What happens to a tiny town when Walmart disappears?

[6chars]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/05/what-happens-to-a-tiny-town-when-walmart-disappears/

To hear Mary Francis Matney tell it, Walmart didn’t kill the once-vibrant cluster of shops next to a railroad and a creek in the faded old coal town of Kimball, W. Va. — the disappearance of the mines had pretty well taken care of that already. But now that Walmart’s leaving, too, as one of 154 U.S. stores the company closed in January, the town might be snuffed out for good.

“It makes everyone so downhearted they don’t know what to do,” said Matney, 60, browsing the half-empty shelves of Kimball’s massive Supercenter, leaning on her cart, which contains a dustbuster and door crack insulation. Her husband once worked in the coal mines. Now the couple lives on what little they get from Medicare and Social Security, and with precious few other options she made the hour-and-a-half trip from her home back in the “hollers” once a month to stock up.

“It’s like we’re a forgotten bunch of people,” said Matney, her long gray hair loosely clipped into a bun. “It’s about all there was to look forward to. If we had to go any further, there ain’t no way.”

She patted the metal shelves full of half-off merchandise affectionately. "I hate seeing it die. I really do,” she said. “You could always find better stuff here.”

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Why do they build these massive super centers in tiny towns? Seems like a Target sized store

Would be more appropriate.

[6chars]

2. The article explains their "saturation" strategy

They overbuild in order to force everyone else out and keep them away. Sort of what we used to call predatory behavior of the type that anti-trust laws were written to prevent.

[malaise]

4. Ding ding we have a winner

but remember as long as they're donating to the politicians who then pass it on to M$Greedia, it's all good NOT.

[Sherman A1]

3. K&R!

Just more of what Wal Mart does.......

[denbot]

5. Nature abhors a vacuum..

I went to school in a tiny town (back then) in NM. Many of the local business's fought Walmart coming in to town, but eventually lost. Afterward the local main street shops were wiped out, few of the people who owed, or worked at them, found minimum wage jobs at WallyWorld.

Fast forwarding to now, one of the very few ways to make a decent living there is to work at NM Tech, or the National Radio Astronomy site.

If Walmart folded up shop in Socorro NM, the little hardware, bodega's, curio, and other sundry shops will resurrect, and recirculate a greater portion of money back into the local economy, to the betterment of the community as a whole.

On Edit:
The Walmart heirs were not harmed by this post

[6chars]

6. hope that process can be accelerated

the problem is that 50 years of local business community get destroyed, there are going to be some gaps for a while when Walmart leaves.

[denbot]

7. That is an easily solved problem.

All you need is a Small Business Loan Program, that actually lends money to SMALL business's.

[LiberalArkie]

8. Walmart, Target, k-mart and other big chains have so influenced the distributors

that a small store in a small town can not get the items to sell. We had a small Western Auto type store that was doing a thriving business even with several Wal Marts about 30miles away. But Sears shut down Western Auto and other distributors would not sell the small number of items that small stores order. The owner told me that it was had to sell anything when the store had to pay almost retail plus shipping to get an item.

There is a convince type store (about 100 years old) barely surviving because the bread people will not deliver to them, the soft drink people do not, none will because the are too small. So the owner drives into town and buys everything at a retail grocery store so she has something to sale at her country store.

[MrScorpio]

9. Walmart has behaved more like a virus than a retail outlet. nt