The Crimson White Online - Life still different on Gulf Coast: "Wal-Mart #2715 in D'lberville, Miss., is a lot like any of the other 2,120 Wal-Mart Supercenters in the United States. It's got a Blimpie sub shop and a pretzel stand. There's a DVD player on sale for $27.96. Halloween decorations adorn the store while Christmas trees hide quietly in the garden section. It's a setup repeated all across the country.
Yet, Wal-Mart #2715 has a simple sign stuck to the front door with packing tape: 'Current store hours 6 a.m. - 1 a.m. Thank You.'
D'lberville's Wal-Mart closes. Nightly.
Hurricane Katrina may have changed the cartography of waterfront property all along the coast, but it also redrew the area's economic landscape. A year after the storm, there are jobs on almost every corner. A few miles away in Ocean Springs, Wendy's offers $125 weekly bonuses, and its competitor under the golden arches next door has a table lined with employment brochures and a cardboard cutout touting the benefits of working for McDonald's. But few are biting.
Housing and insurance costs are up after the storm, and the minimum wage has been $5.15 an hour since 1997. Weekly bonuses can't make up for that. The D'lberville Wal-Mart can't hire enough people to work 24/7, so they fold up at 1 a.m."
Friday, September 29, 2006
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