New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer—even taking into account its famous low prices.
  • seaQueue@lemmy.world
    16·
    4 days ago

    Well, duh. Money spent at local businesses is recirculated in those communities via employee wages, reinvestment into the business (paying contractors and others during remodeling or expansion) and the owner’s own spending. Money spent at an extractive national chain heads straight for Wall St and/or an overseas tax haven, only a fraction of it remains locally to pay employees.

    Walmart is even more fun though, they don’t pay their workers enough to survive and often give them just enough hours so that the employees qualify for government subsidies like food stamps, poverty level govt health insurance and/or welfare aid.

    But wait, it gets even better: when Walmart moves into a new community they slash prices for a couple of years to draw as much business away from local competitors as possible. Once those companies are driven out of business then Walmart can ratchet up pricing to profitable levels, and because the competition is gone they can charge whatever they like. Prices often end up higher than they were in the first place.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      I strongly disagree that prices are higher. I live in a small town (9,000) and my camp is in a smaller town (900). Walmart’s far cheaper than the local stores and the Dollar General at camp is cheaper than the local general store. I buy local where I can, but sometimes I can’t afford to.

      The main issue, as you said, is these chains siphoning off the money. Kinda like people around here resenting the county fair. They swoop in, bag the money and run. Those same people would shit kittens if you proposed removing Walmart. Yet chain stores are a non-stop drain, not just an autumn event.

      So how do we sell these small, poor communities on kicking Walmart to the curb? “Look, just pay more for a few years and it’ll all come back around!” That’s true, but not something we would vote for. Making it all worse, these towns give the big chains deep tax discounts to come in. “More employment!” Think they’ll give Shalafi’s Tortilla Emporium* any breaks?

      On top of that, where’s the money coming from to bring back the mom-and-pop stores? People are looking at their bank account, right here and now, no thought to the future. We already fucked ourselves letting these vampires in our communities, no easy way to unwind that.

      Be of good cheer! Some towns vote to not allow Walmart in! There was some Alabama town nearby that told them to get bent, wouldn’t issue a business license. It can happen! Know how I know that? It was a controversy because the locals wanted the Walmart.

      * Read an article on lemmy that inspired me. You might have seen The Atlantic article on tortillas? Apparently the mass produced ones we all know suck and there’s a huge difference in quality with “genuine” tortillas. Thought about learning the trade, but do you think I could convince people to pay triple? “Yeah, they’re great and all, but I’m broke, sticking will Walmart brand. Sorry.” I cook with tortillas several times a week and I may not go for a way higher price. Economies of scale have us by the short and curlies.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      LOL, I’ve gone nuts commenting on this thread. Give a read!

      tl;dr: It’s too late to kick Walmart from our small towns. Hell, the voters won’t go for it.