AlterNet is obsessed with Wal-Mart, defining it as the alpha and omega of evil. But this was the first article I've read on the site that really touched me. Statistics mixed with outrage might work for some, but when you're bombarded with propaganda by both sides every where you turn, it's easy to become cynical. This article was sincere and honest, and it made an ugly situation very real and very personal.

Excellent article! I hope it finds a wide audience.

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Wyoming gave the world our wonderful, caring, humanistic "Vice" president, Mr D. Cheney, who is a big fan of Walmart....Now Walmart has Wyoming....Wonder if there is some sort of connection there.....????
Funny, how things work out, huh????
Only, now a lot of folks are not laughing so much......

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in regards to the comments about Wal-Mart in Wyoming, this is my opinion. I use Wal-Mart and love it, I am on a fixed income and they have prices I can afford, Now if you are down on Wal-Mart because they have chased out small businesses, I guess we have feel the same about Meijer dept stores also, as they have chased out small grocery stores. Then there are the Home Improvement stores, like Lowe's, HomeDepot, Menards etc. all of the gas companies like Exon , Shell etc. who have phased out the small gas stations-Hobby Lobby and craft stores like Michaels who have eliminated these dept. from other stores- Jo-Ann Fabrics etc. who have phased out these depts. in other stores. Then there is K-Mart- and I could go on and on, why are we picking on Wal-Mart. There are alot of us with low incomes who couldn't
afford some of the things we need if it wasn't for Wal-Mart.
Now some are going to say , well, all of their things come from other countries who pay small wages, I defy you to go to any other store and find the USA label on any (or very few) of their products. I know because I look-
Thank You
Shirl

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Nobody is picking on Wal-Mart. It is the leader in ruthless corporate tactics that involve every unsavory business practice ever imagined. This corporation well deserves all the negative attention it is receiving and then some. It maybe that you can afford the prices there, but at what cost to your fellow Americans? The reason there are no items made in the U.S on the shelves anymore is because places like Wal-Mart have broken the back of American manufacturing in order to further line the pockets of fat cat CEOs and shareholders by sending our jobs to China and India. So instead of paying a living wage to a worker, these creeps get away with paying pennies a day so that you can save a dime or two on your toothpaste. The cheap prices you love come at a very high cost. Give that some thought....

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I had a friend of mine who lived in Kansas and would complain about some "liberal" elitists wiping out their small stores but then he'd go out of his way to travel 50 miles to the nearest Walmart that was the real culprit. Since some more Walmarts came in that state, he now only has to travel 20 miles to one. I'll bet the same thing must be happening in Wyoming.

Walmart shouldn't have any problem pumping up their outdoor and hunting supplies out in Wyoming for their folks. Besides, they'll always be able to import their metal goodies from China or whereever cheap labor exists just like the NRA which loves "free" trade to death.

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As someone from Arkansas, the birthplace of Wal-Mart, I cringe every time I find out some new height of awfulness reached by this mindless juggernaut of retail.

My apologies to the world for the horror unleashed upon it. Arkansas, third-world country that it is, was the perfect testing ground for this behemoth. Our family's small business was wiped out in part by WalMart -- we could not compete with a store that aped our product line and retailed for less than we paid wholesale. WalMart is NOT the American Way.

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Wal-Mart wants to put a Super Center in our lovely community of Central Point, Oregon. We already have a Wal-Mart store five miles away. There is another one 10 miles away. Approval has been given for a Super Center 10 miles in the other direction. We have a Super Center 30 miles up Interstate 5.

People who support Wal-Mart often use the argument that they are on a fixed income and they like the low prices.

I urge those people to look beyond the price tag (most of which is "junk" a person doesn't "need" anyway) and think about the REAL COST of the things they are purchasing at Wal-Mart.

I weened myself off Wal-Mart about three years ago when I began understanding how the Wal-Martization of America is ruining our WORLD....not just my local community, mind you, but the world.

Can you guess what has happened to me since I quit shopping at Wal-Mart? (1) I am certainly in no worse financial shape than I was before. (2) I am able to find what I need/want elsewhere, at local businesses or at least more responsible businesses that pay and treat their employees well and are kinder to the planet. And, surprise of surprises.... (3) many of the things I buy elsewhere are just as cheap or even cheaper than they are at Wal-Mart.

The best part, is how good I feel about myself NOT shopping at a place that hurts Americans, the American economy, and the planet in the arrogant way Wal-Mart does.

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Here's the problem with small business: they have to charge more because they sell less. In addition, small business has never been a model of high wages and benefits either. I don't know what the answer is. Maybe we really don't have to preserve all small business. However if Walmart is the ONLY alternative, they can start raising their prices after they wipe out all the others.

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...as the original poster said, and it's worth reiterating, once they have wiped out other sources of competition, and once the fuel shortage starts to really hit them (possibly even later this year) WalMart WILL raise its prices. What will we have then?

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The Wal-Mart model is what is espoused by corporate America and certainly the federal reserve and the government. Buying cheap goods overseas and paying later is the ultimate form of exporting your inflation to the poor (colonialism). We can be submerged in debt to our ears and have rampant monetary inflation, but it doesn't matter because there is a growing foreign market for our dollar. We produce next to nothing competitvely here for foreigners to buy. Our dollars find there way back here, where they must eventually return, through the world oil market and subsequent investment in the stock market and hard assets. The money comes full circle and we don't have to produce much more than printed paper money. Inflation is then seen in the higher price of stocks (wealth) and in high priced real estate (housing bubble) for example. Tooth paste prices remain stable like most goods in the consumer price index.
Economic superiority is the goal of this nation, if you believe the SOTU address. Our leaders don't want to internalize inflation to the price of goods and services. We must externalize it and protect the oil market and the investment in stock markets. It's the only leg we stand on because we cannot be superior otherwise. We do not have unlimited ressources , we do not have the cheap workforce and we overconsume.
It's not just Wal-Mart as some have pointed out. The Wal-Mart model is what works best to bring economic superiority home to the rich.

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I hear horror stories like this all the time about Wal Mart and I'm wondering what the small business are doing to compete in these towns. Here in Missoula we have 2 Wal Marts, a Supercenter and a soon to be Supercenter. However, our local small businesses are doing as well, if not better, than ever. Most people shop at local businesses and see the value in them. Maybe it's not a problem with Wal Mart, but maybe it's a problem with the small local businesses in the town. We have local bookstores, local hardware stores, local grocery stores, local clothing stores and all are able to compete with Wal Mart. Don't get me wrong-I don't shop at Wal Mart and I dislike their policies as much as anyone, but I can't help but think that it's not just Wal Mart's fault, or the fault of the Wal Mart business model, that so many small businesses are going under in many cities.

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Hi,
I just read this article and I first have to say I stopped shopping at WalMart about 3 years ago and even then did not shop there much because until about 5 years ago there were none in Pittsburgh. Now there are dozens following the WalMart Plan to locate one 15 minutes away from another. I work for a governmental agency so I get to see and work to develope the roadway system around each WalMart. Unfortunately I can't get my friends, even union friends, to stay away from Sam's Clubs and WalMarts. Even when I tell them how much the pay is and how the people can't afford health care that work there, it means nothing. We have to start realizing that such stores are not in our best interests in the grand scheme of things. Look, five years ago most of the stuff was Made in America and now you will be lucky to find anything there Made in America. How unamerican can you get?

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Here in my state of Washington, it is estimated that it costs taxpayers around $12M per year to subsidize Walmart. Their employees earn such low wages that they qualify for government medical assistance. Walmart is on the welfare.

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I recommend to all my friends (and I like to think of Alternet readers as friends) to check out this site: linked text

Buy Blue gives alot of eye opening info as to which corporations are lining hte pockets of which political parties in $$ and %%. It will also give info on invlovement in Progressive causes. During the holiday season, they make a great list of those typical mall stores (....Hmmm, should I buy from Borders or Barnes and Nobles?....) that you are likely to hit.

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It is your local, county and state governments that issue the permits for business licenses, building rules and work rules. It never ceases to amaze me that complainers DON'T GET THAT! Complaints on the blogs don't butter no parsnips. Get out and go door to door And keep it up. That's how the republicans did it. And don't kid yourself that they didn't.

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We live in an area of eastern PA near Allentown where if you are not from this area, the locals don't like you - yes, prejudice is alive and well in America. People from other areas of PA are even treated that way upon moving here and denied service in the smaller stores. Yes, hard to believe, but true. So, in impersonal Wal-Mart, we get better service - at least we are served. Yet, I do understand all the other problems about Wal-Mart and that the employees can't afford medical coverage on their meager salaries, and this can be a big problem in the US. There are a lot of problems associated with Wal-Mart's increasing monopoly in this country.

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Excellent, if heart breaking, article. May I also suggest "Wal-Mart : The High Cost of Low Prices." available on DVD and Video tape.

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Having read “A Wal-Mart Grows in Wyoming” I thought, how do we progress beyond the standard fare of Wal-Mart bashing offset by the ubiquitous support for “Always Low Prices, Always” provided by those on fixed incomes like Shirl.

My family and another have formed an unofficial co-op, buying in bulk. Our strategy has allowed us to buy our groceries at prices lower than Wal-Mart’s, while buying better quality. But here is this kid, living in a place the web calls “wholly unremarkable, a down-at-heel mining community." My family has choices in where we shop – we have a Smith’s, an Albertsons, as well as several independently-owned grocery stores. But Kat states:
"… City Market was the local grocery store where we shopped. I got my hair cut at Lynn's beauty salon and ate cookies at Fred's bakery.
Now, all of those businesses have been wiped out and in their place stands a massive concrete box called Wal-Mart. This economic giant looms across the street from Smyth Printing and has terminated the business we did with these independent stores. The literal shadow it casts over the shop is a constant reminder of the threat it poses to my family's livelihood."
I imagine the windy little town where Kat lives. No grocery store left. No alternative to Wal-Mart. Concerned, I went searching the web to find a near-by co-op where she and other residents of Rock Springs could purchase food and other essentials.
It’s one thing for me to proclaim “Just don’t go there!” But what do the residents of Rock Springs do when they have no City Market left?
Well, they go to Albertsons, Smiths and a local grocery called Oj’s. There’s an Ace Hardware in Rock Springs, and all the other shopping options one would expect in a town of about 27,000 souls. There’s a Sears, a K-Mart.
Kat left her readers with the impression that Wal-Mart had reduced Rock Springs to one store shopping -- when in fact the choices the residents have are exactly the same shopping choices most of us have – there is no need to go to Wal-Mart -- go somewhere else. Go to Smiths. Go to Albertsons. Go to Oj’s for food.
Kat implies that her family printing business will soon die – the local merchants her family press depends on are vanishing and it’s all Wal-Mart’s fault. While I wish this were true – it just isn’t so. The invasion of the chains – with their non-local printing arrangements started thirty years ago.
So Kat wrote a paper about a non-existent problem – Wal-Mart comes to Rock Springs. She made us believe that Wal-Mart had killed off the local grocers. She pleaded with us to help save her family business. The grammar was good. Score 8 of 10. On a fiction score she rates high. A good read – all of us would say. But this was supposed to be non-fiction – even as the Frey controversy rages on.
To kill Wal-Mart, truth is where it’s at. And, I for one, want to kill Wal-Mart. So what should Kat’s paper have said? Perhaps she might have done a six-month comparison of staple food prices using her home-town grocery stores -- Smiths, Albertsons, Ojs and Wal-Mart to prove to Shirl that it is possible to shop wisely and well without ever going into Wal-Mart. If we are to kill Wal-Mart, we must convince all the Shirls of America that the low prices are really the prices for giant beer steins and other junk – made in China – not food and soap and all the things we need to live.
There is only one way to kill Wal-Mart. Simply do not shop there. Each week, convince one friend to stay out of Wal-Mart – Always! Wal-Mart does not, at least not yet, set up shop in tiny communities, killing off the one grocery store, beauty salon or bakery because potential revenues are just too small. We always have a choice. Let’s put our energies, as Kat should have done, to proving that the deals are just not that great.

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and I *do* drive by, refusing to stop--I glance at the Walmart in Maine where Mohammed Atta and another of the 9/11 hikackers went shopping on their next-to-last day alive. Somehow it seems appropriate that they would choose a store that's doing so much damage to the America we used to know.

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Wal mart, is a company unlike any other. Of course, there are differences. They Are much larger than most chain stores, excepting American Democracy perhaps. They are succesful in the financial meaning of the word. They recieve more than some countries do ever year. They open more stores than this country opens schools. They are the culmination of the Feudal System of Business, Corporate Business Model.
The lifeless individuals you dealt with are the result of low pay, yes, but also the fact that thier jobs are rewardless, and about as useful as a Wine Gourmand during Prohibition. They greet customers, in an attempt to dissuade theft, and give some cheeriness to the store that is otherwise lacking. Of course, they fail in perhaps both regards. They are lifeless, but blameless. If you think their corporate overlords notice, or even truly care, your as sad as they have become.
The CEO's and various other Executives are too busy coming up with ideas that are only useful on paper and amongst business journals. They are too busy measuring success with money, instead of positive growth, and reading the Stock Qoutes. They come up with some little innovation, and hope the stock rises a penny, so that they may crow about thier efficency and corporate prowess at whatever gathering (black masses) that they are required to attend.
Of course, we dont see this. We are not meant to see the backbiting that is inherent in the top of any company. When the leaders are fighting like Drama Queen and Political Party Stars, what happiness can one recieive the job that was only taken out of desperation? What Happiness can one receive when Executives earn easily more than double or triple one's salary, while grumpy customers shove past you (or over you) for that cheap DVD player?

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i dont know if walmart uses prison labor yet but i am sure it will when the shipping costs become to high, Prisons are being built at a faster rate than Wal Marts and certainly faster than schools. Now that it is a felony for our neighboring country people fleeing poverty , the money addicted people holding stock in the prison Industrial complex will have dollar signs over their glazed eyes. Prisons are just becoming the new housing. People of poverty do desperate things, Many people in prisons are there for inability to pay fines, and their original crime was non-violent. The one policy of wal marts i think is positive is they hire ex- felons so as i see it they could make a buck or two if they just built the prison next door to the walmart.

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I wonder how many "Born-Again-Christians" , those most notablle are named Bush, Cheney (Ol' Dead-Eye) and Walton, realize that the name of "their God" is "Mammon"!?

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I live in Billings, Montana (pop. about 95,000) where we are blessed with two Wal-Marts. Now the nearby town of Laurel (pop. about 6250), about 15-20 miles away, is about to have its own Wal-Mart. Local officials are crowing about how many jobs it will create. I have a friend who works in the IGA there, and she's worried - as she should be.

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I find it interesting that the locations are in areas where walmart can easily wipe out smaller businesses. also they are in locations that have alot of big box stores that seems to be the way to take over. they bully their way in and squeeze out the other stores. Part of the reason they charge so little is that they can afford to drop their prices untill the other businesses are gone. Because there are so many of them they can afford to lose a bit untill the others are gone.
Look at starbucks micky d,s look at all the chain stores.
I think it is becoming the american way. Sad but our choices are becoming fewer and fewer
I do not shop at walmart because of their bully tactics.toward their employees I feel at some point they will have to contend with unions but only when the people working there stand up and fight for one
read history and you will see the rise in unions came about when people began to see how they were getting screwed. But if in small towns walmart wipes out all the others, to strike could be starvation to those involved.

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