John L. Plough

I recently read an article that was very negative about the effects Wal-mart has had on the economy. I would link the article, however it was full of so many mis-statements and downright twisting of statistics I think it a disservice to the reader to subject them to the class warfare nonsense.

Rather, it seems better to just pose the question is Wal-Mart good for the US?

I have personal experience with the destruction Wal-Mart can have on a community, having said that destruction is not always a bad thing. My father owned a rather large sporting goods store in a small community, it was roughly the size of a Big 5 store with a mix of goods tended toward hunting and fishing. The store was very prosperous, I won’t go into the numbers because it is irrelevant but it was prosperous. That little store provided a good living for my father and three “nowhere dead-end” jobs suitable for retirees or highschool kids which I was at the time. Having said that, the only person at that store who could have been considered a “career” person would have been the owner. The rest of us were just biding our time or working for pocket cash as in the case of the “part-timers” my father employed.

That little store was put out of business by Wal-Mart, our store simply could not compete with Wal-marts buying power, and we bought “wholesale” at the same prices Wal-Mart sold retail. No matter what we did we couldn’t figure out how to go toe to toe with them, as for many items we sold price was the determining factor. So in the case of this illustration Wal-Mart was “Bad” for my father but was it bad for the community in general?

At the time I was getting paid $5 bucks an hour some of the other employees were paid more. Walmart’s entry-level pay was $9, they employed about 100 people in all skill levels along the pay curve. Many people began work there after quitting other lower paying jobs. So the net effect in our community was; several boutique style stores went out of business, hurting their owners but benefiting their employees as they were now employed by the Wal-Mart, at high wages with the option of career advancement, something that is not available in any small business.

The lower prices and higher service walmart provided raised the standard of living in the community by lowering the cost of everyday goods. Allowing their customers more disposable income. Within a year of Wal-Mart a bunch of “new” businesses opened, mainly restaurants. No doubt a result of the extra disposable income created by the savings on necessities that Wal-Mart brought.

So the net result of Wal-Mart was actually positive! Far from destroying small business Wal-Mart created opportunities for business that would not have existed without them.  If you ask my dad today I think he would agree even though he is still chagrined by the loss of his store.