Quote:
Originally Posted by Donfoolio
"shitty mom and pop stores" are what built every country in this world! However they also do NOT do the volume ordering that "big business" does, so from the out letters they can not get the "big deals" therefore increasing their overhead. Don't be so quick to talk badly about the small business, because it's the big bastards who are the problem.
|
That's not necessarily true. It's a combination of things with the mom and pops.
In "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson, there was a chapter where he talked about how the Sears catalog changed retailing nationwide.
Back then, most of the people in the country lived and worked on farms, and the local "general stores" could charge literally whatever they wanted to for things, because there was no competition.
The Sears catalog changed that and allowed people to order things that were then shipped to them via railroad.
That put alot of "general stores" out of business, but it was good for everyone in the country who didn't own a general store.
When Wal-Mart moves to town and puts the mom and pops out of business, alot of us feel bad because we have a soft spot in our hearts for "family businesses", but in alot of cases, just like in the days of the Sears catalog, those mom and pops were overcharging people in a ridiculous way.
Sly did mention something about Wal-Mart getting tax breaks, and that's something I disagree with. Retail businesses don't "create jobs" the way other types of businesses do, so they don't deserve any type of special treatment by local governments to come to town IMO. Other than that, I think most communities are better of with Wal-Mart than they were before.
