Monday, January 7, 2013

In Defense of Walmart

We hear a story occasionally about a group of people protesting the building of Walmart stores, and people protesting the wages of the people who work there, and then there is a website showing how bad some of the shoppers look.  (Btw, The worst looking people that I've ever seen all shop at the Meijer in Michigan City, Indiana.)

But all of these complaints against Walmart ignore the fact that Walmart is a good clean place to shop, and the largest employer in the country.

The people that complain about Walmart coming to their towns do so, they say, because Walmart will drive the small stores out of business.  This is true but the reason the smaller stores disappear is because Walmart provides more things, at lower prices, and all in one convenient place. 

The people that protest Walmart's arrival do so because they know that the average person, if given the choice, will go to where products are easily available, all in one place, and inexpensive.  Promoting "mom and pop" stores is good, and all, but by patronizing such stores you are supporting businesses that are: less efficient, have less available, more stores are required (one Walmart manager does the same jobs as all the store owners in all of the small stores), and have more expensive products.

Anyway, the reason that I wrote this post is because I was in search of a specific item.  I inherited my grandpa's woodworking tools and was going to use the drill press but found that I had lost the chuck key (for tightening drill bits to the drill press).  I looked for one at multiple small hardware stores, the manufacturer's website, Amazon.com, and couldn't find one the right size. 

Then I went to a large chain store, like Walmart, (Fleet Farm) and...Success!

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