The Economic Impact Scavenger Hunt

As the city won't do an economic impact study of Wal-Mart as Jason Rogers wants, I thought we could help him out with a little game.

In Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, you can do all your shopping at several stores in downtown Pullman. So the object will be to find the 8 items below that are commonly sold in a college town.

First, Judy Krueger's Ground Rules:

Pedestrian Friendly: You must limit yourself to the traditional boundaries of downtown. That means Main St. between Taco Time and the Gladish Center and Grand Ave. betwee WaMu and Old European. Moscow is certainly out of the question.

Small Business Booster: NO NATIONAL CHAIN STORES! Only local mom-and-pop stores, as they are the backbone of our economy. That means no Safeway, Rite-Aid, ShopKo, Dissmores, The Bookie Too, Crimson and Gray, Blockbuster, etc. And no online purchases either! They're exempt from sales tax.

Now, The Items:

1. A pair of Nike sneakers
2. A gallon of 2% milk
3. Ink jet printer toner cartridge (black)
4. The latest Coldplay CD
5. A pack of college-ruled notebook paper
6. "The Ring Two" on DVD
7. A pack of No. 2 pencils
8. 24-pack of Ramen noodles (any flavor)

On your mark, get set, go! Post your results here.

Our next game will be to figure our how many double tall mochas you have to buy in a boutique sidewalk cafe in order to fund the $191,000 the Pullman Fire Department needs for new equipment.