I used to travel for business a few years back and a lot of our clients were
in small towns or small cities.  It always used to amaze and sadden me that
when I asked a client for advice on shopping and restaurants in the area,
90% of the time the response would be Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Applebee's, Olive
Garden, Red Lobster, etc., etc.   You can travel all over the country and
get the same monotonous product.

Mark E.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "josh chasin" <jchasin@nyc.rr.com>
To: <audities@smoe.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Wal-mart


> This anecdote is a precise microcosm of the "Wal-Martization of America,"
> also known as the death of downtown.  Often Wal-Mart will open up outside
of
> town on a highway or intersection between two towns-- to draw retail
traffic
> from each-- and destroy the downtowns of both in the process.
>
> Wal-Mart really is the quintessential corporate bully.  They use their
sheer
> size to intimidate manufacturers into giving them volume deals that no one
> else can get.  Then they turn around and routinely use these discounts to
> price inventory such that any downtown store would go out of business if
> they matched the prices.  Wal-Mart often retails goods at a lower price
than
> he local guy can acquire them wholesale.  As I heard one executive say in
a
> speech about 8 years ago,  "If you have a store in one of the 37
categories
> Wal-Mart operates in,  and they open in your area,  you have a problem."