As if devastating the economies of small towns isn’t enough, Walmart is now going after grocery stores with the increased launch of their Neighborhood Markets.
Walmart’s Neighborhood Markets were created in 1998. With sales at their Supercenters slipping, Walmart has decided to go up against the grocery industry which has battled against the retail giant for decades.
Approximately 35 million consumers shop at Walmart daily. Walmart generates about 1.8 million in profits an hour. They want more! Most of their employees are paid only an average of $9.00 an hour, a rate hike which only came about because of massive public shaming. Many Walmart associates are part-time workers, and have been forced to rely on public assistance.
Their recent foray into the dollar store-type market failed – thank God! Walmart Express stores started in 2011. Now numbering about 150 in the United States, they were directed at the highly successful Dollar General market share, which has vastly expanded into small town areas where a Walmart Supercenter would not be feasible. Because many of these rural and small towns have no grocery stores – many of which have been put out of business by a nearby Walmart, residents with limited income and lack of transportation have started to use the dollar stores as their food market.
Walmart’s greed is insatiable. They’ve decimated the economies of thousands of small towns over the past 5 decades. People then become reliant on the very entity which destroyed their livelihoods for both employment and goods.
I’ve seen this firsthand living in rural America over the past 30 years. Time and again the once flourishing economies have been wiped out by the building of a nearby Walmart. In the town where I lived for 15 years, the locally run grocery store finally failed ten years ago. The 45 year-old family owned Booker’s Hardware has been on its last legs, the shelves holding fewer items as years go by. How long will that institution continue? Everyone must drive either 10 miles one way to the nearest smaller Walmart or 25 round trip to a Supercenter. There IS nothing else!
Walmart is building one of their new Neighborhood Markets not far from my home in suburban Florida. Not 3 miles away IS a Walmart Supercenter!
Just outside the 55+ community where I live there are two grocery stores: a Publix and a Winn Dixie, which are also accessible by residents of our community to reach by golf carts.
I won’t be shopping at the Walmart Neighborhood Market – EVER! There is no need for it here. There are plenty of other grocery stores nearby. This is just another money-grubbing ploy by Walmart to gain ground on the grocery industry. They’ve obviously hoodwinked the greedy planning commission and local government to approve its building.
We don’t need it!
I refuse to add to Walmart’s wealth and greed, and will continue to support Publix and Winn Dixie.
A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing! 
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