What you say can’t be true or else the local Wal-Mart would go out of business.
The reality is that no matter how much people say they want to shop locally, they don’t follow up their words with actions. Or not enough of them do. We know this to be true because it has happened a thousand times in all parts of the country for decades.
Your town may be the exception. But if it is, that’s all it is. An exception. It’s your small town neighbors who created Wal-Mart. Period.
And please spare me your sanctimony about small town life. I grew up in a city, on a side street on which all the kids played together and all the adults know each others’ names. The main street we butted into had a dairy and grocery store and meat market and bakery and pharmacies. And as soon as big suburban discounters and supermarkets came along we did most of our shopping there. For price and convenience and selection. It was a totally rational economic decision for poor working class families.
Nothing has changed since. It was an old story even in the 60s. Quaintness is not a substitute for cash in your wallet. Hundreds of millions of people have voted with their feet and their pocketbooks.
If you don’t like it, don’t complain here. Get your small town neighbors to change their buying habits. Good luck with that.
Exapno, I am neither complaining nor being sanctimonious. And I never said that there aren’t people in this town that live here without supporting our local economy. I was explaining my personal feelings about why I chose to live here rather than the places I used to live, like San Jose, California.
Living in the city, it’s easy to adopt the philosophy that if your favorite store fails, another will start up soon, and you’ll still have [insert name of favorite product or brand here] available locally whenever you want it. Living in a small town, you know that if you and your neighbors don’t support the local store, it will die, and quite likely won’t be replaced. Some people don’t care. Sometimes I don’t care. If I don’t shop at Bob’s House of Ceiling Fans, then I won’t miss it. If a business owner is incompetent, their business deserves to go under.
But Wal*Mart doesn’t just prey on the weak. Even long-established, well-run local businesses are destroyed as a part of their corporate strategy. They can afford to set up a new store and lose money on it until the competition is dead. They don’t have better products. They don’t have better selection. They sure as hell don’t have better service. They don’t have knowledgeable staff. They don’t treat their employees better. They don’t contribute more to the community. They often have better prices, and they have far more money to spend on P.R. and marketing.
To me, it’s about choice. If a K-Mart or Sears or Penny’s shows up nearby, I’ll be able to choose whether to shop there or shop in a locally-owned store. If a WalMart shows up nearby, it’s only a matter of time before I have no choice: it’s WalMart’s limited selection of cheap crap or nothing.
What competition? The local sewing store? As has been pointed out, not enough people sew anymore to make that a worthwhile business. That’s why Walmart dropped fabric and that’s why the local craft store that sells expensive fabric went belly-up.
But you’re right, Walmart doesn’t have better products. They have cheaper products. And that’s what the people want. You want better, learn how to find it on the Internet.
Let’s examine your statement. You of course have a choice which store to go to; K-Mart, Sears, Penny’s or Wal-Mart. So does everybody else. So, in your scenario, only Wal-Mart attracts so many customers that the net effect on the economy is that their competitors fold?
Why would that only happen in a Wal-Mart environment? Could it be that shoppers prefer Wal-Mart over K-Mart, Sears, Penny’s or small Mom&Pop stores? So are these shoppers exercising free will or are they being defrauded?
Personally, I never shop at Wal-Mart if I can possibly help it, and I usually can. I live in a city so I’m fortunate in having choices. I appreciate facts, however, and most people in this thread weren’t providing any.
You’re free to have all the negative opinions about Wal-Mart you want. But Musicat has already properly called you out on this statement. Only Wal-Mart shuts down local businesses? Really? By black magic? That’s not a factual statement, or at least one I can’t believe without some real facts behind it. I know people claim that Wal-Mart is uniquely evil, but I need to see the facts before I buy that one, no matter how cheap it is.
Of the four chain stores mentioned in that post, only WalMart makes the destruction of locally-owned businesses a part of their business strategy. Penny’s coexists with existing stores (except, of course, for badly-run businesses that are forced out when a well-run store opens nearby). WalMart destroys them.
How does this happen? Is it because, as you say, that shoppers prefer WalMart? Not quite. It’s because when a new WalMart opens, enough new shoppers believe the hype about “always” lower prices that they go to the Wal*Mart instead of the local stores. Once the locally-owned businesses are dead, the choice has been removed.
Justin_Bailey, I’m not talking about sewing stores. My little bookstore is only 1,500 square feet, but I have considerably more selection than a Wal*Mart and I have employees that love books and know what they’re talking about. The same can be said of just about any other specialty store.
Your complaint seems to be that it’s OK to compete, but if you get too good at it, that’s bad.
So the problem is the shoppers are stupid? And Wal-Mart advertises they have lower prices, but they actually don’t? And the shoppers are so inept that they never catch on? How come they’re smart about other stores? Is Wal-Mart’s advertising fraudulent and everyone else’s is honest?
What if Target said they had lower prices? WWSD? (What Would the Shoppers Do?) Would they not believe it? Is there something wrong with enticing customers by giving them something they want?
You’re making some artificial distinctions here without support. This is nothing but Wal-Mart bashing.
I know that K-Mart, Sears, Target and JCPenney’s are often used as anchor stores for large malls that contain many smaller stores, both local and chain. The larger store draws in a large number of customers that also shop at the smaller stores. When those anchor stores move away, the mall will often die out, and the smaller businesses will close. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wal-Mart used as an anchor store.
Wal-mart has good prices on cheap, commodity goods. I see no reason to not buy household cleaners, frozen food, soda, canned goods, shampoo, vitamins, etc. from them. We rarely buy meat or produce from them, because the quality seems inferior to our local town supermarket. We also get underwear and fairly good quality children’s clothes there. I bought some Levi’s “Signature” blue jeans for myself there, but they lasted less than half as long as their normal brand I get from J.C. Penney’s, so I don’t buy jeans there any more.
In addition, I would never buy a bicycle from them. Their bicycles are cheap crap. I’d rather pay more money for a quality Trek or Specialized bicycle from the specialty cycle shop in town. I also would not buy backpacking gear from Wal-mart. I can get much better quality gear from Eastern Mountain Sports or REI.
If small towns didn’t have this attitude, then I guess Wal-Mart wouldn’t succeed. But it does. So, as far as shopping goes, they must not agree with you.
This seems to be a combination of the "broken windows"fallacy and a basic misunderstanding.
You do understand, do you not, that when someone pays less for a Wal-Mart product, they have more money to spend than they used to?
Of course you have more selection, that’s the definition of “specialty store.” But that doesn’t change the fact that Walmart puts enough of a selection of a wide variety of merchandise under one roof. People like that. And it’s one thing the Walmart haters always ignore.
Walmart used to anchor malls more often (back in the 90s, Walmart was an anchor for the Greecetown Mall in Rochester), but now Walmart is big enough that they’re independent enough that they can anchor the big shopping plazas.