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Now she makes one trip a week, to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, which opened five years ago a mile and a half down the road and across Interstate 64 from Kroger.

I do the same thing, except I have to drive TWENTY miles out of town because that's the nearest Supercenter. The prices are THAT GOOD. (They have broken ground for a Supercenter only a five-minute drive from my front door, to replace the nearby regular Wal-Mart.)

By the way, I've seen other people make claims of Wal-Mart engaging in predatory pricing practices only to jack up prices once they've "put everyone else out of business", but: 1) I've never seen anyone actually be able to document the claim; 2) Prices always "go up" because of inflation over time, both at Wal-Mart and all other stores; 3) Predatory pricing is illegal; 4) Predatory pricing is largely a mythical conspiracy theory; 5) Every Wal-Mart I've ever seen built has led to dozens of other businesses opening up around them, not resulting in an entire town shutting down.

Don't confuse them with logic Timesink. They can't comprehend the facts beyond their indoctrination.

I don't know about you, but the "mom and pops" where I grew up charged ungodly prices for basic goods. Even in a dinky town of 3,500 that was 30 miles southeast of Ft. Smith, Ar we had "mom and pops" that were so expensive we'd drive to bigger cities to get non-perishable goods cheaper. Reminded me of the days my grandfather told us of taking the large flatbed wagon to Ft. Smith every other month and spending a week on dirt roads feeding the horses more than the kids just so they could buy staples to last months.

I even worked in the biggest grocery store and we did what we could to get prices down. But, being a small store in a small ciy, our wholesale prices were also marked up back then. Over a few years the owner decided to invest (trickle down economics for you idiots) in a bigger store and warehouse so he could take advantage of larger shipments and lower prices. And he was good at predicting what would go up in the mid 1970's. First, we bought coffee early and made a fortune selling it lower when it went through the roof. The same with every little 70's commodity prices crises; tuna, flour, sugar (the worst), beef and even dog food.

Then, Wal-Mart came in. Not ONE "mom and pop" store collapsed. Not ONE job was lost. It created more jobs and the competition was great for business.

In the same grocery store we broasted chicken. In 1978, KFC decided to move in (my parents sold them the land they wanted) and did the owner of the "mom and pop" store whine and complain? No. He said, "Great, I'll sell even more of my own chicken" and he did. He understood competition was better for all. And he NEVER went under, never failed to make money. As a matter of fact, the owner of this little "mom and pop" grocery store in little Booneville, Ark was the richest man in town.

To this day, Wal-Mart built themselves an even bigger store while the son the the "mom and pop" still runs the grocery store. And all are doing well. Heck, they've grown to only 5,000 and still have every grocery store open that was there when I was 18, the same movie theater, and even added a Mazzios Pizza, KFC added a Taco Bell split store, a Taco Tico moved in, Sonic is still alive and well (we loved that place in high school), the Western Auto is still going great (the owner now was in my class) even with a Wal-Mart, TCBY has a small shop, 4 dentist now instead of one, the hospital has added on, and even the old, old, old Bearcat drive in was in business selling their special double cheeseburgers and blue plate specials.

So I don't understand how I can site simple fact about a town of 3,500 in 1974 and only 5,000 in 2003 and see amazing progress while others come in here and whine and complain and flat out lie. According to EVERY SINGLE ARGUMENT they just made, that little town would be desolate and under the total control of the Walton dynasty, destined to control mankind threw rolling back prices.

I can't help but shake my head and realize we have a long way to go in the process of de-indoctrination.

>>5) Every Wal-Mart I've ever seen built has led to dozens of other businesses opening up around them, not resulting in an entire town shutting down.<<

The new Wal-Mart here was responsible for getting all the roads around it fixed- potholes got fixed, lights put in, streets widended. We also have a lot of growth around it. I dont know if Wal-Mart is the chicken or the egg but they don't seem to be hurting us. I wish they were a SuperCenter though...