[Dysfunctional]

I am struggling to see what this has to do with the point I was making.

The middle-class in many rural areas were the small town merchants, quite a few with varied shops.

Wal-Mart comes in and sells everything from food, to tires... to gasoline.

So, whammo! Gas stations, food stores, clothing stores... everything gone but Wal-Mart. The middle-class merchant (the person that the wage earner saved and aspired to become) is gone forever.

The only choice is one stop shopping and one stop working and maybe a manager at Wal-Mart. Why is that so difficult to see.

People post in this forum as though before Wal-Mart you had price gouging. The reality is that nobody is really any better off than they were because they have to work at low-pay Wal-Mart to buy the lower price stuff at Wal-Mart.

I shop where I want. I have one of those corporate jobs with a pension, 401k and company matching funds. The situation does not touch me at all.

However, having seen the vast empty landscape in the western part of the state where I grew up, yes it does bother me. Where once there was choice, now there is Wal-Mart. It is just like the coal mines. Dig coal at Wal-Mart, then give them their money back at Wal-Mart, the company store.

[Clemenza]

Rural America has been dying a slow death since the 1930s.

[Fruitbat]

I've been fascinated by this entire Walmart "thing" frankly. I see points both ways. But you just stated that it's like the company store, which prompted a thought.

IMO, a lot of this has occurred due to the lack and wane of customer service in this country. I am concerned about getting a good price, but at the same time I'll pay for additional service. That's one area where this country has really changed, and that's in providing service.

As I see it, the smaller retailers today offer nothing more than the larger ones do. It used to be that you'd get special treatment if nothing other than a clerk or a representative getting to know your name and preferences. But these days, half the people working in retail shops act as if they're doing you a favor by working there.

There are a lot of ways that smaller shops/retailers can distinguish themselves, yet don't. I know it's just one thing among thousands, but your post made me think of that.

As I see it however, the reason for the expansion of Walmart and the diminishment of other, smaller companies, is the shrinking global economy. It seems to me that Levi's was headed for the same fate one way or another based on what was in that article. One might look at it as that Walmart finished them off, while I see it as that was their last ditch effort to keep stores open in the U.S.

But as many have pointed out, Unions demanding that their employees, who can do what any 14 year old can do, yet get top wage for it, certainly have their role in this.