Big Box Boon

by West Virginia Rebel

Posted by Hal_10000 on 07/23/08 at 05:17 PM from

Anyone who has nostalgia for those mom and pop stores apparently doesn’t remember that mom and pop used to gouge the shit out of you.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 05:29 PM from

So, a large mega store parked right outside of town has no impact on local retail business.  I don’t mind challenges to conventional wisdom, but that seems quite naive.

There is no question that Wal-Mart does cause some mom-and-pop businesses to fail. However, those failures are entirely compensated for by the entry of other new small business elsewhere in the economy through the process of creative destruction.

Creative destruction means that the invisible hand knocks away people struggling to hold onto their businesses and replaces them with new businesses.  One can argue that the new businesses are just as good or better, but there is a certain amount of pain for individual proprietors in the process.  Ignoring that pain (as this report does) is what makes conservatives seem like they don’t give a shit.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 06:52 PM from

I love Wal-Mart.  It was a crucial component in my Appalachian Trail hike.  But as flogg suggested, you have to be both naive and, I would add, blind to suggest that they don’t have an impact on local businesses.  I’ve witnessed it firsthand, with zero predisposition towards an “anti-Walmart” stance.  I lived in a town for 24 years, and within 2 years of the Wal-mart opening, two mainstays of the town, a hardware store and an electronics store were out of business.  (South Lyon, Michigan, for those who don’t like “abstract” examples)

Hal brings up a good point about the gouging, though.  In my new location, there is a Home Depot 3 miles away, and a “mom and pop” hardware store at the corner.  The hardware store charges 20% more (I’m estimating), however they know what the hell they are talking about and will walk you through a project, as the Home Depot likes to suggest that they do.  Home Depot has the prices and the selection but I’ll take the hands-on know-how of my local hardware store.  They “literally” know me by name, as a landlord who visits once every 2 months, at most.  That’s worth 20% more.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 07:09 PM from

They “literally” know me by name, as a landlord who visits once every 2 months, at most.  That’s worth 20% more.

Maybe to you, but most people would prefer to save the 20 per cent. 

We shop Wal Mart, for price and convenience.  We can get most everything we need, from lettuce, to beer, to potting soil, to tires, in one place.  One stop shopping.  With gas prices right now, that’s pretty important. 

Oh...speaking of gas....we can get that at WalMart as well, at a discount.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 08:12 PM from

I go to WalMart when I have to - the quality of a lot of their ware is shit.  But every now and then, they are the only ones in town with a decent selection.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 08:19 PM from

Ignoring that pain (as this report does) is what makes conservatives seem like they don’t give a shit.

This conservative certainly doesn’t.  Just because someone starts a business does not mean that the owners have an inherent right to be successful--otherwise, we’d have Piggly-Wiggly’s all over the country still.  If a business doesn’t adapt or offer something that will continue to draw customers, regardless of the industry, it deserves to go under.  Look at the Rockmount Ranch store here in Denver.  No way it should continue to be so successful when most of the nation’s population is urban based, with its headquaters right in the heart of downtown Denver.  Yet it’s still extraordinarily successful
because the owners have figured out how to market themselves in a big box world.  What are the other shops excuse?

And the complaint that Wal-Mart “kills mom and pop stores” is unmitigated bullshit, a blatant appeal to emotion that’s designed to tug on people’s nostalgia strings.  Those mom and pop stores were killed off about 50-60 years ago with the arrival of supermarkets like the aforementioned Piggly-Wiggly came on the scene, not when Wal-mart starting becoming a nationwide institution.  If liberals are so concerned about the death of mom and pop stores, they need to be protesting outside their local Kroger’s before I take that particular argument seriously.

Posted by on 07/23/08 at 08:20 PM from

By the way, like Penn and Teller, I prefer Target anyway.

Posted by Miguelito on 07/23/08 at 10:17 PM from

They “literally” know me by name, as a landlord who visits once every 2 months, at most.  That’s worth 20% more.

It’s not 20% more, but I also have frequented (well, not that frequent) a local mom and pop A/V store.  I’ve bought my last few receivers, my speakers and my latest TV there.  The TV I could’ve gotten a little sooner, and for a few bucks less at Best Buy.. but the rest of it is higher end stuff that you can’t get at your normal big box.  However, the main reason I like going there is that, unlike every big box I’ve ever been too, they actually know their stuff, and know it damn well.  Also, the owner has a hell of a memory and remembers exactly what you’ve bought, if what you’re looking at will work (i.e. the new receiver specs match the speakers you have, etc).  They also delivered the TV for free and did all the work.

I avoid Wal-Mart (here in SoCal anyway, back in NH is usually isn’t bad) but not for any of the “they screw their workers” type of stuff.  I just find it horrible to shop at: always crowded, the dumbest and slowest employees, 1/2 the stuff on the shelves is busted or dirty, etc.  Not to mention other then brand names, it’s mostly cheap crap.  I also tend to go to Target for non grocery things.

Posted by on 07/24/08 at 12:28 PM from

Maybe to you, but most people would prefer to save the 20 per cent.

Depends on the circumstances—I don’t think I’ve explained myself correctly.

I’m not talking about buying $100 worth of food and merchandise.

I’m talking about going in and buying a few hardware parts (note that my example was very specific to Home Depot, not Walmart).  When you are a do-it-yourselfer, you’d rather pay $7.99 for a part that is $6.99 at Home Depot, because you are getting much more than $1’s worth of advice, if you’re in need of it.  There’s more to “purchasing” than the cost.  The overall value can also include the savings of not having to pay somebody to fix it for you, or having to pay for the consulting.  Good luck getting any decent advice at HD, and it’s even worse if you approach a “Home & Garden Expert” at Wal-Mart.

Make more sense now?

Posted by on 07/24/08 at 01:56 PM from

By the way, like Penn and Teller, I prefer Target anyway.

Target is just a less-successful version of Wal-Mart, with an aspirational spin on branding, which is why I get a kick out of the anti-Wal-Mart types who love their “Tar-jay”.