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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

#91

Post by gottorf »

ep103 wrote: post #46
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Aye, I lived in Ithaca, NY for a while, and they had a local law that the only businesses within the town center could not be franchise stores, and had to be independently owned. Chain stores could open, but had to do so down the highway about ~2 miles away. It is _incredible_ the difference it makes on town culture, and _how much better it was_

Downtown Ithaca most likely would have been just as vibrant without that law. It's a town with a higher median household income than the US as a whole, plus two colleges, both of which cost >$50k a year to attend. The students, especially of Cornell, are a great and continuing source of relatively price-insensitive consumers.

Chapel Hill, NC has a Target smack dab in the middle of downtown, and everyone would agree that it's an idyllic college town with a wonderful culture.

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

#92

Post by batch12 »

jake_morrison wrote: post #79
batch12 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. It's hard for me to respect this as a valid choice. Waste and consumption concerns aside, the justification of not knowing (or wanting to know) how to perform simple maintena…

When I was a kid I ran a lawn service, and I got all my engines out of the trash. When the mowers are cheap, it's rational. They get the lawnmower out of the shed the first time in spring and it won't start, it would cost a significant amount to get it fixed, and they have to waste your time and wrestle a dirty lawnmower in and out of your car. So they buy a cheap new one and throw the old one away. Paying someone is…

If the mower is really kept in the shed then it may be as simple as changing the gas, checking the oil and spark plug, and a little muscle to crank it.

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

#93

Post by jxramos »

no_wizard wrote: post #60
rblatz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe don't strew pallets of junk in the middle of aisles if you want to go upmarket?

Target does this too. It’s common in most supermarkets nowadays

they make up for it somewhat with pleasant looking pallets, those big red plastic things, vs raw rough looking wood. I get a sense Target has less downtime with this inventory layover sort of thing. Walmart can have pallets out that people are expected to pick over and shop on and which need to be restocked. Also Target just has more cushioned margins for their aisles where the footprint of a pallet has less impact in your sense of space than Walmarts where a significant percentage of the aisle is occupied by these monstrosities.

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

#94

Post by leetcrew »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #10
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

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.

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.

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

#95

Post by SoftTalker »

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

The quaint downtown stores were also probably open from 9-5, maybe 9-12 on Saturday, closed Sunday. That was fine in the 1950s when housewives didn't work and could go shopping during the day. Today, nobody's going to want to take time off work to go buy bread, eggs, and socks. They want to go to Walmart on Sunday afternoon, or on their way home after work.

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

#96

Post by no_wizard »

leetcrew wrote: post #63
no_wizard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider it the fact that Walmart for a long time had a mostly rural and suburban strategy that skews demographics to people 40+. It’s a Sam Walton hold over that I think is being slowly replaced. What WalMart hates the most is that they can’t get people of affluence who want to save money to shop at one though. When I worked there the complaint out of HQ I heard the most is that Michelle Obama and Oprah would shop…

I'm surprised they care. I can't speak for all "people of affluence who want to save money", but personally I feel that everything about the experience is catered towards a person who values small discounts a lot more than their own time. the inventory is barely organized and I have to walk all the way around the store before I even find the right section. it's even harder to find a human employee who might know wher…

it has a negative impact on their brand perception and top line growth. Except when the economy blips into recession their growth seemingly caps at 2-4% a year, sometimes essentially remaining flat.

I always thought the secret weapon to attracting wealthier shoppers is their far too under-capitalized and under-utilized Sam's Club model that is similar to Costco, but not Costco. I think thats what they should have invested in far more to attract the wealthier demographic. Most upper middle class+ people I know shop at Costco varying from often to religiously. Same with Trader Joes, actually.

I always thought Walmart was the "lesser" brand personally, but HQ never seemed to grasp this

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

#97

Post by gottorf »

User23 wrote: post #56
notyourday wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing great about small towns. All of this is waxing of people who don't live in small towns that think it is oh so nice to be able to go to a cute little store on vacation at 11:30am to get a muffin on Saturday. Never mind that the store itself is closed Monday to Friday.

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.

> social capital matters and reputation matters. Of course those are disadvantages to misbehavers.

This is something that many young adults have forgotten, because it's increasingly more trendy to move around a lot in your 20s while developing your career. Nobody cares in a big city if you're an asshole, because there's a million other people to associate with and most likely the asshole and everyone around them aren't going to still be there in five years.

The downside of the small town social setting is that it can be cliquey.

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

#98

Post by sithadmin »

dingnuts wrote: post #62
toomuchtodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small towns should be able to change and adapt, but Walmart being the corporate small town core is another version of enshitification (Walmart being your IRL ecomm platform), with your town's core dictated and governed by Bentonville, Arkansas. Build strong, local communities and economies instead: https://ilsr.org/ | https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/how-small-towns-and-cities-c... (it will not be extremely economical…

You might consider it enshittification because it's not as cute as "Main Street" but in rural and impoverished areas Walmart brought affordable necessities -- like much cheaper groceries -- and real quality of life increases for people who otherwise would have simply had to do with much less. The lower prices that Walmart is able to offer actually do matter and have a material impact on people who are not rich.

While you're not wrong, you also can't really ignore the knock-on negative effects of a major national chain moving in, undercutting local commerce, and piping a community's money away to a massive conglomerate. Local chains or independent shops are going to be reinvesting a higher percentage of their revenue in the local community.

There's also the fact that Walmart is infamous for its vampiric strategy of stringing workers along on part-time schedules that guarantee poverty-level income to avoid benefit overhead costs, relying on local and national social safety net programs to keep their workers afloat. This sort of workforce and benefits management strategy isn't nearly as prevalent among independent and small-chain businesses.

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

#99

Post by tstrimple »

User23 wrote: post #56
notyourday wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing great about small towns. All of this is waxing of people who don't live in small towns that think it is oh so nice to be able to go to a cute little store on vacation at 11:30am to get a muffin on Saturday. Never mind that the store itself is closed Monday to Friday.

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.

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

#100

Post by gdsdfe »

pessimizer wrote: post #64
gdsdfe wrote: post #21

This is wrong on so many levels, are we really talking about urbanism inside of a walmart?

You don't understand. Both the departments in Walmart and buildings in a town are roughly oblong when viewed from above, so they're actually the same. Also, aisles meant to convey you between those departments are like roads conveying you between buildings. What more evidence do you need? /s

right so if the city wants to plant trees between the aisles they can do so, right? lol
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