Replies

I actually do not like Wal-Mart because they DO run other grocery stores out of business, which lowers the amount of merchandise I have to choose from. In my town Lowes is a gonner, ALbertsons is next, and I hate to count the wonderful "Mom & Pops" they have destroyed.

Wal-Mart is hardly a threat to chain supermarkets, which use the same marketing model, nor to Lowes, which sells a lot of merchandise that Wal-mart doesn't carry. In this state, all of these stores have continued doing just fine when a Wal-Mart moves in down the street.

And does Wal-Mart nuke small shops? It killed the crappy little downtown stores that were dying anyway - good riddance. But right next to every WM in this state, new small stores are springing up, feeding on the traffic the supestore generates and offering merchandise that extends what is availble in the WM: specialized products, upscale products, ethnic food, special services. Groom your dog while you shop?

You hit the nail on the head. Whenever a new Walmart pops up there are at least a half-dozen smaller, specialized shops that spring up next to it.

Here in De Pere, Wisconsin (a suburb of Green Bay) a Walmart Supercenter opened up - there are also plans for a Menards (home improvement store) and there is a gas-station island with several fast-food chains.

Liberals absolutely despise Walmart.

Wal-Mart is hardly a threat to chain supermarkets

Wal-Mart is now the #1 grocer in the US. It has killed off many regional supermarkets and is taking on the big ones. Here in Austin, Wal-mart is now the #2 grocery chain, taking pretty much all of its share from Albertson's and Safeway (Randalls.) And it's going to get worse for the big boys, because Wal-Mart will soon be plastering the US with 40,000 sq-ft stores that are primarily grocery with added general goods (versus the primarily general goods with added grocery of its supercenters.)

Wal-Mart is a huge threat to chain supermarkets. Not that I necessarily think this is a bad thing.

It depends on the size of the town. Where my in-laws live in Alamogordo NM (you've driven through it... everybody has driven through it, nobody ever seems to stop though), WalMart put Albertons out of business. Of course when Albertsons showed up they put two smaller chains out of business. That's the natural life cycle. Big fish eat little fish, and the smaller the tank the more fewer fish it can maintain.

WalMart is a commercial pirate and an antisocial monster. To explain: The company exploits its most necessitous, lowest paid employees by forcing them to work off-the-clock, skip meal breaks, lock them in the stores over night and not allowing them to leave upon pain of job loss--so they can stock shelves --again, off-the-clock. The company has been found to be doing these things in several civil law suits in Oregon, Mass. Colorado, New Mexico and other stares--and several of the same type cases are pending in other states. Indeed, the latest hearing was in Maryland just last week.

It has grown to gargantuan size and can dictate to vendors the most oppressive terms such as not paying for the merchandise on store shelves until the specific item is purchased and paid for at the retail cash register. That sort of coercive consignment is unconscionable.

It muscles into heretofore residential neighborhoods by corrupting local officials and bringing costly lawsuits against individual homeowners and neighborhood association members who deign to appear at public forums and object to granting WarMart zoning variances and permits for building.

In sum, it is difficult to imagine a worse corporate citizen and robber baron company than WalMart. If saving a few cents is worth destruction of American competition, then shopping at WalMart is the thing to do. If anyone believes those phoney tv commercials about how beneficent WalMart is to their employees, then be wary when someone offers to sell you a used Yugo or Florida swamp land.