe class.

The number of responses a stu-dent is required to post haschanged from three to four to two.DeCoste said students from thecourse chose to make thesechanges through a survey. He saidall changes in the class curriculumare posted in the announcementssection of Blackboard 5.

Students takefour quizzes and afinal exam. Eachquiz covers a fewlessons and aretaken online.

The final will beproctored in a class-room, and any stu-dent who does notpass the final will

fail the course.O’Hara said he is wondering

how the class will have time to fin-ish its remaining two quizzesbefore the final Dec. 13.

With the quizzes being online,O’Hara said cheating is a viableoption.

“It’s not like you couldn’t pullthe book out and look it up,”O’Hara said.

He said the quizzes are not dif-ficult, and he cannot imagine whyanyone would need to cheat.

The online format has helpedmore students to fill their gradua-tion requirement, however.DeCoste said the division was ableto add a second block of studentsto the course, admitting 30 morepeople to the class.

DeCoste said he thinks a newsyllabus that will include morerigid due dates and requirementswill improve the class next semes-ter.

Sophomore Jennifer Trumpetsaid the slow progression of theclass does not worry her, but shecan see where it would be a prob-lem for juniors or seniors in upper-level classes.

She said she was originally ledto believe that the course would bealmost over by mid-November sothat students could concentrate ontheir more difficult classes andfinals.

Trumpet said she thinks thevalue of the class lies in its abilityto help more students fulfill therequirement.

DeCoste said he was notinformed that the course would beonline until this past summer. He isnot certain who decided to changethe format, but he said that hethinks it was a cooperative effortbetween the social science divisionand administration.

“This class is sufferingfrom some serious

poor communication.”

Josh O’Harasenior

Luke Trautwein/IndexAn abandoned shopping cart sits idle in front of Wal-MMart Supercenter on Wednesday afternoon. Local business owners have had to competewith Wal-MMart’s lower prices. Jack Shewmaker, a business consultant and former Wal-MMart employee, spoke to University students Nov. 21.

financial officer, chief operatingofficer and vice chairman.

Shewmaker is now semi-retired, serving on the Board ofDirectors at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.and traveling the world as a con-sultant to corporations, non-profitorganizations and institutions ofhigher education.

“I’ve come to the conclusionthat it’s not so much who youthink you are that really matters,”Shewmaker said. “That’s why I’m

at Truman. I believe in its mis-sion.”

President Jack Magruder, whoselected Shewmaker as aLeadership Fellow, said he waskind of surprised he could get himto come.

“We hoped our students couldget a glimpse into what makes himtick, to see a world-class personwho came up by his bootstraps,”Magruder said.

Magruder said Shewmaker was

curious about Truman and hadbeen watching its progress as well.

“He liked our Master Plan, buthe encouraged us to get a littlebigger as we get better,” Magrudersaid. “It is very difficult to managean operation on zero growth ... Iknow if we had 3 percent growth ayear, we’d have more flexibility,and we could respond to somethings. I can assure you that we aregoing to have some talks about it.”

Shewmaker encouraged admin-

istrators to take a faster-actingapproach to making decisions.

The University’s speed issometimes cumbersome,Magruder said, but it may be diffi-cult to apply the successful Wal-Mart policy of acting the next dayto University policies.

“In a university you just aren’tgoing to be able to pull that off ...we sure do have some room forimprovement, though,” Magrudersaid.

Jaci DevineAssistant News Editor

An associate professor of his-tory and nationally competitivebicyclist was hit by a car Nov. 27while bicycling north on Highway63 south of Greentop, Mo.

Tom Zoumaras was riding onthe shoulder when MichelleDixon of Greentop, also travelingnorth, tried to pass him, accordingto the Missouri Highway Patrolaccident report. Because ofoncoming traffic, Dixon sloweddown and the right side of the carhit Zoumaras.

“It’s a tragic thing that hap-pened,” Dixon said. “I can’t undoit and I don’t know what else Icould have done to undo it at thetime.”

Dixon said she immediatelystopped her car and called theparamedics and Zoumaras’ wife.

“The next thing I knew, I waslying on my back in the north-bound lane,” Zoumaras said. Hesaid he was knocked out by theimpact and suffered from a con-cussion, a broken shoulder andthree broken ribs in addition tosome bruising. Zoumaras wastreated in the emergency room atNortheast Regional MedicalCenter and released without beingadmitted to the hospital.

Dixon said she is not facingany charges, but she said she is“sure they are pending.”

Zoumaras said he rides his bikeabout 15,000 miles a year to trainfor races. He said he now is train-ing for the Masters NationalChampionship in July, which heand his brother won in 1998 and1999, and the Masters WorldChampionships, which are thissummer in Austria.

Zoumaras said the accidentwill interfere greatly with histraining schedule.

“Frankly, I don’t know if I’ll beready,” Zoumaras said.

Zoumaras said he will not beable to train outside for anothersix weeks but he will be able totrain indoors in the next few days.

Zoumaras said he broke thesame shoulder and the same ribsin an accident in a race Oct. 5. Hesaid he has not trained effectivelysince before then.

The next race on Zoumaras’agenda was going to be inFebruary 2003, but he said he mostlikely will not be ready in time.

“It’s probably not realistic forme to expect to race until March,and that’s probably on the opti-mistic side,” Zoumaras said. “Atthat point, I still won’t be compet-itive, but I’ll go out and use it astraining.”