WalMart Not A Villain Essay Research Paper

Wal-Mart: Not A Villain Essay, Research Paper

I live in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb about 35 stat mis east of Cleveland. It used to be all nurseries, until a few decennaries ago when it began the procedure of commercialisation, along with other neighbouring metropoliss. Big-name shops moved into town, easy at first. After awhile, along came a shopping promenade and shops such as K-Mart. These concerns truly began to alter the community for the better. As the country became more developed, more people moved at that place. Finally Wal-Mart made its manner into town. The oncoming of competition forced K-mart to relocate ( less than a mile down the route from the original site, across the street from where the Wal-Mart was being built ) and upgrade to a Super K-Mart Center. The difference between K-Mart and Super K-Mart is that Super K-Mart has everything that regular K-Mart has, but it is now besides equipped with a complete food market subdivision. This enables clients to make all of their shopping in one location.It all started in 1962. The first Wal-Mart Discount City opened that twelvemonth in Rogers, Arkansas, and the franchise has been turning exponentially of all time since. In 1980 there were 276 shops, and in the twelvemonth 2000, there are more than 3,400 Wal-Marts in every province of the USA and a smattering of foreign states. These states include Germany, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and Korea, to call a few. Wal-Mart has aspirations to be globally recognized like McDonald & # 8217 ; s and Coca-Cola. For five old ages, the province of Vermont waged a war against Wal-Mart, declining to allow any of these super shops inside province boundaries. Finally Wal-Mart won the conflict and the first shop opened in Bennington, Vermont. Alternatively of expected protests, Wal-Mart & # 8217 ; s concern was dining. During the first hebdomad, the shop had about 1.5 times as many minutess as people live in the town. Harmonizing to & # 8220 ; Shoping With the Enemy & # 8221 ; , town life will ne’er be the same because & # 8220 ; people crave the low monetary values, big choice and convenient parking, & # 8221 ; offered by price reduction shops ( 146 ) .In the article & # 8220 ; Wal-Mart & # 8217 ; s War on Main Street, & # 8221 ; by Sarah Anderson, it is right stated that & # 8220 ; rural life is altering and there & # 8217 ; s no usage denying it. & # 8221 ; ( Anderson 139 ) Even without enforcing concerns, the technological progresss of today make the universe smaller and smaller. It used to be that in rural topographic points there would be one farm and so nil for stat mis. There wasn & # 8217 ; t much contact with people outside of one & # 8217 ; s household. Today anyone on a farm can hold all the necessities and luxuries of life, and with the usage of the Internet can easy reach anyone anyplace in the universe. These simple facts entirely provide grounds that rural life is altering. The major statement made by Albert Norman and other anti-Wal-Mart militants is that Wal-Mart and other price reduction shops drive the & # 8220 ; Ma & A ; Pa & # 8221 ; shops out of concern. This statement has some cogency in that price reduction shops charge less and have a significantly larger measure available, therefore doing them the top cho

ice. They can charge less because they buy their products in bulk (3,400 stores is definitely bulk). Also, unlike some neighborhood stores, they have an efficient system to keep track of their inventory. This enables them to know what consumers are buying and what they are not buying. Rarely are shelves empty of desirable items. The store can tell when a product is running low and order more before they run out. “Ma & Pa” stores usually do not know what products are popular and overstock on unpopular items and under stock on the popular ones, possibly leaving the shelves bare for any length of time. Oftentimes they wait until they are completely out of an item before reordering. The delivery process takes up to two weeks. Meanwhile, what are customers to do if they are in dire need of a product? They have no choice but to suffer the consequences of being without it.Privately owned businesses must adapt to the changing times. They will not automatically go out of business just because Wal-Mart is moving in. It is true that large stores like Wal-Mart give discount prices, but do they always give the best quality and service? A lot of big businesses are too impersonal, not giving customers the same quality treatment they would receive on Main Street. However, Wal-Mart is an exception in this area; Wal-Mart has a reputation for excellent customer service. They have a greeter, who welcomes you upon entering the store, and there are plenty of workers roaming around to help you out as desired. The Internet is also to blame for putting Main Streets out of business. If people do not live near a discount store they can still purchase their products by means of shopping on-line. On-line purchases are much easier to make than to drive out to the discount store, and delivery only takes a few days at most (and the best prices are available on-line). Wal-Mart has its own site, complete with a greeter and its best sales posted on the front page. Most stores on-line advertise their low prices, much like Wal-Mart does on their online site.Even so, for those consumers without Internet access, discount stores are only a short trip away. A lot of people will drive a great distance just for items that are on sale. Residents of small towns that don’t have any big discount stores, still like to shop at discount stores, so they usually go shopping at the discount stores in neighboring towns. Until now, I had no idea that Wal-Mart was thought of as villainous. My neighborhood did not change because of the new Wal-Mart as much as it did from the rest of the new stores sprouting up in the area. Communities are learning to adapt to these new conditions. Rural life is changing, and people have to deal with it. Not all of Main Street’s stores will stay in business and those who have to quit may be able to find better jobs once their community is developed. In conclusion, Wal-Mart is not a villain and does not move into small towns with the sole intent of “killing” “Ma & Pa” stores!