When you go to small town rural America today you will find tractor stores, a car dealership or two, maybe a couple of eating establishments out by the highway, a Quick Trip or 7/11, a struggling bank and bunch of empty storefronts on Main Street, with a Wal-Mart on the edge of town. American craftsmen have no place to sell their wares. You probably won’t find a farmers market in season. We all get to buy the same Chinese made junk. The spirit of free enterprise is crushed by the Walton vision of America. It is a vision that has taken rural America from sea to shining sea.
One thing about residing in NYC is that there are no Wal-Marts within the 5 boroughs. Sure they have tried to get a foothold but have not been successful. Over the past 10+ years they scoped out a location on Queens Blvd but after a uproar from elected officials and unions they backed down and Kohls located there. They also had sights on a new strip mall off of the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn next to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. There was opposition from numerous activists as well as small business owners including a hardware store proprietor who had just invested $50k in his store. Shop-Rite ended up buying the space since the area was lacking a supermarket. The jobs created were union since they are owned by Wakefield Co. and started at $10 per/hr. There were rumors about opening in Staten Island but even there a place with a lot of working class union households there was little interest. In recent years you don’t hear much about them except their ads. If people want to shop at Wal-Mart they can drive over the border to L.I. We already have numerous retail options from high end Bloomingdales to working class Target and Macy’s where most positions are union and employees can live a decent existence. Maybe the Wal-Mart model is just a bad fit here.