re: Wal-Mart update thread.

The thing about anti-Wal-Mart hysteria is it's mostly anti-consumer oriented anyway. Wal-Mart is an easy target because they're a big evil corporation with their sleek desks and their fancy office buildings and they...make money.

But the fact is, Wal-Mart has never shut a business down. Consumers do that. If people want to shop at Wal-Mart, then they're the ones shutting businesses down. Consumers are not helpless innocent bystanders lured by hypnosis into the evil waiting arms of their Wal-Mart overlords. They have made a conscious decision that fits their needs, their budget, whatever.

It's sad when mom-and-pop stores shut down, but it's not really Wal-Mart's fault. Not to mention that in many communities, including the West Knoxville area where I grew up, Wal-Mart attracts new businesses and creates a more flourishing shopping district than existed before, providing more jobs, more economic growth, and more choices for consumers who ought to be free to make their own choices.

Wal-Mart is hardly for "common rabble" only, but their wide array of goods at low prices have doubtlessly helped people improve their lifestyles. If towns don't want Wal-Mart, they can keep such businesses out, but it will be at the cost of their own townspeople and such an attitude will drastically inflate prices on homes and goods, widening the gap between rich and poor and causing migration out of the city (see Boulder, CO). If that's a cost people are willing to bear, then that's their business, but there are consequences, and most often the people most directly affected are the lower-income individuals these anti-Wal-Mart types seem to care so much about.