The Wal-Mart Effect
A group of Penn State agricultural economists find in (US) counties with new Wal-Mart stores, the usage of food-stamp is 100% higher. They blame Wal-Mart causing the collapse of mom-and-pop local business networks and low wages.
Source: Discover, August, 2006.
Labels: Work
posted by Life Records at 7/11/2006
2 Comments:
Would be interesting to know if the incidence of food stamp use changed when Wal-Mart came in.
Perhaps Wal-Mart chooses low income areas for new stores because the clientele values the low prices more than high price status items.
I used to live in Lake County, Illinois (a high income area) ...where there were only two Wal-Mart stores, neither of which were very large. I currently live in a low income area in the southern midwest and there are nearly a dozen WalMart SuperCenters in this county. What came first, WalMart or the poverty? I assure you, the poverty was there long before WalMart!!
9:24 PM
It's still an interesting study, though.
9:43 PM
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