Quote:
Originally Posted by Ike Bana
PFFFFfffffffffttttttttt....
You got your credible study I got mine...
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Your first reference is a biased NY Times article that focuses on a couple stores opened in metro areas. Your claim yesterday was that they lay waste to non-urban areas, so doesn't really fit your argument.
If you bothered to read the conclusions of the NBER study, they line up with the study I posted- overall economic impact not much different before or after Wal-Mart moves in to an area.
One of the biggest advantages, IMHO, is that large discount stores like Wal-Mart help promote diversity. For example, when I was a kid and we moved out of STL to a small farming community, there were no Wal-Mart stores around. If you needed a vacuum cleaner you either bought it from the little hardware/appliance store owner or you got on the highway and drove 1/2 an hour closer to the city to find a discount store.
Windshield wiper blades? Bob's Auto Parts.
Wife needs a dress? There's a couple little shops where the owner is the clerk.
We were Catholic, and there were only two churches in town- Baptist and Lutheran. We didn't fit in, and some of these store owners didn't really want to help you out if they hadn't seen you in church last Sunday.
Now imagine the other biases- race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.
Wal-Mart comes to town and it's a place where anyone can go and not be concerned about the owner discriminating (mainly because the owner aint' around).
They opened in our rural area when I was about 10 yrs. old. By the time I got to highschool we actually had blacks and Hispanics living in our town, something that a couple decades of civil rights hadn't been able to do, Wal-Mart did in a few short years.