Whine... Walmart mean.....

Walmart destroys communities, marriages, the environment, the planet, fucks up small town America, wipes out mom and pop rip off joints, etc etc. The one thing it it does that no one mentions is pump billions into the local communities in taxes and wages.

But who's counting!

Pajamas Media » Do the Benefits of Wal-Mart Outweigh Its Drawbacks?

There are a lot of mom and pop retailers out there, across America, and some that are a bit bigger than that. Local or regional chains give little towns and big cities some of their local charm. I feel bad when I see these operations fail to adapt to the arrival of the Wal-Mart gorilla. And this is true not just in the Wal-Mart market sector, but in many others as well. Traditional hardware stores that survive the arrival of Home Depot or Lowe’s do so because they are providing either levels of service or inventory that the big-box home improvement stores don’t. If I need black oxide button head 8-32 1.25” long machine screws on a Saturday, I go to the Ace Hardware store in Eagle, Idaho, because they have it. Home Depot doesn’t.

Still, for all the tears over the loss of some traditions of American retailing, it’s important to remember that Wal-Mart’s efficiency and ruthless paring of costs to the bone benefits consumers — even consumers who aren’t shopping at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s prescription program provides an astonishing number of the most commonly prescribed drugs for $4. That’s less than the health insurance copayment for many of these drugs at traditional pharmacies.