Bill
wrote: Harry,
Wal-Mart is cheap and I do shop there. Something about the end of small stores
and the fact that Wal-Mart and others use basically a temporary work force
that will have to live totally off of SS at the end it would
appear.
There
are other points to consider. As
the Institute for Self-Reliance (www.islr.org)
and The Hometown Advantage
(Stacy Mitchell) document, communities dominated by corporate chains are worse
off economically than are diverse economies maintaining small-scale, locally
owned enterprises. Here is
Mitchell’s list of why, paraphrased by yours truly:
1.
Jobs and taxes. A new Home Depot will not sell anymore hammers and nails than
3 local hardware stores – it’s supply and demand. But because the Home Depot
will eventually force the local stores to decline, all the revenue exchange
goes out of town rather than staying local. For every 1 job that a Wal-Mart
provides it takes away 3 previous jobs.
2.
Public costs. Land use patterns accommodating big corporate retail contribute
not just to sprawl but the costs of additional roads, sewers and fire and
police protection. This adds to the costs local taxpayers are already paying
without adding to the revenue base when corporations have received lucrative
tax incentives. The community
bears the brunt of the investment and gets a small return in the long run.
3.
Multiplier effect. Indie
retailers keep their profits local, and tend to trade goods and do business
with other local operations, such as accountants, lawyers, advertisers,
printers, and of course, local banks.
Chain stores not only distribute from giant national warehouses but
produce their advertising and do their other support tasks outside the
community in which they build.
Sending your consumer dollars to Arkansas (much less offshore banks-
kwc) is not good for community sustainability in the long term.
4.
Fewer Choices. Consolidation of
buying patterns reduces choices and the range of products available to the
consumer. You can see this on
your grocer’s shelves when mega buyers demand more shelf space or at the
bookstore where one Barnes & Nobles is just like every other in terms of
selection. (What about local culture and color? – kwc)
5.
Monopoly Prices. Surveys found
that prices vary significantly from one major chain outlet to another and are
higher in areas where the local competition has been eliminated. This includes Wal-Mart and Home
Depot. (Note lawsuits where
unfair business practices are proliferating – kwc)
6.
Long-term Commitment. Local
merchants are residents of the communities they invest in, it’s where they pay
their taxes and raise their children, whereas global chains are highly
mobile. In addition to demanding
tax incentives to come into a community, when they leave with changing
economic winds they leave behind large properties not well-suited to other
development, and in fact often hold their leases for years to keep competitors
from coming in, so that vacant big box stores are now a common blight – by
itself, Wal-Mart has almost 400 empty stores across the US.
7.
The Big Picture. Economic
research being gathered shows that cookie cutter developments lessen a
community’s appeal to entrepreneurs and skilled workers and in the long run
reduces prospects for new investments and jobs.
Too
many of us for too long have assumed that bigger is better, that the
liabilities are offset by the advantages, or this is just “the price of
progress”. Aside from the
environmental and social/civic costs to the community when local businesses
are displaced, there is the even broader issue of democracy and sovereignty,
since large corporate chains are wielding their assets long-distance. What needs to be addressed here, those
who are studying this seem to be saying is, level the playing field with
public policy. For those of us in
industrialized countries staring at sprawl and closed businesses with high
unemployment, we should be addressing the rules of doing business at the local
level more intelligently and aggressively. I am a cultural Globalist but want to
see local businesses have as much given to them as the big corporate houses.
Who needs a monoculture? It’s all about balance and
moderation. –
KWC
Also
see Failed
Empire,
a four part series in the Buffalo News concerning enterprise zones and tax
incentives http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20030608/1048744.asp
or contact me
offline for a compiled Word document.
