Big box stores never get the blame they deserve in their role in destroying this country.
My parents said little towns all over western Kansas were busy little towns in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. My hometown of 1,800 people had tons of local stores where you could get the shit you needed.. once a Walmart was opened in a town 25 miles away, those little shops were on life support. Local business cannot compete with big balls x store prices, especially when they big corporations are in bed with the policy makers.
But in those small communities, you have to go to Walmart. People simply cannot afford to shop full time at local small businesses. Maybe one day, we'll get back to caring about quality over quantity and price.
Yup. We had several small businesses close down years ago when Walmart came to town. Most the workers there wanted the higher wages and benefits offered, so they left the small stores and went to work for Walmart.
in our area Costco killed a lot of small business. So did Walmart. I guess that's just how it goes. People do prefer that damn gun control Costco bulk buying bullshit over local shops. Somehow small shops can't get reasonable prices on anything, just selling useless decorative knick knacks, they got nothing else left.
The part of it that sucks is that walmart can tell manufacturers what they are willing to pay for a product because they buy so much of it that a manufacturer has to accept that price or lose out on a lot of revenue.
Hypothetical example:
Walmart purchases more coke 2 liters than anyone else in the world, they can tell coke, we're only going to pay you 25 cents a 2 liter and coke has to accept it or face losing 60% of its sales at that point.
Wife and I stopped going to walmart completely in February of 2022. Food is now either farmers market or Aldis. I try to get as much as I can from the farmers market because they are literally my neighbors.
My family did the same thing and we're never looking back. We grow most of our vegetables and herbs (aeroponics for leafy greens, herbs, and peppers + traditional gardening), with some supplementation from a local farm. All of our meat and dairy comes from local farms (whole cows / pigs). The grocery store almost feels weird now.
Every year, thousands of executives venture to Bentonville, Arkansas, hoping to get their products onto the shelves of the world’s biggest retailer. But Jim Wier wanted Wal-Mart to stop selling his Snapper mowers.
Big stores convince towns to give them special tax breaks as some kind of investment. They also push their employees nothing.99 and train them to apply for federal Healthcare and food stamps etc.
They're a natural result of bloated federal government.
I grew up in one of those small towns where you could buy anything you needed, but you had to go to the hardware store for hardware, the feed store for feed, etc. Walmart opened up there in 1983. My mother went to work in the first hiring group. In the first team meeting she said they announced that their goal was to put all of the other merchants in town out of business. Except for Kroger, and some fast food, they were successful. The town has grown, so now some other national chains have come in. But, they absolutely killed all of the locally owned stores.
Same for my hometown. The RCA television dealer was first to go. Then record shops, furniture and appliance stores, Mom and pop grocery and drugstores. Lawnmower shops and convenience stores lasted a bit longer. Chain stores and restaurants have made all the "main drags" in every little town look the same. Our little community here in Michigan overwhelmed the county meeting regarding a new dollar general in our neighborhood recently. An overwhelming no from the community. But their lawyers sued and now we have a dollar general in our little farming community. It opens soon and we have no intentions of embracing it.
I grew up in a smaller town in Florida -- evidently smaller, I guess, as our radio and tv came from the larger cities more than an hour's drive away. We did have our own printed newspaper though.
And we also had two -- count 'em -- two skate shops. Not sporting goods stores that also happened to sell skateboards, mind you -- these were shops dedicated to skateboards. In our small Florida town.
Okay, this was in the early to mid 80s which was something of a skateboard craze as you may recall, but still. Rolling around on a Lance Mountain with Independents and Blurs was a lot of fun. My rear truck was ground down to the axle haha.
I grew up in a small ass Midwest town. Still today there's only 3 Walmarts within 1 hour drive where I lived. But I'm sure people willingly drive 20 minutes to Walmart.
Every time I travel through like the really rural South what I notice is that there's almost no family-owned diners or restaurants
I'll get to certain areas and literally the only thing to eat is chain restaurants like McDonald's or IHOP or waffle House (there area ALOT of waffle houses)
But there's no like local owned diners or anything like in the more densely populated areas. It's just pretty much all mega conglomerate chain restaurants with junk food
And yeah there's also no independent little stores run by regular people It's all giant corporations like Walmart or home Depot
Where I am we have big box and small business. Some small businesses do very well and have garnered a cult like following and treat their workers well with competitive pay and good environments.
On the other hand some small businesses are real shit holes ran by amatures that literally have no fucking idea what they are doing, butch about their employees even though they are responsible for hiring, developing and coaching them - have little to no control systems in place to protect themselves or their workers from theft or abuse that you would.see these days with a larger organization.
There is a "floor" so to speak on the standards at the large coorps because they at some point do have liability protection mechanisms in place to aid in the event of real sexual harassment, actual bullying, etc. So you don't wind up in a really fucky situation.
So for me, I've changed my tune.
I don't support ALL small business just de facto because they are small businesses.
The ones worth supporting do find ways to compete and do establish themselves quite well. Then they do often exit by allowing themselves to be acquired.
The small businesses that work will compete and thrive despite the big corporations. The big guys have their weaknesses to exploit as well.
And the big guys do offer a standardized employment experience with protections and benefits, and security you would not see at small stores.
However, I've met and consulted for some really just terrible ma' / pa' places (think chef Ramsey helps kitchen)
And some things that individuals come up with or think they can get away with is just absurd.
For example, 7 cats and a litter boxes in the front lobby area, but can't figure out how to get more walk in? LOL I'll never forget the smell and when I told them my good friend is loaded and had a PHD and tons of money, but would never ever EVER bring it here because he is VERY allergic to cats and this lobby would probably kill him.
The frown on this old woman's face is just seared into my mind. It's like for 15 years she never had that feedback I guess because she was so grumpy no one felt like dealing with it. But hey - she was paying me to hear it.
Anyhow. Some small business deserve to die. And some large organizations bring good products at a good value to the masses that just wouldn't be logistically possible with small businesses.
But saying "there is just no way to compete" is false. There is often a way to survive. Walmart has yet to take 100% market share of everything lol, and Walmart has yet to perfect and execute on delivering every customer need.
I know Walmart really has a big problem with helping its customers explain things about products or even assist with finding products.
Perhaps a small business could take a single department at Walmart such as.... oh cleaning equipent and chemicals and open a store with employees trained in consultative sales (they are able to assess needs of customer and explain how produc solves those needs) to customers.
Perhaps that would work. Who knows but it can compete. Everything has a place and a strength.
In most American small towns, the customer base is not willing to pay extra for quality. That is why Walmart is so predatory and impossible to compete with in those areas.
So open a convenience store. There are other qualities and attributes of businesses than price.
Can't be married to the business YOU want have to be married to the business the town needs.
Have you heard of Dollar General? It is the national chain that has a stranglehold on that convenience store gap that Walmart couldn't get a stranglehold on themselves.
Dude you don't know shit about small town business. BringtheCAt is right about dollar general. You can't compete with these chains with products the only thing you can compete with is the service sector. I know this first hand.
Why is this BS editorial posted here? The EPC is a trade group owned by the largest banks + V and MC, AMEX.
They always point to Target and Walmart to get small brained people riled up - but this affects all merchants, big and small. Don't believe $paid$ for editorials.
Walmart has infiltrated small towns annihilating small businesses. Often it is the only choice. It was done intentionally and many folks cheered its arrival. Sad.
Not even small towns. Dense suburbia as well. Within a 15 min drive, I have 2 Walmarts, 2 Home Depots, 2 Lowes, 3 Targets, and sooooo many chain groceries, restaurants, etc.
My boomers were physically out there protesting it, because the city didn’t announce it was happening until the deal had already been made. (I was probably 16 or 17.) Which meant there was no legal basis for relief or repercussions. There was nothing left for them to do but try to take it to the news, and the news did talk about it, but all they reported on was the “sense of betrayal” and “what this means for small businesses”, basically telling the people “we recognize your sadness due to this lessening quality of your life, but they got you legally”.
This happened in cities all over the US. It was very obviously well coordinated, like it was from a script.
The demonic Bolsheviks are attacking on every front possible to have total control of average Americans and about half of our country is brainwashed into cheering it on.
What credit card? Haven't had a credit card since 2019 and haven't used a credit card since 2017. Thank you Donald J. Trump. In 2017 I had $30,000 in credit card debt ( business account)and was paying over $800 a month in interest alone. Your great work got me debt free in under two years.
I purposely go to the credit card only kiosk and ring up all my sales and then look and say oops I didn't realize it was card only. I only have cash.
My wife still falls for the trap schemes. I remember the last time she tried to get me to sign up for a store card. I asked the dude what was the interest rate? He replies 27%, I tell him straight out to get fucked and walk away. My wife says, you didn't have to be rude. I said oh yes I do. That's predatory lending and they should be shot and not just told to fuck off.
got CCP ? if the gov. dont like you they can restrict what you can spend money on aka 2A anyone ? or those Truckers in canada that challenge the canadian regime ? these companies would sell our Americans if it means profit ... creating a standard for gov. to control all .. thats call communism
I mainly use cash but I have a credit card that I use for gasoline or online payments. So long as it's paid off every month it doesn't cost me anything.
“ The consolidation of power, whether it be derived from government or economic authority, will inevitably lead to a form of tyranny” - Source: Groundpounder, PDW, 9-27-23
They are going after the rewards points again just going a different route. Taking away fees from banks will force them to cut in other areas, reward points being the lowest hanging fruit. We save all of points and use them to pay for Christmas gifts and it really helps keep our budget predictable. If any of my credit card accounts which are paid off each month reduce or remove points I will keep the accounts open with zero balance then switch to debit for purchases. Financially responsible consumers should not be penalized because the government thinks reward points programs are taking advantage of minorities.
Big box stores never get the blame they deserve in their role in destroying this country.
My parents said little towns all over western Kansas were busy little towns in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. My hometown of 1,800 people had tons of local stores where you could get the shit you needed.. once a Walmart was opened in a town 25 miles away, those little shops were on life support. Local business cannot compete with big balls x store prices, especially when they big corporations are in bed with the policy makers.
But in those small communities, you have to go to Walmart. People simply cannot afford to shop full time at local small businesses. Maybe one day, we'll get back to caring about quality over quantity and price.
Yup. We had several small businesses close down years ago when Walmart came to town. Most the workers there wanted the higher wages and benefits offered, so they left the small stores and went to work for Walmart.
in our area Costco killed a lot of small business. So did Walmart. I guess that's just how it goes. People do prefer that damn gun control Costco bulk buying bullshit over local shops. Somehow small shops can't get reasonable prices on anything, just selling useless decorative knick knacks, they got nothing else left.
The part of it that sucks is that walmart can tell manufacturers what they are willing to pay for a product because they buy so much of it that a manufacturer has to accept that price or lose out on a lot of revenue.
Hypothetical example:
Walmart purchases more coke 2 liters than anyone else in the world, they can tell coke, we're only going to pay you 25 cents a 2 liter and coke has to accept it or face losing 60% of its sales at that point.
Wife and I stopped going to walmart completely in February of 2022. Food is now either farmers market or Aldis. I try to get as much as I can from the farmers market because they are literally my neighbors.
My family did the same thing and we're never looking back. We grow most of our vegetables and herbs (aeroponics for leafy greens, herbs, and peppers + traditional gardening), with some supplementation from a local farm. All of our meat and dairy comes from local farms (whole cows / pigs). The grocery store almost feels weird now.
Great story about Walmart and Snapper:
The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart
It's true I sat in on a customer bidding session with Walmart . All the manufacturers were low bidding each other.
I wish I could do this.
Farmers market has nearly everything. Just need to commit to eating only things you buy there.
Big stores convince towns to give them special tax breaks as some kind of investment. They also push their employees nothing.99 and train them to apply for federal Healthcare and food stamps etc.
They're a natural result of bloated federal government.
I grew up in one of those small towns where you could buy anything you needed, but you had to go to the hardware store for hardware, the feed store for feed, etc. Walmart opened up there in 1983. My mother went to work in the first hiring group. In the first team meeting she said they announced that their goal was to put all of the other merchants in town out of business. Except for Kroger, and some fast food, they were successful. The town has grown, so now some other national chains have come in. But, they absolutely killed all of the locally owned stores.
Same for my hometown. The RCA television dealer was first to go. Then record shops, furniture and appliance stores, Mom and pop grocery and drugstores. Lawnmower shops and convenience stores lasted a bit longer. Chain stores and restaurants have made all the "main drags" in every little town look the same. Our little community here in Michigan overwhelmed the county meeting regarding a new dollar general in our neighborhood recently. An overwhelming no from the community. But their lawyers sued and now we have a dollar general in our little farming community. It opens soon and we have no intentions of embracing it.
I grew up in a smaller town in Florida -- evidently smaller, I guess, as our radio and tv came from the larger cities more than an hour's drive away. We did have our own printed newspaper though.
And we also had two -- count 'em -- two skate shops. Not sporting goods stores that also happened to sell skateboards, mind you -- these were shops dedicated to skateboards. In our small Florida town.
Okay, this was in the early to mid 80s which was something of a skateboard craze as you may recall, but still. Rolling around on a Lance Mountain with Independents and Blurs was a lot of fun. My rear truck was ground down to the axle haha.
I grew up in a small ass Midwest town. Still today there's only 3 Walmarts within 1 hour drive where I lived. But I'm sure people willingly drive 20 minutes to Walmart.
I just wrote something similar. China has waged war on many fronts.
Every time I travel through like the really rural South what I notice is that there's almost no family-owned diners or restaurants
I'll get to certain areas and literally the only thing to eat is chain restaurants like McDonald's or IHOP or waffle House (there area ALOT of waffle houses)
But there's no like local owned diners or anything like in the more densely populated areas. It's just pretty much all mega conglomerate chain restaurants with junk food
And yeah there's also no independent little stores run by regular people It's all giant corporations like Walmart or home Depot
I'm sure there's small shops. They're just not promoted to visitors so they're hard to find quickly.
Speaking literally as a patriotic MBA holder.
I'm hit or miss.
Where I am we have big box and small business. Some small businesses do very well and have garnered a cult like following and treat their workers well with competitive pay and good environments.
On the other hand some small businesses are real shit holes ran by amatures that literally have no fucking idea what they are doing, butch about their employees even though they are responsible for hiring, developing and coaching them - have little to no control systems in place to protect themselves or their workers from theft or abuse that you would.see these days with a larger organization. There is a "floor" so to speak on the standards at the large coorps because they at some point do have liability protection mechanisms in place to aid in the event of real sexual harassment, actual bullying, etc. So you don't wind up in a really fucky situation.
So for me, I've changed my tune.
I don't support ALL small business just de facto because they are small businesses.
The ones worth supporting do find ways to compete and do establish themselves quite well. Then they do often exit by allowing themselves to be acquired.
The small businesses that work will compete and thrive despite the big corporations. The big guys have their weaknesses to exploit as well.
And the big guys do offer a standardized employment experience with protections and benefits, and security you would not see at small stores.
However, I've met and consulted for some really just terrible ma' / pa' places (think chef Ramsey helps kitchen) And some things that individuals come up with or think they can get away with is just absurd.
For example, 7 cats and a litter boxes in the front lobby area, but can't figure out how to get more walk in? LOL I'll never forget the smell and when I told them my good friend is loaded and had a PHD and tons of money, but would never ever EVER bring it here because he is VERY allergic to cats and this lobby would probably kill him. The frown on this old woman's face is just seared into my mind. It's like for 15 years she never had that feedback I guess because she was so grumpy no one felt like dealing with it. But hey - she was paying me to hear it.
Anyhow. Some small business deserve to die. And some large organizations bring good products at a good value to the masses that just wouldn't be logistically possible with small businesses.
But saying "there is just no way to compete" is false. There is often a way to survive. Walmart has yet to take 100% market share of everything lol, and Walmart has yet to perfect and execute on delivering every customer need.
I know Walmart really has a big problem with helping its customers explain things about products or even assist with finding products.
Perhaps a small business could take a single department at Walmart such as.... oh cleaning equipent and chemicals and open a store with employees trained in consultative sales (they are able to assess needs of customer and explain how produc solves those needs) to customers.
Perhaps that would work. Who knows but it can compete. Everything has a place and a strength.
In most American small towns, the customer base is not willing to pay extra for quality. That is why Walmart is so predatory and impossible to compete with in those areas.
So open a convenience store. There are other qualities and attributes of businesses than price. Can't be married to the business YOU want have to be married to the business the town needs.
Have you heard of Dollar General? It is the national chain that has a stranglehold on that convenience store gap that Walmart couldn't get a stranglehold on themselves.
Dude you don't know shit about small town business. BringtheCAt is right about dollar general. You can't compete with these chains with products the only thing you can compete with is the service sector. I know this first hand.
They are just merchants.
How about fuck both megacorp stores and banks? They're both anti-American ESG woke diversity institutions.
Well, generally they're owned by the same people so it makes sense. That's all I'm going to say.
This man nose what’s up.
Holy shit, it’s almost like somebody nose what’s going on!
Why is this BS editorial posted here? The EPC is a trade group owned by the largest banks + V and MC, AMEX.
They always point to Target and Walmart to get small brained people riled up - but this affects all merchants, big and small. Don't believe $paid$ for editorials.
Shop sales from local stores. We've saved a TON of money. Walmart's products have gotten sour and Target is too expensive.
Walmart has infiltrated small towns annihilating small businesses. Often it is the only choice. It was done intentionally and many folks cheered its arrival. Sad.
Not even small towns. Dense suburbia as well. Within a 15 min drive, I have 2 Walmarts, 2 Home Depots, 2 Lowes, 3 Targets, and sooooo many chain groceries, restaurants, etc.
My boomers were physically out there protesting it, because the city didn’t announce it was happening until the deal had already been made. (I was probably 16 or 17.) Which meant there was no legal basis for relief or repercussions. There was nothing left for them to do but try to take it to the news, and the news did talk about it, but all they reported on was the “sense of betrayal” and “what this means for small businesses”, basically telling the people “we recognize your sadness due to this lessening quality of your life, but they got you legally”.
This happened in cities all over the US. It was very obviously well coordinated, like it was from a script.
I once lived in a sub 5,000 population town with a Walmart. We had alternatives. Most just don't look.
What local stores?! There haven’t been any for 20 years.
Non-AAA stores.
The demonic Bolsheviks are attacking on every front possible to have total control of average Americans and about half of our country is brainwashed into cheering it on.
What credit card? Haven't had a credit card since 2019 and haven't used a credit card since 2017. Thank you Donald J. Trump. In 2017 I had $30,000 in credit card debt ( business account)and was paying over $800 a month in interest alone. Your great work got me debt free in under two years.
I purposely go to the credit card only kiosk and ring up all my sales and then look and say oops I didn't realize it was card only. I only have cash.
My wife still falls for the trap schemes. I remember the last time she tried to get me to sign up for a store card. I asked the dude what was the interest rate? He replies 27%, I tell him straight out to get fucked and walk away. My wife says, you didn't have to be rude. I said oh yes I do. That's predatory lending and they should be shot and not just told to fuck off.
Maybe we should drive the shoplifters to their stores?
They get there already
got CCP ? if the gov. dont like you they can restrict what you can spend money on aka 2A anyone ? or those Truckers in canada that challenge the canadian regime ? these companies would sell our Americans if it means profit ... creating a standard for gov. to control all .. thats call communism
Joke's on them, paid off all credit years ago and don't own one. Eat shit, commies!
I mainly use cash but I have a credit card that I use for gasoline or online payments. So long as it's paid off every month it doesn't cost me anything.
Why would Trump do this to us?
And the credit cards will say LOL no.
Haven't stepped foot in either store since before Covid hit and have no plans of ever going back.
Jokes on them we have no credit cards
Use cash.
AND destroy things inside the store. Drive prices up; make bigboxery unsustainable, just as it is already inhuman.
Joking, joking. Not joking.
“ The consolidation of power, whether it be derived from government or economic authority, will inevitably lead to a form of tyranny” - Source: Groundpounder, PDW, 9-27-23
I can't believe I'm taking the side of the credit cards on this one...
How about we pay no fees for using our own fucking money?
They are going after the rewards points again just going a different route. Taking away fees from banks will force them to cut in other areas, reward points being the lowest hanging fruit. We save all of points and use them to pay for Christmas gifts and it really helps keep our budget predictable. If any of my credit card accounts which are paid off each month reduce or remove points I will keep the accounts open with zero balance then switch to debit for purchases. Financially responsible consumers should not be penalized because the government thinks reward points programs are taking advantage of minorities.