Editor:

This is in response to a letter to the editor by a Discovery Bay resident published in the Aug. 10 edition of the Press: "Downward Spiral Into Tackiness." Huh? Isn't that a lot harsh, not to mention an insult to Oakley residents, as you are leveling a judgment against where they choose to live?

Do you have a family to support and have you ever been in a Wal-Mart Supercenter? If you don't on both counts, then you have nothing to talk about. For those of us who have families to feed, there are tremendous cost savings to be had in shopping at Wal-Mart as opposed to Whole Foods especially, where we're spending an average of $125 or more a week on groceries.

I had the opportunity to shop at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Palm Desert for the first time this summer. I was blown away not only by the huge selection and variety and quality of products, but the low prices were incredible - cost savings that many of us with families would benefit from, cost savings that would allow us to save our hard-earned money for use in other areas of our lives.

Don't we have enough wine in California? This is Northern California. Don't we have enough wineries to choose from? Don't we have enough gourmet grocery stores? We have Trader Joe's, Safeway, Albertsons, Save Mart, WinCo, Costco - isn't that enough? Oakley is the perfect place for a Wal-Mart Supercenter, with wide-open land for a beautiful, classy center like I saw in Palm Desert. I would go to Oakley to shop. I urge you to try and keep an open mind.

Sharon Wetzel

Antioch