Last spring, my wife and I drove to Texas to visit her folks. From Oregon, our road trip took us through Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada — a trip of about 7,000 miles.

One thing that stuck in my mind from that trip was the proliferation of “dollar stores” along the route. I was amazed to see the number of small towns with boarded-up “Mom and Pop” buildings and new Dollar Generals on the edge of town. We made a game of calling “Dollar General!” at each new sighting.

Now surprise-surprise, Dollar General is building in Wallowa. As we learned from Erika Polmar’s excellent and well-researched “Other Views” column in last week’s Chieftain, there are many reasons to oppose Dollar General. Erika mentions the killing of local businesses, profits leaving the county, poor employment practices, coercion of suppliers, negative property values, lawsuits etc.

In addition to the important negatives she pointed out, I also feel that replacement of local business by chains destroys the uniqueness and character of individual small towns and communities, resulting in a bland sameness.

Is this what we want here? I’m hoping that Wallowa County will be different.

Jon Larson

Enterprise