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Walmart improving market share and sales while competitors are closing stores

Dingens

Member
Do other countries have regulations against giants like Walmart? I've been to Europe & Japan yet haven't seen any Walmarts there. Seems like the selection is more varied, although there are of course megastores.

Others have already responded but I'd like to add a few more factors. The way the system is set up in the US seems to favour monopolies and big stores. This isn't as easy in europe or Japan for several reasons.
You've got a high urban population living in apartments who usually don't buy in bulk but rather every other day on their way home from work. Then you've got baseline social standards which makes it harder for companies to undercut each other by suppressing wages to offer lower prices.
And than there are other, mostly mindset/culture related factors, including the very idea of how a company should be run.

most people literally cannot afford to make purchasing decisions on that basis

Chicken - egg problem. People need cheap stuff because they don't earn enough. They don't earn enough because wages are suppressed because everything needs to be cheap.
 

Iksenpets

Banned
I live directly across the street from a Walmart, so just by default it's become my neighborhood store. Then there's a Whole Foods a block further down the road, which fills in the gaps for higher end stuff I can't find at Walmart. It's a weird neighborhood. Getting to a mid-priced traditional grocery is the bigger hassle than getting to either of the two extremes.

The Walmart's mostly fine. Self-checkout has mitigated most of the problems they used to have with lines, and they seem to have taken an effort to stock more higher-end products, though they still lag on some things (I'm looking at you, tiny, never-ripe avocados). Also, as a deeply introverted person, there's something I appreciate about Walmart's complete lack of service. No one has once asked me if I need any help finding anything, and it's kind of great.

As for the moral issues of it, it's definitely not a pleasant place to work (what retail is?) but the workers all at least make well over the local minimum wage, and the community does benefit from having low-price options.
 
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