: Walmart built in my small NE town and wiped out over 50 percent of the local businesses. Although jobs were created, most were part-time without benefits and provided little value to the community.: In general, Walmart gutted the town.
EC:
Multiply this by the thousands of towns around the world, and by the hundreds of chains like Walmart, and you will see there is very little room left for small business.
The occasional wave of spinoffs or alternatives catching crumbs are tolerated until the chains can gobble them up too (like software writers, for instance, or microbreweries).
Look at some old photographs of the nearest town to where you live. You will see hundreds of businesses owned and operated by local people living very close by. Now visit the same spot where the photos were taken, and see what is left: chain stores or empty buildings abandoned by chain stores.
Let's pull the plug on chain stores.
Mike, The Everett Citizen
