Emotional Punch or Sucker Punch?

A major retail chain is trying to open a big box store just outside the village, which is proving controversial. As the town board considers allowing the location to be rezoned to accommodate the new store, your communication instructor has asked each student in your class to present a persuasive speech either in favor of opening the store or against it.

Your small college town is known for its charming main street, peppered with small businesses, independent stores, and restaurants. The fact that it’s so different from the suburb you grew up in is one of the reasons you chose to attend it. You are concerned that competition from this large store, which will undoubtedly offer lower prices than the local markets, will endanger these small businesses. But you also know that there are a lot of low-income families living in the town who want the jobs, as well as the less expensive merchandise, that a big box store will bring.

Having investigated the company’s track record, you find that it does bring jobs but that the jobs are primarily part-time, minimum-wage jobs, with no benefits, and that the overall effect of opening a large store like this will be detrimental to the town’s economy as well as its overall charm. However, when you head to a similar store in your hometown to talk to workers and customers, the response you get to the store is incredibly positive. One worker tells you that although she does, indeed, work part time, the second income the job provides on top of his wife’s teacher’s salary is the only reason he is able to make his mortgage. Another tells you that without this job to supplement her own full-time job as a home health care aide—as well as the low prices she gets on groceries at the store—she would not be able to feed her family.

These comments weigh on you heavily, and you know they would add emotional heft to a speech that supports opening the store. But your other research, which includes economic studies and statistics, has led you to conclude that the store will be bad for the town in the long run. What should you do?