[beef]

I'll tell ya, this socialist claptrap over Wal-Mart really rubs me the wrong way. I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and we would have loved to have something like a Wal-Mart. There is a certain kind of tyranny that a small businessman wields when he is the only local supplier of a certain product or service, and when a Wal-Mart opens, the locals are as much glad to give the tyrant his comeuppance as they are to save a few bucks.

Wal-Mart is a lot of things, but it is not upscale and it does not give a lot of service. If a small business can't compete on those advantages then they have no reason to be in business.

[Haro_546]

Right on, I live also in a urban area where small shops pressure the government not to allow wal mart in.

[buffyt]

The town I grew up in would have already died if not for WalMart. That is about all there is there now. The population keeps shrinking. But all the people from the surrounding smaller towns come to shop at WalMart. So it keeps the employment, money, payroll, tax base up.