Meijer is in a big box of trouble: It secretly funded a recall effort

It's pretty easy to glean from this blog that I'm a strong supporter of the free market, and that government should for the most part leave the private sector alone.

For the most part.

Here's an example of a company that needs to be spanked: Regional "big box" retailer Meijer, which operates stores in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.

I've shopped in a couple of them, one in Rolling Meadows, Illinois near my home, the other in Three Rivers, Michigan near Kalamazoo. Like Wal-Mart Supercenters, Meijer stores are big box retailers that sell groceries.

Meijer wanted to build one more store in Michigan, near Traverse City, in the northern part of the state's lower peninsula.

From the Traverse Record-Eagle:

Retail giant Meijer secretly funded a plan to orchestrate last February's recall of Acme Township's elected officials, a potential violation of state campaign finance laws.

Meijer paid a public relations firm at least $30,000 in a failed effort to remove Acme's board after years of zoning disputes over Meijer's plans to build a store along M-72 in Grand Traverse County. Meijer's public relations firm crafted recall language, devised election strategy, wrote campaign literature, and used local residents as figureheads in the recall.

Meijer never reported its contributions to the recall effort. Michigan law requires reporting of all campaign contributions and bars corporations such as Meijer from contributing to political campaigns.

The Grand Rapids-based firm on Saturday said it settled a lawsuit filed by Acme Treasurer William Boltres and acknowledged its improper financial contributions to a pro-recall group.

And that's how capitalism works. In Vladimir Putin's Russia. Just over 4,300 people live in Acme Township. It's a dangerous thing when a large firm tries to pull a fast one in sparsely populated jurisdictions, because even a little money goes very far in such places.

Meijer faxed an unsigned statement to the Record-Eagle, which read in part:

... Meijer wishes to note that prior to this month, senior company officials believed that no financial contributions had been made to a local taxpayers group.

We apologize for this error. Meijer is completing its review of the facts and will meet any reporting requirements that emerge.

This is a story I'll be keeping an eye on.

Technorati tags: politics elections retail business big box Meijer Michigan Traverse City ethics