How do you feel about big retail chains driving out the little guy? I know personally I really love having the option to go to a local mom and pop shop. You get to develop a relationship with the people who work there and often the service is just so much better. I know that Walmart often gets protested for this very reason. I'm not a fanatic, I don't hate them or anything. But it does sadden me every time I see another local business go under.
I haven't seen any stores that I care about affected by Walmart so I don't feel bad. My local Walmart put my local Gamestop out of business, But so what? Gamestop are jerks who take advantage of people and give them $5 credit on a game that's worth $29 used. I have no sympathy for Gamestop. The only local mom and pop shops that I care about are the Korean and Chinese stores where you can buy cooking ingredients and jars of kimchi, but Walmart doesn't really compete with them because all Walmart has is a couple of bottles of sriracha and gochujang.
It makes me sad to see the mom and pop stores disappearing. I would much rather shop at one of those than Walmart, but unfortunately, where I live, Walmart is the only game in town. I try to make up for that when I'm on the road and shop at little stores. I also tend to order from little businesses on the Internet when I need stuff. Maybe the Internet in some cases will be how small businesses stay in business in the future? Have you heard of Rev. Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir? They are so funny, and honestly, I think they have a great message. Yes, we're all looking for bargains on this forum, but keep in mind, the best way to save money is to not buy stuff in the first place. [video=youtube_share;gUiUrEqmBQA]http://youtu.be/gUiUrEqmBQA[/video]
Well, another way to look at that situation would be to say, and I think that this is more accurate, that Walmart does not compete with those stores yet. I'm pretty sure that a Walmart store has the option to carry any type of product that they wish, and that includes things that might be popular locally. So if they thought that it would be profitable, they could very well expand their Asian foods section to include enough products so that a lot of the customers that go to those mom and pop stores could just pick up what they need at Walmart instead. So don't speak too soon. And yeah, Gamestop is horrible. If you want to sell your games, use craigslist instead.
The town I live in doesn't have a huge population that would make huge corporate stores a lot of money [which is what they are after]. For now our local mom and pop shop owners don't have to fear that a bigger competitor will drive them out of business. Should the town's population increase significantly, which is doubtful, then probably that's when Walmart or any other big retail chain will start thinking about opening a store here.
It really frustrates me to see large corporations replacing the local family run businesses. I wish the goverment here would do more to help support them. There is no way they can compete with larger stores for a number of reasons, and this is why the trend is going to continue: - Large supermarkets force suppliers to cut their price with bullying tactics. - The costs are kept lower with the scale of large corporations. - A large chain can afford to enter a new market area and operate at a loss at first if needed. - They have aarger marketing and promotional budget. There are dozens more reasons, but what can actually be done? That's what I am not sure about. I support local stores personally by using them whenever I can, but it's not enough.
There is actually a shift back to smaller stores occurring. Wal-Mart has been seeing a steady decline in it's sales over the past couple years, and they have noted better performance from their smaller locations, so they scrambling to open a bunch of smaller more low key stores around the country, instead of these huge ass Wal-Mart super centers they have been putting up in prior years. I personally kind of hate these enormous stores, because it takes forever to walk from one section of the store to another, especially when you just need a few items and they are on complete opposite ends of the store. The checkout lines are also atrocious because the people in line are buying everything under the sun all in one trip. Another local grocery chain in my area, called Giant Eagle, has started experimenting with these super sized stores that have all sorts of bells & whistles. But in the process of expanding, all their prices went up as well, which sucks. I think once the novelty of them wears off, all these extra departments they added will start to dwindle off with the exception of maybe one or two that remain popular. They will probably start looking like an empty food court in a mall over time.
I hate seeing larger stores run out small businesses because I think small businesses give shopping districts character and once they're gone you could literally be shopping anywhere because all cities look the same. I know where I live the most popular shopping districts are expanding and as that happens the smaller local stores are being pushed further out or just out of business. The newspaper even wrote an article about it stating that it's impossible for these small stores to compete with larger ones that at times pay in excess of $1k per square foot. I patronize small businesses whenever possible and don't mind spending even a little more because I think it's a solid investment.
I think it's terrible. In our town they built a casino and a Walmart and have effectively shut down over half of the small businesses that we had. It's wrong that they can do that to these people. They have no respect for the actual community they just want the money. It's crazy Walmart got so popular that it was even shutting down other chain stores where I live.
I think it's bad. But also it already happened and I don't have much choice. I do support local business but there are just very few left where I'm living. It's hard to support local business when there aren't any accessible. Also another issue with small local business is that they tend to close early and not work on Sundays, where as some big companies are either 24 hours or at least work every day up to 10:00 PM or maybe a little earlier on Sundays.
I live in a large city (L.A.) and I've seen smaller cities protest stores like Wal-Mart. Now, in all fairness, these are areas where the majority population can appreciate a lower price as well as decent quality but many want to keep those mom&pop stores. I think the first step to take is with the local councilperson and explain why your community does not want a big box store. If that goes nowhere, then try city hall.
