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The Sad Death of American Towns through Globalisation – Or – Never Trust Walmart
IWB ^ | Mark Angelides

Posted on 07/11/2017 1:39:50 PM PDT by davikkm

When major employers come to a town, replace the local businesses, suck up the people they have made unemployed and then leave a few years later, there is very little hope of recovery. It is destroying towns and families. And what’s worse, it makes the victims complicit in their own demise.

Ten years ago in McDowell County, West Virginia, a new Walmart came to town. It was warmly embraced as an employer because the coal industry was in decline; but an unexpected side effect (to the local population, not Walmart) was to shut down many of the smaller businesses that employed many of the other townsfolk. And now Walmart have closed down and moved on, leaving the people without work, without the local business infrastructure that existed before, and sadly, without hope of rebuilding.

On 15 January 2016, Walmart announced that it was closing down 154 superstores in the US alone. Many of these are in town like McDowell, that have become reliant on the stores for employment and goods. It is easy to sneer and say that they should have thought about supporting local businesses while they had the chance, but the real villain in the whole episode is the Corporate/Globalist outlook that does not regard people as people, but as a block consumer base to which they have no responsibility.

(Excerpt) Read more at investmentwatchblog.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: globalisation; walmart
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To: freeandfreezing
There is no way for a small town to generate a robust economy by just having a collection of retail stores where everybody sells to each other. (The same is true for services provided locally.)

Yeah, it reminds me of a joke I heard during some earlier, similar discussions about the US economy. Once we've exported and offshored all the jobs, we'll all make a living selling insurance to each other.

41 posted on 07/11/2017 4:08:02 PM PDT by Will88
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To: BBell

I shop at ACE first because of personalized service.The price is a little more but that is overshadowed by service and the hard to find stuff.Ace also has craftsman tools now and thats a plus.


42 posted on 07/11/2017 4:10:05 PM PDT by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Grampa Dave

Free trade ain’t fair trade. Screw free trade. I’ll not carry its water one mile more.


43 posted on 07/11/2017 4:40:33 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Smoke does not mean fire when someone threw a smoke grenade.)
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To: Bonemaker

#17 My mom would complain whenever we traveled up north in Minnesota (180 miles from Minneapolis) to the grandparents cabin and went into a grocery store there how expensive it was to what she was used to.

We also use to shop at the what we called the little store (7/11 size) near home for grocery’s until Byerly’s showed up a few blocks closer around 1970 or so.
It caused the owner to shutdown his store as he did not have the amount of goods or lower prices that the larger store had and could offer. Byerly’s is still there nearly 50 years later competing against Rainbow and Cub and others.


44 posted on 07/11/2017 4:43:12 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: amihow

The business that took over back then were ‘the big guys’ forcing out the ‘little guys’ who couldn’t compete.

Then Walmart forced them out.

Now, Walmart looks to be the ‘little kid’ on the block, and is fighting for it’s own survival.

I heard the same bitter nonsense you are now spouting 50 years ago when the ‘big farmers’ where gobbling up the little guys who were living on a shoestring.

Those ‘big guys’ are, for the most part, now gone, victims of the same constructive destruction that will continue as long as man is on the earth.

Personal attacks????? Bah, you’ll have to do much better if you want to get a rise out of me.

I spit guys like you out even before breakfast.


45 posted on 07/11/2017 7:16:32 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: discostu

One thing that did change was the quality of the merchandise. Cheap and easy to make has also changed our culture to have style changes yearly. Since we had to wait for the seasonal changes I wonder how online shopping will change our sense of style and must have name brands.


46 posted on 07/11/2017 7:20:46 PM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

First the facts. The relative size and assets of Walmart in comparison to the small businesses they put out of business were exponentially bigger that their target business’. Now Amazon same to Walmart.

Second fact issue. The big farmers you talked about were actually huge corporate agribusiness enterprises. They were not farmers. They were corporate sharks.

These issues were argued at the time of the Founders. Your group has won recent battles, but your group will not win the war.

You spin language like CNN.

Think you will be eating your own words for breakfast. So spit away, but you might be surprised at what you find in your boca. Think you big mouth defenders of the current corporatism and globalism and profits uber alles may end up spitting out your own teeth.


47 posted on 07/11/2017 8:03:29 PM PDT by amihow
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To: amihow

Since I was there, and knew those farmers personally, I know you have no idea what you are talking about.

There was no point in reading further.


48 posted on 07/11/2017 8:22:15 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: huldah1776

Yearly style change dates back at least to the French Court. It was a sign of status to be able to declare all of one’s clothes useless even when they were obviously still good. If anything that’s actually slowed down in the TV era as yesteryear keeps being brought back over and over and re-influencing this year and slowing the cycle of change.


49 posted on 07/12/2017 6:42:15 AM PDT by discostu (You are what you is, and that's all it is, you ain't what you're not, so see what you got.)
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To: TalonDJ

In a rural setting, sixty miles is not a difficult distance to drive in open country or farmland. In a crowded metropolitan area, that is a difficult commute. In a rural area, where higher speed limits are normal, it is about a thirty-five to forty-five minute drive.


50 posted on 07/12/2017 6:44:03 AM PDT by PBRCat
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To: TalonDJ

In a rural setting, sixty miles is not a difficult distance to drive in open country or farmland. In a crowded metropolitan area, that is a difficult commute. In a rural area, where higher speed limits are normal, it is about a thirty-five to forty-five minute drive.


51 posted on 07/12/2017 6:44:57 AM PDT by PBRCat
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To: impimp
Why doesn’t the author also complain about the decline of the blacksmith and the cobbler?

That is just stupid. Blacksmiths and cobblers are obsolete. WalMArt is pushing products that are not obsolete and made in the 3rd world by peasants and serfs. See the difference?

52 posted on 07/12/2017 6:49:15 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Will88

You nailed it Will.


53 posted on 07/12/2017 6:49:38 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: TexasGator
If they have no money to spend at Walmart, then they would have had no money to spend supporting local businesses.

The point is they would have jobs and be able to survive. Now they are are lifelong Democrats. Thanks globalism. /sarc

54 posted on 07/12/2017 6:51:10 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Will88
You can have a protective import tariffs or high unemployment. It's one or the other.

Ask Germany and China why they restrict imports.

55 posted on 07/12/2017 6:52:56 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Grampa Dave

It is more economically efficient to kill off old people when the reach 68 regardless of their current health and mental faculty.


56 posted on 07/12/2017 6:55:23 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Edward.Fish

Ah regulation, the fig leaf of the naked globalist Free Traitor™.


57 posted on 07/12/2017 6:56:50 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Nifster

Nobody on this thread is a Luddite. But some are totally stupid and use false analogies.


58 posted on 07/12/2017 7:00:34 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Force the government to subsidize high speed internet EVERYWHERE. The biggest hindrance to working from home in rural areas is no access hi speed fiber networks. Even though cable has a bad name, extending it to the exo-burbs would give rural people an option instead of satellite which is slower and more expensive.


59 posted on 07/12/2017 7:05:10 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: freeandfreezing
There is no way for a small town to generate a robust economy by just having a collection of retail stores where everybody sells to each other.

This applies to the wealth of nations also.

60 posted on 07/12/2017 7:06:57 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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