Small towns are known for the thrifty shops, local coffee houses, and communities where everyone knows everyone. These small towns generally enjoy keeping their businesses small and supporting each other. They also tend to not like big corporations moving into their communities and taking away from the local businesses that have been there for years. This is what was demonstrated in the movie Store Wars. The small town Ashland located in Virginia prides itself on being American, Christian, and supporters of its community members. When the corporation giant, Wal-Mart, threatens to build in their town, the majority of the people in Ashland became worried and was totally against this happening. The town’s people found themselves fighting against …show more content…
the small majority who were pro-Wal-Mart and the town council. The major, youngest one the town has ever had, was caught in the middle of making an economic decision that would possibly benefit the town or saving his small town that was rich with history. There was a lot of protest and rebuttal against building Wal-Mart. It was known that in other small towns like Tappahannock, Virginia, a Wal-Mart was built there which caused 28-38 businesses to close. Regardless of this, the Wal-Mart was built. The Major was not reelected because he did not stand for the majority. Those who did not want the Wal-Mart to be built shed some tears and accepted the fate that is now theirs. There were a lot of reasons for not wanting the Wal-Mart to come to Ashland.
One major reason was all the small business that the town prides itself on. A lot of these businesses were passed down from generation to generation. One business in particular was a shoe store. What made this shoe store special was the fact the owners knew who made your shoe and where the materials came from, unlike Wal-Mart, where an employee will be unable to tell you any of these things. In fact, 84% of Wal-Mart’s sales come from other business. Another reason was that in order for the Wal-Mart to be made accessible, there would have to be a completely separate road built. There was also another Wal-Mart a 15-minute drive away from Ashland. The people were also scared that another Wal-Mart will pop up near their town. It’s known that Wal-Mart expands its store every 2 business days and compete with each other until the other business around it have dissipate. They also believe that the Wal-Mart was too big for the town and everything they could possibly be need was right where they live or they could drive to get …show more content…
it. The other community member’s reasons for wanting the Wal-Mart focus mostly on convenience and lack of information. One person needed batteries for her hearing aid and did not want to drive 15 minutes to the Wal-Mart in the neighboring town. Having a Wal-Mart close by will give her easy access to the batteries she need. Another person who was pro-development, Jim Moore, really wanted Wal-Mart to move into the town because his view on Wal-Mart was incredibly positive. He believed that Wal-Mart was the 6th most admire company in America. The decision to have the Wal-Mart be built in Ashland was not the right decision.
The wishes of the citizens were not granted and the town does not really benefit at all. Wal-Mart will take their money and give nothing back to the community. It also created a lot of tension between the council and the town members because they only took into account the minority and ignored the majority. They thought about economics only and not about preserving the town’s integrity. What’s even worse, it seems as though that the citizens could have nothing to stop the council’s decision. In the movie, it appeared as if the council made the decision to have the Wal-Mart built regardless of what the people wanted. It was all economics and it seemed like they held the meetings with the community members out of formality. In the end of everything, it comes down to economics,
unfortunately.
Within an excerpt from, “The United States of Wal-Mart,” John Dicker explains that Wal-Mart is a troubling corporation. Dicker begins his article by discussing why the store is so popular within the news in an age of global terrorism, coming to the conclusion that Wal-Mart has a huge scope in the United States and that it has more scandals, lawsuits, and stories than any other supercenter. Continually, he goes on to explain that Wal-Mart outsources jobs and their companies demands makes it hard for employees to have livable wages and good working conditions. Furthermore, Dicker addresses the claim that Wal-Mart provides good jobs, by destroying this perception with statistics showing how employees live in poverty and that their union scene
Besides all the points that I have stated, Wal-Mart has had to pay fines due to breaking Child Labor laws and Illegal Immigrant laws; fines up to $11.5 million for just those two types of laws. Wal-Mart is not good for this economy, for the people, and the company, in a whole, is criminal. If the people let Wal-Mart stay on the track it is on, the United States will not have anything but Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart will become a monopoly and put everyone, who started with something more than greed, out-of-business.
“So what’s wrong if the country has 158 neighborhood California Pizza Kitchens instead of one or two?” Virginia Postrel inquires in her In Praise of Chain Stores essay (Postrel 348). In rebuttal, I plan to answer her question with more reasons than one. However, the responses I intend to offer apply not only to the CPKs of America, but for all the national retailers, big box stores, chain stores, and the like. National retailers destroy the local character of small towns. Chain stores should be limited to only run in a few highly populated urban areas. Furthermore, the costs saved in the convenience and familiarity of chain stores do not outweigh the negative economic impact and damaging effects that they can have on a community’s well-being.
It seems as though these retailers should be welcome with open arms when they look into building one of their mega-stores in America’s mid-sized communities. Closer inspection, however, should make citizens think twice before opening their communities to these corporations. Job loss, negative impact on the local economy and the low wages these stores pay are just a few reasons why big box retailers do more harm than good to the communities in which they locate.
Walmart is bad for America, as some say. The Globalization essay that was handed out in class had many good points. It states that Walmart puts many smaller businesses out of service. A recent study by David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine and two associates at the Public Policy Institute of California, "The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets," uses sophisticated statistical analysis to estimate the effects on jobs and wages as Wal-Mart spread out from its original center in Arkansas. The authors find that retail employmen...
In order to gain the success it has had, Wal-Mart has no doubt affected small businesses. But in the place of small business Wal-Mart has been able to do far more for Americans than small businesses could. It provides consumers inexpensive necessities for life, it provides work for those who would otherwise have none, and it has a stake in the global economy that benefits our own with trading. Wal_mart
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
The anti-Wal-Mart activists believe that the creation of giant discount stores in the rural regions of the United States will lead to their economic and cultural destruction. With economic impact studies, they show that Wal-Mart's incredible gains are in fact taken from other local merchants, whom finally run out of business. According to Sarah Anderson, an economic analyst with an anti Wal-Mart stance, the establishment of a new store near a small town destroys more jobs in independent businesses than it actually creates in hiring local workers (1994). Moreover, a Wal-Mart funded community impact study in Greenfield, Massachusetts demonstrated that the construction of a new mega store would create 274 jobs. But in long terms, the community projects to lost about the same amount in the locally owned competing businesses (Sarah Anderson, 1994). The anti Wal-Mart activists are also concerned by the return of the profits in its adoptive community. The economic spin-off of the money spent in local business is largely superior than with the discount store. But almost all the profits made in a Wal-Mart are returned...
Wal-Mart has had a significant economic impact on the US, as well as the economies of countries that have relations with the US. Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest company of any kind, with 80 percent of the households in America purchasing something from the superstore; it is the nation’s largest retailer. Wal-Mart’s continuing price reduction has given Americans the advantage of being able to afford 15 to 20 percent more than they previously could. (Hansen) In a world governed by globalization and greed, competition has become rigid; as a result firms like Wal-Mart have utilized advanced marketing strategies to insure that they are on the ‘neck’ of competition, and are the core deciders of the market. (Ortega) However, Wal-Mart made decisions that were of a disadvantage to aspects of the economy, including the depletion on a small scale of Small Town USA.
But Walmart can negative effect that is felt but all of us. Social conflict theory is the relationships among the part of society; how the elites use their power to control the weaker groups. While many people believe that Walmart is great because they of their low prices, many people think that Walmart is hurtful to Americans and American corporations.
When Wal-Mart establishes itself in a town, it makes its competitors to close their businesses since they cannot compete in the current market. There are several businesses that go out of business when this company sets up a branch in the town. However people don’t agree with this since customers are the ones who go to purchase goods from Wal-Mart. If there are people who should be blamed are the customers since they flock into the retail market to buy from them. This is the reason why these retail businesses are out of business. The reason that makes customers go to shop at Wal-Mart is that, there is ample parking, low prices and they also provide superior goods and services to the customers.Down town destruction started earlier before Wal-Mart was established. Wal-Mart is trying to bring with it new technologies that are aimed to cope with the current technologies. We ought to find new ways of doing things and this is exactly what is happening with Wal-Mart. For instance, Wal-Mart might be embracing technology to supplant it. Internet shopping might be some of the new business technologies that they are trying to embrace.
A Macro-Sized Microcosm describes how Wal-Mart is a ‘macro-sized microcosm’ for America’s socioeconomic problems. New technology in the marketplace has created a conflict between labor and capital. This is ruining the U.S. manufacturing base. This reading states that Wal-Mart benefits by relying on suppliers and subcontractors. Wal-Mart buyers demand the lowest price possible, making it competitive with their suppliers. A way they do this is by adding cost efficiencies. These demands make it difficult for suppliers to provide employees with decent wages and suitable working conditions. The government endorses these circumstances. The federal and state governments support Wal-Mart with about $4 billion. This includes “free or reduced price land, tax breaks, sales tax rebates, state corporate income tax” et cetera. Most Wal-Marts in the U.S. receive government subsidy. This makes the price of commodities low and keeps them ahead of the
Walmart has had a long-standing presence in America society since the middle of the 20th century, seen as a place to get everything done, Walmart has become a fixation in our society. From grocery shopping, to changing your oil and even filing your annual tax returns, Walmart is always there, everyday. Started by Sam Walton in 1962, it began as a small operation catering to a small Arkansas community. It was started on principles very similar to small local businesses in small towns. Today Walmart has gotten a different, darker reputation. On the surface, Walmart may seem like the solution to everyday issues. Low-income families are attracted to the low prices, and people who work odd hours benefit greatly from the 24 hours a day that many Walmarts are open. Lately, Walmart has also managed to be publicly recognized as a store that sells many of today’s green products, including organic food, environmental conscious cleaning products, as well as, paper products made from recycled paper. However, underneath all this, Walmart has a different side. Exploitation of its workers is widespread amongst Walmarts who do not belong to a union, especially in the United States. Wal...
The opposing side believe that local businesses are suffering due to “big box stores” and not being able to give as big of discounts or have as big of a selection of products. “People say, ‘Well, you lost your little stores,’ and that’s true. But it’s money-driven...if its $5 cheaper at one of the larger stores, we take advantage of it. I guess that’s human nature.” Carl R. Baldus Jr.
From the consumer side, Amazon provides services like Amazon Prime, which delivers free two-day shipping on retail purchases, on-demand video streaming and a free access to the Kindle library, everything for an annual