Forum Discussion
westernrvparkow
Mar 25, 2017Explorer
fulltimedaniel wrote:As we have come to expect from your posts, you are once again way off topic and completely obfuscating the point. The tread is about friendly CITIES and STATES, not Walmart or Cabelas. I couldn't care less about what a Walmart or a Cabelas does with overnight parking in their lots. That is between them, the landowner and the local authorities. However, when a municipality chooses to compete directly with a local business, and I don't care the rationale they use, that is wrong. The comparison to opening a free RV park to compete with the local private parks is exactly the same as offering free food at their community center or free auto service at their maintenance facilities and thus competing with the local restaurants and auto repair companies.
Qouted from a well known poster:
"And, like it or not, there is only so much any city can do to roll out the welcome wagon and not step on local businesses. They could offer free RV sites with full hookups, but that sure would put a dent in the business of the local RV parks. How would the local restaurants feel if that same town offered free breakfasts and dinners for tourists at their community centers? Would the local auto repair facilities welcome the county maintenance garage fixing tourists cars for free? Giving away one business'service to increase the business at another is robbing Peter to pay Paul at best. Who has the right to make the determination that a souvenir shop is more important than a RV Park?"
The problem with this reasoning is this: Wal Mart is A. Not the city B. They offer no hookups or amenities.
Thus to compare what WalMart or Cabelas does by allowing people to Park their RV's in their lots IS NOT on the same plane as the City Offering free breakfasts, car repair or RV hookups thereby competing DIRECTLY with Denny's et al.
In fact many cities and counties all over the country do have their own RV Parks and some are the nicest I have stayed in. This is for a fee, often very reasonable and THAT is the REAL competition to the RV Parks...Not WalMart.
The rationale often stated by these municipalities is with the money visitors save not paying for an RV site allows them to spend more money at the other businesses in town. That is the definition of a government choosing what businesses should thrive and which ones should fail. That might be good politics in Cambodia, but not in the US.
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