Wal-Mart is determined to wipe out businesses in towns of 2,000 to 3,500 people now.

[sinkingfeeling]

http://supermarketnews.com/retail_financial/walmart_express_0309/


"BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores said last week it plans to open its first Walmart Express during the second quarter, though it did not say where the...

The stores, each of approximately 15,000 square feet, will be located in Gentry, Prairie Grove and Gravette, with construction due to start on the Gentry unit next week and work on the other two scheduled to start later in the month, Steve Restivo, a chain spokesman, told SN.

Wal-Mart has indicated it expects to open 40 Express stores this year, although supercenters will continue to be the company's primary expansion format. "Walmart Express can be part of the solution in urban and rural communities where residents don't have access to healthy, affordable food," Restivo said."


Today, I heard the first will be in Prairie Grove, population 3,114, with one small grocery store and a couple of convenience stores.

Gentry has a population of 2,950. And Gravette is a whopping 2,660.

[tsuki]

1. I don't know how well Wal-mart's is really doing in the larger markets.

A friend of mine went into Wal-Mart to pick up a few items for rentals she manages, and Wal-Mart did not have the items, basic stuff like hand towels and wash clothes. The store manager told her with the downturn, the store was not keeping as much inventory. That doesn't sound like Wal-Mart.

She ended up at the Dollar Store.

[madrchsod]

2. i hate to think of the prices in those stores...

[louis-t]

5. You hit it right on the head.

It's easier to steal when you have no competition at all.

[Newest Reality]

3. Wal-Mart

just announced higher prices due to various inflationary costs.

So, will they subsidize these smaller, predatory, business-busters in order to kill the hometown stores, at least, at first? Most likely.

Those small towns are a great place to easily organize and boycott, if they know what's best for them. The low, low prices won't last and they will just end-up as part of the Wall-Mart collective that sucks a large part of the local money out.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Wal Mart is modeled upon the concept of a virus.

[Kennah]

6. In the illegal drug trade, the dealer sometimes gives you something free or cheap to get you hooked

[BanzaiBonnie]

9. Oh, snap!

[Thunderstruck]

7. I have lived in a small resort town that successfully defeated Wal-Mart

several years ago and to this day you won't find a Wal-Mart sign there.

If Wal-Mart can elbow itself into small towns like the ones mentioned in the OP, then how much of the responsibility for it falls on the local community for failing to keep Wal-Mart out?

[sinkingfeeling]

8. All three of those towns are within 30 miles of Wal-Mart's Home Office. Arkansas is always

the 'test bed' for them. Very few in Benton County will oppose them.