Is Wal-Mart Destroying Small Town America?
My Trip Through Town
We decided to take the scenic way back through town to get to the interstate at another point, mostly to see what kind of Christmas Decorations the houses had. On the way I went through downtown Statesville with it's old mom&pop type shops. Traffic was limited there mostly to dorky teenagers out cruising.
It reminded me of something that has been bothering me for a while. The old downtown areas of most cities are wasting away. Nobody shops the small business owner's stores anymore. It makes me kind of sad. I can remember as a kid going to some nice shops. The same people worked there, usually the owners, for years. You knew them and they knew you. Now you go into Wal-Mart and it's different people. They don't know you, you don't know them. It's either bitter old people (not all of them, just the ones I encounter) or uninterested teens who could give a damn about customer service.
Now I do miss shopping at those old shops but do I do it now? No not much. For several reasons, number one traffic. Wal-Mart has nice big parking lots. Small Shops tend to make you park where you have to back out onto the main road. Number1B, Prices. Wal-Mart has better prices and more variety. So no this isn't a Wal-Mart bashing piece. I can buy anything I need or want at Wal-Mart. I do my grocery shopping, the majority of it anyway, there. I buy magazines, toys for the kids, clothes, whatever all in one place. Wal-Mart uses their buying power to buy lots of bulk items at cheaper prices, which they pass to the consumer. Yes this does drive smaller stores, and even malls now days out of business. Malls tend to have higher prices due to higher rent. Also I hate Malls anyway due to the little teen punks who hang out there.
So I do miss the good old days, but money is tight and a deal is a deal. I can complain about missing the good old days, but I take my butt to the Super Wall-Mart when I need something. The consumer dictates where their business goes. America seems content to let the era of small business shops die a natural death. If we didn't like it, we would shop more downtown and give them our business.
I even gave up on the idea of owning a bookstore. I really thought about it and looked into it. But with the competition out there a small non chain bookstore won't make it. Maybe a used book store that takes trades or whatever, but my county already has at least two of those.
We do have a lot of thrift shops that seem to be doing well, I shop them a lot myself. Also Pawn Shops are alive and well in the downtown areas. I even see an occasional art gallery from time to time. But as for the old time mom and pop type stores, they are gone for the most part.
Another thing you here people say about Wal-Mart is the bad way they treat their employees. Well this is America, if you don't like your job, quit. If they were that bad to their people, the government would put a stop to it. As long as it isn't forced child labor, I don't care what they do I will shop there if I like the store. Other Americans will too, we prove it everyday.
Published by Randy Inman
Im 42 years old, Grew up in North Carolina, and descend from the same family as the person the Inman Character was based on in the movie/book Cold Mountain. I run Footballdogz.com and love Pro Football. Spor... View profile
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- Wal-Mart has better prices and more stuff
- I do miss the mom and pop type stores
- Even Malls seem to be on the decline.
14 Comments
Post a CommentQuit and go work somewhere else? You just said Wal-Mart puts all locals OUT OF BUSINESS!! All manufacturing jobs are gone because Wal-Mart buys China!!! What jobs??? Wal-Mart is the enemy! STAY AWAY !!!
The bottom line is that Walmart has made a fortune. They have run off all of the small business owners in all small towns. I have never shopped at Walmart and never will. Let Walmart live with its own conscience, but, wait, it does not have a conscience.
What it gets down to is what is good for America. Two examples have been given where Wall Mart did not have a negative impact on the comunity but these are exceptions and even the writers own home town has been devistated by Mao Mart. I'm sure we all agree that we love America. How can closing factories that once made the things we bought and provided jobs for us be a good thing for us or America? This is a result of huge corporations like Mao Mart using what is essentially slave labor overseas. I urge you to watch a documentary called WALLMART - THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE
Buy American people. If you don't the next person to lose their job might be you.
Wow, a lot of negative comments. I for one agree with you Randy. I don't like to see the small businesses losing out either but I too go to Wal-Mart for most of my needs. Convenience counts a lot I guess.
Wow what a nasty rude person you are, I bet your parents are very proud.
Wow, the writer is obviously quite ignorant. If you don't like the way your treated, go work elsewhere? the government would fix it? Yeah, right! They keep there workers below 40 hrs just so they don't have to pay benefits. Thats just wrong and anyone who shops there is supporting that terrible business practice. Vote with your money, shop local, support small business. Stop shopping walmart all the time!
Whatever.
I think you're more concerned with the "dorky...punk teens" than you are with the fact that the clothes you buy for yourself and kids are made by kids in foreign countries the same ages as your children. Why don't you think about that the next time you get in bed in your nice comfy pj's that were made in a sweatshop by young chinese little girl who works 19 hours a day.
Punk teenagers should be the last of anyones concerns.
I agree with Charlotte. The same thing happened in our little town. One of the men who had been a store owner and who fought having a K-Mart or Wal-Mart come to town said later that they had made a mistake in doing so. Even before Wal-Marts started, most people in our little town were driving 50 miles to the nearest "big city" to shop. My husband has always said the little towns were dying because everybody these days has cars and it's too easy for them to drive to other towns. A lot of them are also dying because new roads are being built that bypass the towns.
You can't rely on the government to stop illegal work practices when they have their own hands in the pocketbook. Do you think it's right for Wal-Mart to lock their employees in the building at night without supporting an overtime policy so that they are forced to punch out at the 40th hour and sit in the store with nothing to do until the store manager comes to open it up the next morning?
read kathleen stewarts section on Wal-Mart in her book Ordinary Affects.