When I was a kid in the 1950's, there were several mom-and-pop grocery stores in the neighborhood. By about 1965, they were all gone, replaced by larger chain-store "supermarkets" like Safeway. I don't know how much money the owners and employees of the mom-and-pops earned, but I doubt it was more than what the employees of the supermarkets earned. What were the trade-offs for the community? On the negative side, a loss of individual proprietorship and sense of ownership; on the plus, a wider variety of merchandise at lower prices. All in all, it is not clear to me that the trade-offs were so evil as to violate scripture, as Sojourners would claim.
Most excellent analysis. I grew up in the 60's in a small town in Texas (Angleton). There is no question that, the first Walmart killed several family-owned businesses. (If you doubt my validity, I'm talking about Brockman's, Cliff's, Taylor Hardware,etc...) Many of these families were friends of my family. And, for them, Walmart was clearly a terrible thing.
However, the city.. (and the Walmart) has continued to grow. I think an objective observer would be hard-pressed to say the city was "destroyed" by Walmart.
There are MANY other cases in Texas where the same thing has occurred. Wal-Mart definitely changes things... but, It's hard to see whether it's for the better, or worse...overall.
What many people don't seem to understand is that the primary factor in the demise of small-town America wasn't Safeway, Sears, Wal-Mart, etc. -- it was the growth of the automobile as the primary means of transportation for middle-class Americans and the development of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. From that point forward, a retail location in a town center that was primarily pedestrian-accessible became a major disadvantage. The economies of scale realized by large shopping centers is what made downtown areas obsolete as retail centers.
Nobody is going to carry a couple of 4x8 sheets of plywood home from a local hardware store, or eight bags of groceries home from a local grocery store.