Ever been accused of being cynical? Does Wal-Mart pay better than all those poor mom and pops they put out of business? You bet they do. By shopping at Wal-Mart, 100 million Americans every week are able to make their dollars buy more thereby increasing their standard of living. Many of them probably have a little extra cash leftover, thanks to Wal-Mart, to place into a 529 or an IRA so their kids get a better education and won't have to work at a lower wage job. The horror!
76% of all Wal-Mart's managers have come from the ranks of their hourly employees. Wal-Mart managers are well compensated for the retail industry. Wal-Mart employees are free to shop anywhere they like but why would anyone -- poor, middle class or wealthy -- want to pay more?
True, but Walmart may be the only place they can afford to shop: Walmart's low prices are attibutable in large part to the relatively low wages that Walmart and its suppliers pay their employees, and because of those low wages, their employees can only afford to shop at Walmart, which effectively lowers Walmart's cost of doing business, which alows it to lower its prices even more, which causes competitors to go out of business and lay off people who now can only afford to shop at Walmart, etc.
...why would anyone -- poor, middle class or wealthy -- want to pay more?
Better service, better quality products, nicer stores, fewer fat people in undersized stretchy pants with a neighborhood's worth of kids in tow, support for what's left of the American manufacturing Industry, and support for "downtown America." I'm sure there are more.