I recently took a trip to Atlanta, Texas. Atlanta is an East Texas town of about 6500 people. As I drove through “downtown” Atlanta it was clear that that any resemblance to its namesake in Georgia was in name only. It was named after Atlanta, Georgia because many of the early settlers were from that area. It was a typical one street downtown as I have seen in other small Texas towns such as Olney, Boyd and Archer City (where the classic movie The Last Picture Show was filmed. Streets like you would see in any “Route 66” town across America. As is standard in small Texas towns, there is a barber, candy shop, bank, hardware store, bakery, sporting goods store, few antique stores and of course a Dairy Queen. The staples of life that can be cut and pasted to countless small towns across America. There were also numerous boarded up storefronts.
The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Web Site states:
“Atlanta exemplifies small town America. Warm smiles and warmer greetings reflect a friendly and progressive community.”
What Atlanta and other small towns all over the country never envisioned when they were formed (Atlanta was founded in 1872) that small town America would one day be synonymous with the arrival of Wal-Mart. Some would compare it to the arrival of the Evil Empire and its Death Star. Darth Vader, who was unmasked many years ago, didn’t initially destroy these towns with his death ray. He arrived with the promise of “we come in peace”. The Death Star then set down in the middle of town, touting every possible convenience a person could want at cheaper prices, with greater diversity and quantity. Unfortunately no Jedi Knights ever came to the rescue. They were to busy fueling up their Starfighters at discount prices.
Now, instead of seeing the sign “Victory tonight and free haircut tomorrow” if the high school football team or basketball team wins, you see “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale.” How can the “It’s A Wonderful Life” dream of small town America possibly compete with the neon lit entrance to the Death Star just a block away? Instead we see “The Last Picture Show” at the local theater just before it closes. The residents of Atlanta, Texas leave the theater and disappear into the Death Star and are never heard from again by the local merchants.
As I drove through downtown Atlanta, the town seemed dead. I do not mean dead in the lack of people. I mean dead in spirit and any vision of a brighter economic future. It was as if a death ray was fired out of space vaporizing a once-thriving small town and replacing it with boarded up stores, liquidation sales and a stagnant economic future. It was an almost ironic predatory invitation for its own residents to pick off the bones of what they had built over decades. I stopped a local resident walking down the street and asked what she thought about the future prospects of Atlanta, Texas. Into my ear came the deafening yell, “Wal-Mart did this to us!” I thought about it and it made perfect sense. What are the economic consequences of the Wal-Mart Death Star landing in virtually every small town in America? For every action there is a reaction.
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer - with 1,489 Mega-stores, 1,397 Super Centers, 532 Sam’s Clubs, and 56 neighborhood markets in the U.S. alone as of 2003, and close to a thousand more abroad from Argentina to Germany. Wal-Mart is now the single largest private employer in the U.S. with 1.1 million “associates” and higher earnings than the gross national product (GNP) of 150 countries! In 2003, Wal-Mart sold 19% of all groceries in the U.S. and recorded $9 billion in profits.
A study of small towns in Iowa revealed a loss of over 7,300 businesses from 1983 to 1993 due to a radical shift in consumer spending to chain stores like Wal-Mart. Five years after a superstore opens, small towns within twenty miles experience a 19% decline in business. For every 100 Wal-Mart jobs created, it is estimated another 150 jobs are lost. Is low-cost competitive pricing destroying the very entrepreneurial spirit that built this great country? 
For every action there is a reaction. When Wal-Mart is offering $4 prescriptions as an action, I think the law of physics is pretty clear that “Joe’s Soda Jerk Shop and Pharmacy” that has been there since 1932 is going to suffer. They will hang a sign on the door stating they they lost their home so others could have the cheaper prescriptions they no longer afford.
Are Sam Walton and kin the Darth Vadars of the one-stop shop?
I wouldn’t go that far but I did start thinking of the moms and pops who put their blood, sweat and tears into those shops dating back to the Great Depression. They’re now bankrupt, can’t even afford the new $4 prescriptions, and are too proud to enter the Wal-Mart Death Star. People who at one time had a dream are becoming so desperate that meth labs are now outnumbering local retail shops in some of these small towns. There is always welfare. I have yet to see Wal-Mart advertise that they are handing out any discount welfare checks.
Does Wal-Mart bring positives to a community? You can ask ten people and get ten different answers. What’s yours?
©2008 Brian Cuban
June 24th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I think I might can add something here, since I am from a small west Texas town called Sweetwater. I believe there are two sides two every coin and it so happens I take the side of Wal-Mart in this case. Instead of Joe Blow’s Shoe Store having higher priced shoes due to shipping costs to the middle of nowhere, Wal-Mart can sell the same shoes cheaper. Cheaper is better, no matter if it’s Atlanta Texas, or Atlanta Georgia. Consumers will always shop and buy at cheaper prices overall. I think Wal-Mart is a good thing for small town America. How much does Wal-Mart contribute in local sales taxes? I would rather pay Wal-Mart prices than have to see Joe Blow renew his country club membership off my dollars.
Let’s look at employment. What are the odds that the average guy gets a job at Joe Blow’s Shoe Store in Sweetwater? Nill. What about Wal-Mart? The odds are definately better for the average person to get a job there. While we are talking about employment, what if you are a new business or industry looking to locate in a new area in west Texas? Would you go to a small town WITHOUT at least a Wal-Mart? I doubt it.
Sweetwater is now a leading community in terms of wind energy. If you are traveling between Abilene and Sweetwater, just look to your left and see the gigantic wind farms in action, supplying electricity for General Electric to distribute clean, quite, electricity to different parts of the country.
Sweetwater has some very positive things going on economy wise. Sure, there may be some meth labs going on, but I doubt seriously that Wal-Mart caused that to happen. Wal-mart has been a God-send for that community, lower prices, employment, and the local tax base. Sweetwater is alot better today than when Joe Blow had the only shoe store in town.
LewPs last blog post..Liberalism
June 24th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Walmart clearly has the leading edge in consumerism…….fed by cheap goods and cheap labor……or slavery if you will. And that stems from production of good right down the line to those poor souls employed by the company.
Make profits…….it doesn’t matter how you do it, just make money. I believe that they’ll be the source of their own downfall though.
Dave Bs last blog post..Mesothelioma and Asbestos - Are Your Walls Deadly?
June 25th, 2008 at 1:08 am
in this blog entry: upper middle class liberal gripes about big business. the real question is, what’s new?
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 am
It is a mixed blessing. I live in a town of 6000 in Michigan. The population is declining as jobs disappear. There is a very disproportionate population of retired people here. I am one. Those who lived here all their lives retired here and many retired people came here for the nice country, winter skiing, lakeside living and cheap housing.
A 1300 foot cottage with a 100 X 120 foot lot in town in good condition costs about 60,000.
Those young people who remain lined up for jobs at Walmart. They get $10 per hour. They were getting the minimum wage in Michigan of 7.25.
The Walmart has only been here 6 months. The stores in town have not yet gone out of business. We have two other supermarkets. I do not know if they will be able to survive.
The Walmart provides cheap food and supplies to retired people on a very limited income. Walmart also supplies items that were never before available in town.
The loss of home town businesses will surely hurt people. The bottom line is that when people vote with their check books, Walmart wins. It is a simple but high impact equation.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:56 am
In response to the comment from LewP above, most small business people are like you and I, struggling to make ends meet and working long hours, not at a country club as you say, but at their stores or place of business. These businesses, that have often been in existence for generations, are being run out of town by Superstores like Walmart. With regard to WalMart being better because it offers better pricing, this has nothing to do with competition. Walmart gets most of what they buy from China and other developing nations, whose workers are exploited and earn a fraction of what we earn here in the US, hence consumer goods at Walmart are cheaper (as well as inferior–lead in children’s toys, for example). I believe that Walmart is unpatriotically helping to destroy our country and the spirit that made it what it once was. People who shop at these stores should consider whether they want to pay a little less for an inferior product or be more patriotic and support local businesses who hire locally (at all levels, including upper management) and put their earnings in local banks as well as recirculate dollars back into the communities they serve. It’s time to put America first, as we once did, and make conscious choices on where to make purchases based on companies that manufacture here in the US and hire American employees.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Great article. I detest Walmart, and in Colorado they are destroying mom and pop businesses all over the state. We need to support local business, even if it means paying a bit more for products.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I agree with A.C. I’m a college student in public policy doing a major research study on Wal Mart’s effects on small downtowns, particularly my hometown in Mississippi. Past studies have shown that Wal Mart does not contribute as much to the tax base, as their dollars do not re-circulate through the community as they would from local businesses. Their workers are often not given full time jobs so they will not receive benefits. There are many others cons to these stores, and consumers not opening their eyes to them are only hurting themselves. Someone needs to enlighten America.