Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
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Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
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Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#2[flagged]
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#3[flagged]
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#4Author is delusional. A bunch of small stores close is nowhere near similar. I just want to go to one shop, get the stuff, and leave, not to go to 8 shops, pay 8 times, pack groceries 8 times and overall walk more
edit: that is not to say opening big supermarkets is great, just that once they are there that's why people skip local stores and go to the big supermarket
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#5The layout is entirely by design to feel like you’re strolling down “Main Street” Americana.
I learned this decades ago when I worked for Walmart setting up stores and training folks. It was explicitly made clear to us this is what the layout was designed to elicit
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#6It’s price and the ease the price enables.
Low price demonstratably rules in everything from plane tickets to groceries to basic services to clothing as it enables a life of abundance and mental ease.
A friend loves Walmart as it means he no longer has to maintain his lawnmower. He just throws it away and buys a new one annually at the start of the season. He can still mow his lawn while abandoning the need to maintain mechanical knowledge.
I love Walmart as I no longer need to really consider how many of an item I need. When socks are $5 a pair at some of the more expensive stores, buying a huge pile is pricy. Walmart let’s me buy 40 pairs of socks for like $20 and just not keep track of their wash status or where they are in the house.
Walmart makes it so that everyone can solve their problems with a bit of money.
Small stores can’t replicate any of that due to economies of scale. Sure, their workers might be experts in lawnmowers, but when lawnmowers are so cheap as to be single season items, that expertise no longer has value.
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#7The layout is entirely by design to feel like you’re strolling down “Main Street” Americana. I learned this decades ago when I worked for Walmart setting up stores and training folks. It was explicitly made clear to us this is what the layout was designed to elicit
I would be surprised if most people under 60 or even 50 know what strolling down “Main Street” means. In my 30+ years, I have never once strolled down a Main Street.
I have always gone to big stores and malls (and now online shopping).
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#8Author is delusional. A bunch of small stores close is nowhere near similar. I just want to go to one shop, get the stuff, and leave, not to go to 8 shops, pay 8 times, pack groceries 8 times and overall walk more edit: that is not to say opening big supermarkets is great, just that once they are there that's why people skip local stores and go to the big supermarket
Deal with 8 different potential return policies. Have 8 different conversations. Deal with whether all 8 take Amex or not.
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#9Author is delusional. A bunch of small stores close is nowhere near similar. I just want to go to one shop, get the stuff, and leave, not to go to 8 shops, pay 8 times, pack groceries 8 times and overall walk more edit: that is not to say opening big supermarkets is great, just that once they are there that's why people skip local stores and go to the big supermarket
Yeah. The 8 stores are far better. There's competition. There's variety. Employees can move around. I can get to know the shop owners. I can take a wonderful stroll.
Instead. You get to enjoy one corporation, that does anything it wants, pays horribly, employees have no choice, you have no choice in what garbage you buy. And your downtown now consists of 8 banks.
Yup. You're living the dream!
Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town
#10Author is delusional. A bunch of small stores close is nowhere near similar. I just want to go to one shop, get the stuff, and leave, not to go to 8 shops, pay 8 times, pack groceries 8 times and overall walk more edit: that is not to say opening big supermarkets is great, just that once they are there that's why people skip local stores and go to the big supermarket
I think the issue is more about the systematic destroying of the small town.
They open multiple Walmart's, the small town stores go out of business, then they can close some percentage of the Walmart's to consolidate into a few stores in central locations, now all of the small town people have to drive farther to get anything at all. And the small town dies.