I quit shopping there months ago, not that it was really a favorite, anyway.

I just watched a show on PBS this week that showed how Wal-Mart is getting these really cheap prices by buying from China or practically forcing their vendors to move factories to China. So basically, if you shop at Wal-Mart, you are contributing to the trade deficit that we have with Wal-Mart.

They also explained an interesting practice that Wal-Mart has where they advertise a really, really inexpensive item, like a low-end microwave. This gets people in the door. Once they're there, they may end up buying a different microwave, thinking that they're getting a really good deal. But really it's only the low-end microwave that is a good deal and the other microwaves are NOT a better price than at other stores. Pretty sneaky.

I shop at Walmart and many other stores in my neighborhood. One competitor has many of the exact same items with typically higher prices. Their customer service is not as good, they're much more restrictive about returns and just recently began offering even less service to the customer. Walmart has better customer service and return policies. Who are the "bad guys" if you find the same products that Walmart sells in other stores also.

I price shop for my groceries and other goods. Walmart's groceries have a much lower everyday price than my other neighborhood stores. One name brand drink mix I buy regularly has been $3.22 per jar for over a year and sells for $4.99 or more at the other supermarkets, except for their occassional sale a couple times a year, and even then they may have it on sale for more than Walmart's regular price. This drink mix has not been farmed out to China for production.

Walmart is a part of the changing trends of our culture. Downtown was dying before Walmart ever moved in. My Grandma and Grandpa had a little grocery store on their corner when I was young. Those are charming, but really a thing of the past. I shop for choice also. I want a specific kind of bread or jelly, and the mom-and-pop stores can't offer what we want anymore, except maybe when we're on vacation and want charming (and are willing to spend the overhead to get it.)

We live in bigger communities overall and are much more mobile than we were in the 50's. We're willing to drive to the big mall and we want the deals...we demand them! Walmart and all the other successful commercial businesses are answering our call. Mom-and-pop ventures must offer personal services people are wanting and willing to pay for, or find unique ideas that fulfills the needs of it's community.

Walmart hasn't changed our world. Our world and specifically our society is changing and evolving as it always has and always will, and Walmart and the other large chains have evolved into being because of that.

This is a direct response to Barbara, who posted earlier. And I guess it's generally interesting, too. I hope.

Barbara: Wal-Mart did not evolve to match the changing times. Wal-Mart has forced the changes itself. Wal-Mart has those low prices because it -- unlike any other retailer -- strongarms suppliers into meeting its demands. If you're a wholesaler, and you want to sell your product to a mom and pop store, you set your price. It costs you $1 to produce and ship and item, so you charge $2 to make your profit. You're in control. If you want to sell your product to Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart says, "You will sell this product to us for $1.01." And you say yes sir, thank you sir, because Wal-Mart sells 60 percent of your production and without Wal-Mart your company will go out of business. Then, next year, you go to Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart never comes to you) and Wal-Mart says, "This year, you will sell this product to us for 97 cents." And now you're in trouble, because that's below your cost.

That's the way Wal-Mart operates. Which would be fine, I guess, if it weren't for the fact that Wal-Mart can do this because it does a lot of business. And it does a lot of business because its prices are low. And its prices are low because many of the costs of doing business this way are indirect. For example, maybe the EPA requires a certain design to a parking lot to prevent the toxic run-off from parked cars from getting into the local water supply. So Wal-Mart ignores those regulations so its parking lot is less expensive to install. Who pays? The people with the poisoned water. There are a ton of indirect costs -- from companies forced to move production offshore to the hiring of illegal immigrants.

The closing of traditional downtowns is only part of it, and maybe one of the few parts Wal-Mart is not directly responsible for.

The trouble, as Andrew points out, is that because the costs are indirect, consumers don't see them, and so they don't realize how much those low prices are really costing them. It all goes around eventually: You work for a company which makes something for a company which makes something for Wal-Mart, and when Wal-Mart cuts prices, you get fired.

Thank you for your piece. Finally someone (besides myself) is taking the consumer to task on the Wal Mart controversy. Though personally I refuse to shop at Wal Mart... we can't really blame Wal Mart for ruining small town America. Wal Mart would disappear overnight if we stopped shopping there. The consumer is responsbile for Wal Mart, and technically Wal Mart is doing what any good company should do - offer the best value to their customers. Sure, Wal Mart steps over the line in this process... but as long as shoppers line up in droves to spend their checks there, Wal Mart wins and small down America loses.

I wrote about this exact same theory on my site:

http://iamcorrect.blogspot.com/2005/06/boycott-you-ok-so-i-was-watching-some.html

Just like the environment, as a whole. No one wants to take individual responsibility and modify their own behavior, never realizing we all pay the costs anyway.