My father told me something about 5 years ago when he heard the news that Walmart was coming to a local town. He lives in a rural community who up to that point did not have a Walmart. At the time there where several dozen grocery stores and small convenience stores. In those short 5 years since Walmart opened it’s doors the number of grocery stores and small convenience stores have literally been wiped out. There are many many buildings that are now empty. But if you drive by Walmart the parking lot is full. Sam Walton has built and empire but his business techniques will end up being the demise of small companies. The big corporate machines roll in and using there buying power to destroy what has survived for countless years.
Anyway his comment was “there goes the neighborhood” and I thought it strange at the time. My wife made a comment to me. Besides the change in scenery from 1 section of the country to the other she is disappointed that there is not much variety when it comes to shopping. What she uses as a baseline is Japan as you travel from town to town each is unique and has unique small business each etching out there own niche. Traveling through these Japanese towns makes it interesting because for the most part small business’s still thrive in Japan and they add to a communities culture. So in a weird sort of way Walmart and all of the other big chains are adding to the demise of the American culture. So I guess my dad was right when he said “there goes the neighborhood”. [Fast Company]
I agree completely. Where I live it has even gone a step worse. Over the last 6 years Wal-Mart has built 3 stores in my area and has indeed put a end to many small businesses. But now they(wal-mart) are planning on building 2 super-wal-marts that include grocery and some home improvment sections. Instead of adding on to their existing buildings they are building 2 completely new stores and going to leave their 3 old stores empty after just 6 years. Being a area of under 100,000 pop. I’m guessing it will be years before any businesses are sucessful in their old buildings.
Wal-Mart is the Evil!
MongooseNX
Yeah, I’m a computer science major and one of my college classes(Science, Technology, and Society) we had a debate about that last year. It was pretty cool to see the views people took, like good old agent smith says, “It is inevitable”, just as a one world government, currency, etc. Society and culture are going through growing pains, but we are not far off from attaining a Type 1 civilization.
Yeah, Walmart is like the Microsoft of shopping and the small businesses are open source. America isn’t the only country that’s facing this corporatization; the rest of the West is facing it too, although they sometimes erroneously call it “Americanization”.
I think it all comes down to, if you believe in diversity and in individuality, we should try to shun the conforming corporations as much as possible. It costs a lot to put our money where our mouths are but, over the long term, we get much more in return.
I talked more about this phenomenon here:
http://www.sitehouse.net/jamesbow/001215.shtml
Oh yes and let’s not forget where Wal-Mart merchandise comes from, NOT American made, but rather China, etc. Cheap labor.
I totally agree. It makes me want to cry how Wal-Mart (and other chains) destroy the uniqueness and beauty of small towns.
I’m a hypocrite, though. When I was planning for my wedding I was stunned by the high prices for all the necessary items at small specialty stores, from invitations to the decorations and the veil. In the end I bought a lot of things at Wal-Mart and saved hundreds. I felt guilty.
In recent weeks my husband and I have documented a lot of towns of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and set up websites with photo galleries. I was stunned how much damage has been done. Towns like beautiful historic Andalusia, AL, has basically turned into a ghost town since they built the bypass with the Wal-Mart next to it.
Other towns have done a better job trying to keep their identity. I loved Thomasville, Cairo, and especially Bainbridge, Georgia.
I believe part of the problem is that nowadays, a “community feel” is gone and fewer people have a desire to walk around downtown and chat with others. (Or maybe: fewer people like to walk. Period?)
The towns that are surviving seem to focus on re-building a community feel. Colquitt, GA, has a yearly storytelling festival. Bainbridge focuses on promoting arts and its history, it also has a lot of quaint antique shops.
I’ll still shop at Wal-Mart but I’m planning on paying more attention to what’s going on in the communities around here.
Walmart sux! down with walmart! they close all buisnesses! i dont like them! but their prices are cheap! down with fat people!
Some good news!
Central Point, Oregon near where I live just voted down one of the super wal-marts that I mentioned in a earlier post. They cited that small businesses provided everything that wal-mart was offering.
Who knows how long the community can keep them out, but I’m glad they are trying. At the very least they can negotiate the best deal they can for their area.
Customer disservice
What happened to good, old-fashioned customer service? I’m convinced that it doesn’t exist for 99.995% of the consumer market out there. I had a nasty little run-in myself this year–God bless the holidays–when an important present I ordered didn’t sh…
my comment is one of your cashier named Jami is very rude and should not work there any more.