Originally Posted by
kwrides
So what you're saying here is that every local store has to specialize in some niche to survive, but that the big box stores had nothing to do with it? You also imply that the only people capable of properly running a business that isn't niche are Walmart, HD, Lowes, etc.
FWIW - they did it by convincing people they would get the same product and the same service for a lower price. And they did...for a few years. Now, almost NOTHING is made in America, it's all disposable crap, and finding someone in one of these stores who can actually give you good advice is almost impossible. Remember when all the Walmart stuff said, "buy American"? Remember when Home Depot's big selling point was that there was an expert on every eisle? Walmart kept "driving down prices" by buying more and more from sweatshops overseas and people will still drive an hour round trip in a gas guzzler with their "Country First" bumper sticker, in order to save a dollar, but they're not helping their country, they're helping China and Iraq.
Points well made, WM is also driving down the wages of the working class. Little town I live near used to have a very large denim mill, average wage in 1998 was over $14 an hour and employed over 2,000 people. At the time it was one of if not the largest employer in the county. By 2001 the plant was shut down and shuttered. Now the largest employer in town is...Walmart with 450 employees at an average wage of around $10 an hour. When WM moves into town the tax base takes a hit as well as a proven increase in the cost of social services. Typically WM will ask for and get tax incentives to move to a town, when they expire, if the town says they don't want to reissue them quite often WM will pack up and build a new store a few miles down the road, outside the city limits. Currently WM has over 200 empty stores sitting around the country. Most of which were subsidized by tax payers and are now not generating any taxes for the communities they are blighting.
Aaron
