If you don't want to shop at Walmart, don't.

I read a letter to the editor the other day speaking about the “criminal” element that could be brought into town by having the Walmart take up residence in the location formerly occupied by The Great Indoors.

Wow, sounds kind of racist to me. If you look at the ethnic makeup of both Burbank and Glendale, it has changed drastically in the past 30 years that I have lived here.

No one group has a lock on the criminal element, it is spread throughout all of them. When Burbank was a sleepy little town that Johnny Carson made fun of, there was definitely much less crime, but its citizens had to go out of the community to shop at places like Walmart, Target and others.

Now we have all the conveniences, so to speak, that other communities have. Restaurants have opened, we have our choice of many places to shop, and jobs and tax dollars have flowed into the coffers of our city.

When I first heard that The Great Indoors was closing, I felt there were two companies that would be a good fit for that location — Whole Foods and Walmart.

Walmart obviously beat Whole Foods to the punch.

For those who say Walmart will drive other stores out of Burbank, may I remind everyone that Handy Market is still doing a thriving business, despite all the other supermarket chains and the newcomer, Fresh & Easy.

If you don't want to shop at Walmart, don't. That's why we all have choice.

Connie Harris

Burbank