Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town • Hacker News Board

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#131

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:17 PM UTC

rblatz wrote: post #86

shortlongterm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this satire? Lawn equipment ain't complicated enough to maintain to justify throwing out every season. This is insane consumerism.

Blades need sharpened, gas maybe needs to be drained, are there other fluids that need take care of? Do I need to oil bits, are there bolts that I need to tighten? I could spend hours learning to do this, and then buying the tools and materials to actually do the maintenance, plus the few hours of effort of actually doing it. Walmart has several mowers listed under $200, I can see why someone would find it not worth…

[deleted]

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#132

Post by gottorf » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

tstrimple wrote: post #99

User23 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DMV experience in a small town versus a big city is night and day in the small town’s favor. That’s true for pretty much all government services from the Post Office down to the County office. The main benefit of small towns is that social capital matters and reputation matters. Of course those are disadvantages to misbehavers.

What?! This runs completely counter to my experience living in a small town. A town small enough that the post office doesn’t do to door delivery, you’ve got to go pick it up and the closest DMV is an hour away in the city. Small towns don’t generally have services like that at all.

Of course, everyone's definition of a small town, and the kinds of small towns that they've experienced, are going to differ. I'm not too far (just a county over) from a quaint little town with under a thousand people; the post office there delivers to homes, and the nearest DMV is a 15-minute drive away, in a "city" of almost 15k.

Come to think of it, in my own county, which is not highly urban by any stretch of the imagination, you'd be maximum a half-hour drive away from the nearest DMV starting from any main road. Obviously, that doesn't hold if it takes you 15 minutes to get down your own driveway ;-)

I could easily see some of the much more remote Western small towns being further away from anything.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#133

Post by fantasticshower » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

ilyt wrote: post #4

Author 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

Part of me hates Walmart and part of me loves it. I love that I can go to one place and get 80% of whatever I'm looking for. But I also like the specialty stores my town has. N of one but since Walmart moved in ~20y ago I haven't noticed much changing with the makeup of small businesses. Since Walmart moved in there have been more of the other big box stores, though.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#134

Post by vidanay » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:23 PM UTC

redgreenshoe wrote: post #85

scottLobster wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The harsh lighting and reflective white paint literally hurts my eyes in Walmart. Like there's a low-grade sting and I'm slightly squinting for the duration of my shopping trip. Target doesn't have this problem, and I'm willing to pay a slight premium if it's convenient. Maybe they can fix that first.

Wal-Mart, uniquely among large stores I've been in, makes me feel bad . I don't remember this being the case, say, 20 years ago. It seems to have worse over time. I think it's the lighting and design, though I'm not sure exactly what about it. Walking in instantly makes me miserable. Probably doesn't help that shoppers and workers alike all look sad, constantly (but how much of that is because the store itself is doi…

But it is crowded. The aisles are easily 18" narrower than they were 20 years ago. I distinctly remember the last time my local Walmart remodeled and you could see the shadows of the old shelves and aisles on the floor still.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#135

Post by RF_Enthusiast » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:24 PM UTC

Focusing here on the "Walmart Didn’t Kill the Small Town" part of the story.

I recently purchased some land in one of the rare US towns that does not have a Walmart (or any big box store). In fact, there are no big box stores within 100 miles of this town. It's a town with about 2,500 people, all within the town core, almost no population in the outlying areas. Not enough population to support a box store.

The business in this town is absolutely booming right now. For example, the coffee shop I was at the other day had eight employees working at the time I was there, and it was quite busy. Main Street is lined with retail merchants that appear to be doing well. Restaurants are packed. People are really nice.

I'm even building a business there.

About 100+ miles south is a larger, but still isolated, community with a Walmart. It took me about 30 minutes of driving around to find a coffee shop, and the one I finally found was understaffed and mediocre. Most small retail strips were deserted. People in this town seemed miserable.

I think there are multiple reasons why the first town is doing so well right now, but the thing that struck me immediately when I came to this town was that there was no Walmart. I really believe that is the main reason this town is thriving.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#136

Post by taeric » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

Wasn't this exact observation made with big book stores and libraries, at one point?

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#137

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:34 PM UTC

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #110

leetcrew wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people often give this "just so" explanation, but it doesn't quite add up to me. if it's really so inconvenient to go to the consolidated Walmart location a few towns over, why don't you see shops start to reopen on main street? I suspect the root cause has more to do with cars than a particular megastore.

The needed capital to re-start. They have lost the critical mass. For many small towns, these stores were started many decades ago. I guess technically, if a store can't be re-started today is kind of like also saying, if the small town can't re-start itself, then that points to question, why would a small town need to exist at all today. Think the end of this line of reasoning is that small towns have no reason to e…

> Think the end of this line of reasoning is that small towns have no reason to exist, so let them go?

Correct.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#138

Post by mcdonje » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #73

mcdonje wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because the Walmart opened.

What's because the Walmart opened? If you're saying that Walmart's crush local commerce, then close when it's in their business interest to do so (they'll just have to drive to the next Walmart anyway), then that is also what I was saying.

Ok, yes, we're saying the same thing.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#139

Post by goosinmouse » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

rubyn00bie wrote: post #11

throwawaysleep wrote: post #6

It’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 mainta…

Tangential: but I’d really like to call out what a life hack, lots of cheap socks are. I got the idea myself long ago, as a kid, from the South Park creators, as they demanded unlimited new socks while making the movie. Once a year I buy like a 50 pack on Amazon and it’s great. 10/10 would recommend.

I'd like to call out what a life hack merino wool socks are. Cheap cotton socks smell after a few hours, merino wool socks smell after a few days and last forever. Also if you get a decent pair, they don't itch at all. Amazon sells some cheaper 6 packs for $20 that will for sure change your mind on socks.

Re: Walmart didn’t kill the small town, it is the small town

#140

Post by tstrimple » Fri, Jul 28, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

lapetitejort wrote: post #123

giantrobot wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's competition. There's variety. That does not follow. Small stores carry the same shit as big chain stores. Because of their smaller scale and more limited purchasing power those items are more expensive than a chain and they can only afford to carry high throughput items. The only way small stores can deal with long tail items is if they're super specialty and neat a large enough metro area to have enough sa…

> Small stores carry the same shit as big chain stores. Not always. Go to a dedicated board game store and you'll see such a wider variety than the branded Monopoly sets on sale at big box stores. Plus they usually have an area dedicated to actually playing games, something you'll never find at a chain. This community charm is paid for by the small store tax, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.

And those stores have a very hard time competing with online sales. Not only is their stock much, much more limited they are often significantly more expensive because the stores have to mark them up. There is so much variety in board games these days those stores have no hope of competing outside of Magic The Gathering events. I suspect those are moving more toward online play as well because honestly those events aren’t very pleasant to attend in person. We’ve lost roughly half of our board game stores in a city of around 120k people. The only ones that are left are 90% TCG stock with a small selection of modern board games. Honestly the stock at Target and Barnes and Nobel especially are just as good these days.