apache

Alright guys, just want to hear some different opinions on Walmart and the economic issues they are said to create by overrunning a town.
Personally I dont like what I am led to belive they do to small buisness, however that dosent seem to be the case here. There are two stores here close to us. I really dont see any difference between their stuff and say, K marts. I gave up on Kmart long ago, and it didnt surprise me to see them file for bankruptcy. Our local store is a joke. you lucky to find 10 cans of dog food on a given day. They have gotten better but not by much. Does Walmart create more jobs then the cause areas to loose? Do you see them as the MONSTER company?

BigBlue

My relatives live in a very small country town. Population about 3000 on a busy day. Wal-Mart is the main center of the town. Without wal-mart, the town would collapse. 5 of my relatives work there as it is. Did it put some of the smaller businesses out of business? Sure. But I think it did more good than harm. It brought in money and jobs. Without it, I firmly believe this town would have dried up a long time ago.

tenbrooks

I heard on the radio the other day that 1 out of 10 people in america work for walmart, don't know if its true or not.
I was told by a sub contractor for walmart that the store here in conyers georgia does more sales than any in country,gets up 5 truckloads per week, where as the others just get 1 or 2 trucks. Again just hearsay.

Nevada

Not a chance, the math just doesn't work out. Perhaps 10% of the Chinese work for Wal Mart.

Only two ways to absolutely obliterate the local flavor of a small community. #1 (if it is on a coast) put in a cruise ship pier. #2 put in a Wal Mart.

Bottom line is that Wal Mart is sucessful because they deliver what their customers want. Cheap goods in large quantities.

Crimedog

Here in Buffalo, we went from having maybe 4 or 5 thousand people when I was about 5 to 10,000. Over the years we have had many big name places come in, Walmart started small and slowly kept adding on and became a Super Walmart this year. When they first came in they put a Pamida out of business, but they had it coming. Target moved in about 5 years ago and is now adding on, Cub Foods came to town but didn't put any of the smaller grocry stores out of business. Blockbuster came to town but still couldn't put the small video store out of business. We will be getting a Menards sometime in the future, but I don't think they'll put the hardware stores out of business, or the lumber yards. In my observations over the last 18 years, well, maybe I can remember about 12 of them, is that they all come in because of the groth of the town. But they have never overrun a town, or put many small business folks out of commission.

Begle1

Lets see how many people I can end up offending on this one.
If you own a small buisness and a Wal-Mart puts you out of buisness, I have no sympathy for you. I believe in a total free market, that capitalism should ideally be unfettered. If it is profitable for Wal-Mart to set up shop, they have all the right in the world to do so, and if they put small guys out of buisness, give the small guys a copy of Webster's so that they can look up "capitalism". A small store cannot compete with Wal-Mart's total supply, but they don't need to. Instead, they need to specialize on a certain niche, and do that better than Wal-Mart. For example, if you own a small general store, and "big bad evil Wal-Mart comes to town", you specialize into something like a hardware store, lumber store, office supply store or whatever. You can make a living just by stealing a small percentage of Wal-Mart's customer base. A small specialized store can provide service and products MUCH better than a large mega-store like Wal-Mart, but they can only provide them in a single category. It's just moronic small buisness owners that fail to specialize their product lines and are driven out of buisness, and all of the liberal and economic morons are running around saying "screw the big guys!".

AlpineRAM

View from the other side of the pond:
We have the same problem here- Walmart-like chains trying to get in everywhere and killing the local economy.
But: There are a lot of the smaller stores actualy profiting from the big chains. They do get customer cards for rebates in the big stores and they offer you to just call them about what you need and you'll have it at the doorstep within the hour. Naturally you have to pay for it, but you'd have to pay for fuel too if you drove there yourself. All of the small shops that do either offer specialties or actual service to the customer don't have any problem with the big chains. Maybe it's just a sign of the times that most small shop owners over here still regard it as a privilege to be able to enter their shop, be humiliated by the salesmen and get misinformed

AlpineRAM

Shovelhead

Lots o people say they hate WalMart and will never shop there, but recently WalMart had another record setting quarter profit report.
SOMEONE is saying one thing and doing another.

As for K-Mart, yesterday's financial news reported that K-Mart just bought Sears for around 11 Billion dollars.
I guess in their reorganization, they'll first have to fire everyone who works for Sears that speaks fluent English.

Commatoze

In my town, Wal-Mart's like the "Company Store". It's nearly the the only game in town. At 6 o'clock when the other small shops "roll up the sidewalk", Wal-Mart's going strong. Our town enjoys its rural-ness and when the townfolk heard Wal-Mart was coming, they howled like crazy. "Not in our town!" But I'll tell you what, now they beat the doors down to shop there. Plus, it's provided a lot of jobs to the locals who either aren't professionals, or skilled workers, or don't want to drive the 40 miles to get to "civilization".

Now, if I could be delivered from the wasteland of home improvement and be granted a Lowes right in town so I wouldn't have to drive the 18 miles.......

M0J0

Actually shovelhead, Sears bought Kmart and formed a new retail company named Sears Holdings Corporation.

Today the growing local businesses in my small town ( mostly carpet baggers from larger cities) are trolling for the yuppie pocket books that have settled in. We have become a bedroom community for the middle upperclass that are seeking refuse from big city crime and government. Unfortunately the new settlers are bringing their big city habits, trash and tax structure with them. The small town atmosphere is quickly losing ground. I welcome the Walmart that is a few miles to the west to compete with these businesses. I refuse to buy a cup of coffee for $2.75 , Diesel for 15 cents higher than Walmart, Etc, Etc,Etc

Scotty

http://business.bostonherald.com/bus...rticleid=54605

jfpointer

I'll tell you who I think kills local businesses worse than Wal-Mart does: Starbucks. Horrible, nasty, overpriced coffee, but for some reason all the yuppies drink it.

Seems to me like a halfway smart small business owner would find a way to use the traffic generated by a Wal-Mart to prosper.

Geico266

Free enterprise is good for the ecomomy. If the small shop cannot make a profit then they should go out of business, then come up with a profit making idea for a store or business. Competion is what made this country great. Don't let a few liberal media stories about the "monster retailer" scare you. Its good fo the economy of any city to get a Walmart.

Example:

What ever happened to the buggy whip manufactuer?.......they adapted. Have you seen a buggy whip holder on your CDT?..... no they are not needed. I'm sure 100 years ago someone was crying "Those big car manufactueres are putting me out of the buggywhip business". and so it goes........

I think there is a pattern here, its called...... evolution.

RustyJC

According to the business section of the Houston Chronicle this morning, K-Mart bought Sears for $12B.

Rusty

Forrest Nearing

I feel for ya that you haven't known any better than Lowes, but I'll pray that a Home Depot opens up in your town...

Lowes is overpriced, and doesn't cater to professionals...

Forrest