Sunday, September 14, 2014

Shopko Receives A WEDC Endorsement

By Jeff Simpson

Shopko has been a Wisconsin fixture since 1962:

 Shopko (formerly ShopKo until May 2007) is a chain of retail stores based in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, near Green Bay. Shopko was founded in 1962 by James Ruben, and its first store opened in Green Bay. From 1991 to 2005, the company was publicly held, with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SKO. In December 2005, the company was acquired by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners and reverted to private ownership. In 1999, Shopko purchased Pamida, a regional discount chain that operated mainly in smaller communities of 3,000 to 8,000 people. Shopko operated Pamida as a separate division until 2007, when Pamida was separated from Shopko and reestablished as a separate company. In 2012, Shopko and Pamida merged into one company. Shortly after, most Pamida stores were rebranded as Shopko Hometown.

Shopko, has over 300 stores in 20 states and employes 17,500 people.  That is unless the Spokesperson for Scott Walker's signature jobs agency, WEDC has anything to say about it!  










WEDC even handed Shopko $2,000,000 of our tax dollars to expand their corporate headquarters.  Apparently WEDC, was just buying election good will since they obviously do not believe in Shopko as a company.   I guess in Fitzwalkersta, $2 Million taxpayer dollars is well worth it to buy a few votes.

 Also no one should be surprised that righty blogger Ed Willing jumped on the rip on Wisconsin companies bandwagon(I feel for Caledonia businesses).  

Maybe Scott Walker and his team need a lesson on what "Open for Business" really means! 



5 comments:

  1. Looks like Shopko's "donation" to Scott Walker's campaign was not large enough.

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  2. Sun Capital Partners is a leverage buyout firm. WTF is WEDC doing, giving money to a vulture capital firm?

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  3. Replies
    1. Its been deleted and so was I, but thats why I grabbed a screenshot

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  4. Well with WEDC giving them money, I'll bet that Shopko will shrink the number of employees. As that seems to be the case with most companies that get such funding.

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