BLOG: "Hello, Bentonville Calling..?"
The Office
Recently, my friend David received a call from someone who mispronounced several things such as 'Fred May-er' 'Hot-thorne'
'Mee-walkie' 'Tree-met'.
"There are a few things that I don't remember the exact context they were presented in but she suggested there was ample room up the road for a transit center, that if 'tree-met' had not purchased the land in the past 15 years should they be allowed to do it now," said David.
Sounds like Wal-Mart is gearing up for a fight...
Here are more of his notes from the call:
Asked for the youngest registered voter in the house...
Asked if I was over 18 and registered to vote...
Listed local issues including:
Education;
Growth and Urban Planning;
Traffic and congestion;
Access to shopping (my first clue that this survey had a specific purpose, access to shopping??);
The environment.
Asked me to state if I had somewhat positive, strongly positive, somewhat negative or strongly negative feelings of the following figures and companies in the news in Portland:
City Commissioner Erik Sten;
Fred Meyer;
Wal Mart;
The Portland Tribune;
Mayor Tom Potter;
The Oregonian;
City Commissioner Sam Adams.
She asked if I had heard of the plans to build a Wal-Mart in the Sellwood neighborhood at the intersection of McLoughlin Blvd and Tacoma.
She asked if I was in favor or opposition.
She asked the primary reason I opposed it.
She asked a secondary reason, if I had one.
Gave me a very positive description of the 3 story building similar to the "Hawthorne Blvd Area" with a parking structure, etc.
She then listed a number of comments and asked me to 'agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree strongly, disagree somewhat'. Those included:
The Wal-Mart would create more traffic on the already congested McLoughlin Blvd;
the noise and pollution from the store would disrupt the local neighborhood;
the store would hurt local businesses.
She then asked me to do the same with a set of positive questions such as:
People oppose Wal-Mart because they do not want the price competition with their businesses;
Wal-mart is a family company designed for the working family;
Wal-mart supports local charities and helps the community;
The man who owns the land should be able to with it as he pleases.
She asked if I shopped at Wal-Mart:
Often;
Occasionally;
Rarely;
Never.
She asked if I used public transit:
Often;
Occasionally;
Rarely;
Never.
She asked if I was aware of the following:
the site was considered for a Tri-Met transit station;
Tri-Met has been considering purchasing the land since 1990(I think that is the date she gave me);
Wal-Mart would manage stormwater so it did not affect the local environment.
She asked if I would describe my political leaning as:
Liberal;
Moderate;
Conservative.
She asked as a voter I was registered as
Democrat;
Independent;
Republican.
She asked me to identify in a list of age ranges.
She asked to identify in a range of household incomes.
She asked if me or anyone in my family was a member of a union.
She thanked me for my time.
I asked her if she worked for Wal-Mart or a survey company and she said a survey company.
Posted by The Office on December 20, 2005
(8) Comments | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Filed Under Blog, Front Page, Wal-Mart
Comments by site visitors
Maybe it was a concerned Walmart employee calling during their lunch break. Maybe not :-)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/business/23nwalmart.html
Posted by: Michael | Dec 23, 2005 6:40:56 AM
That article says that Wal-Mart violated workers' meal breaks in California 8 MILLION times.
I don't know about you guys, but I really like working for free, especially in low-paying service jobs.
Posted by: Justin | Dec 23, 2005 12:17:55 PM
Push Polls are no substitute for community dialogue, neighborhood review, and the Platform dialogue process..which only give democracy meaning when citizens participate.
Let's find out who paid for the Push Poll - and how much - and make it an issue. It is likely they may invest even more in other means to influence local opinion, and decision-makers.
I understand that under Oregon Law a company must identify themselves in the first 10 seconds of the call. Please ask them to repeat the name, and ask where they are calling from and where the company headquarters is located. You can also ask who is the Client Sponsoring the _Survey_
One thought - there is an odd chance they are still assessing if east Portland is worth a continued fight. Doubtful - for in their experience:
If we build it, they will come.
Best not to sit back and just wonder what might happen.
Prevention is the best cure.
Posted by: Julie Mikalson | Jan 5, 2006 9:28:14 AM
Julie,
What is described above is not a push poll. The description on Wikipedia is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll
A push poll is an advertising message disguised as a poll. This poll is clearly not that. The intent seems to be to research who supports and who opposed WalMart, and why.
Justin, as in every factoid about WalMart, we have to make sure their size in mind. The absolute number of *anything* that WalMart does will be large--the absolute number of sales, workers, stores, products from China, etc. They are the world's largest retailer.
What we need to know is whether WalMart is worse in terms of violations than other employers.
Posted by: paul | Jan 5, 2006 4:36:22 PM
As you know, Wikipedia is a totally user-written site. So, I could send in a different definition of push-poll, and that would be on the site as well.
I define a push-poll as one that seeks to influence you, whether to buy something, or to vote for someone, or to vote against someone, etc. I suppose you could say it is doing political "advertising". This one definately sounds like a push poll.
By offering positive statements about Wal-Mart, and especially "the man who owns the land should be able to with it as he pleases", it is obvious where their bias is. They did not apparently offer a similar statement: "Zoning and land use law are for the public good, and should be followed.", etc.
I have been called with pro-Francisconi polls (anti-Potter), as well as other political push polls. When it gets to the point where I think it's a push poll, I hang up.
Asking who they work for doesn't really work, because they'll just tell you the name of the polling company (often back east). They'll never say they know who paid for it.
Posted by: Doug Klotz | Jan 6, 2006 11:36:34 PM
Doug,
You provide an ad hominem attack on the source without telling us whether you think the definition itself is flawed. It is not. The wikipedia definition of push poll is a good one. Here's another for you to compare with, from the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers: http://www.aapor.org/pdfs/2005/Mar05Min.pdf
The WalMart poll is not a push poll. It is not an advertisement disguised as a poll It explicity asks the respondent to react to a set of pro WalMart and set of anti WarMart statements.
Posted by: paul | Jan 8, 2006 11:20:12 PM
Paul:
I looked at the link, and the only reference I could find said that no one could agree on a definition of push polls. My definition, as I said, is a poll that tries to influence you (to buy something, or to vote a certain way, etc.) in the guise of a poll. (Thus I disagree with your stated Wikipedia definition) The only "push polls" I have been called by have been about political issues (Francesconi vs. Potter, the Voter-owned elections, the public takeover of PGE, etc.)
The view they are trying to push is not always overt. Yes, you can ask questions that seem to be from both sides of an issue, but you can phrase the questions in subtle ways that tend to impart the view of the pollster. (that is what this one sounds like). The more blatant push poll is one that says something like: "What would you say if I told you that candidate X has a drug conviction on his record?" Note that they don't say it's true, but certainly imply it. It's still phrased as a question, though, so it's a poll, right?
Another techinique is to say "Some people say that ...", and then ask if you agree or disagree. They don't name who said this, so they could very well be making up statements to advance their viewpoint.
In the Wal-Mart case, it is pretty obvious who paid for the poll (i.e. Wal-Mart.)
If you've ever been called by a legimate polling organization (such as Tim Hibbits') you can tell the difference when they're actually presenting a fair view of each side, vs. the "push polls".
Posted by: Doug Klotz | Jan 10, 2006 11:14:11 PM
Post your comment
Please note: your email address, although required to post, will not be visible. We remove inappropriate or offensive content, and content deemed improper by State and City election and ethics law. The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of the office or the City of Portland.
Intersting. It looks like the fight is about to begin. I think it is going to get nasty so prepare yourselves.
Posted by: Tim Johnson | Dec 20, 2005 11:36:16 PM