Big box retailers intend to crush what's left of America's small stores

[marmar]

Two of the nation’s biggest and most prominent retailers, Target and Wal-Mart, are testing out smaller versions of their familiar megastores. The smaller formats are designed to fit more easily into dense urban areas where these massive retailers have had trouble making inroads, and to generate extra business from rural customers who might be unwilling to spend the time and gas money to get a bigger store further away.

Last week, Wal-Mart opened the first of its Walmart Express stores, which are designed for very rural and urban locations. At about 15,000 square feet, the store could be tucked into a tiny corner of one of Wal-Mart's giant Supercenters, which average 185,000 square feet. Wal-Mart plans to roll out the new format slowly, opening 15 Express stores this year in Arkansas, North Carolina and the Chicago area.

That’s in addition to the company’s larger Walmart Market stores, which are around 40,000 square feet and positioned more like grocery stores, according to company spokeswoman Tara Raddohl. In its quarterly earnings call in May, company executives said they have been pleased with the neighborhood market stores and plan to open 15 to 20 more this year, on top of about 180 currently.

Target's experiment with smaller stores is slightly different, and more geared toward urban customers. The company plans to launch four CityTargets in 2012 and 2013 in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43414111/ns/business-consumer_news/

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Crazy Dave]

2. Even restaurants

The chain restaurants are threatening to cut off business with distributors who supply smaller mom & pop restaurants. They tell them to lower their wholesale prices for their massive orders and stop selling to or raise the prices sky high on the smaller, local restaurants and force them out of business. My neighbor who used to run three restaurants is now down to one and even though you see a full house every day for lunch and dinner, he's borrowing money from his parents to help pay the bills because his profit margins are literally a nickels and dimes per plate.

On the news we hear it blamed on inflation and high gas prices, the insiders of the industry know better.

[Dawson Leery]

14. The anti-trust laws need to be enforced.

[Crazy Dave]

15. The only laws that get enforced are the ones that screw the little guy

Europe has been an exception to the rule but they're slowly catching on to our corporate and capitalist ways.

[Broderick]

3. As a small business owner

I full well know the effect of the "big box" store to my market sector.

sigh.

[robcon]

4. Oh the horrors: bigger selection and lower prices are expanding everywhere!

There is no box-store bogeyman.

Consumers choose to shop in big stores because of the better selection and lower prices, and despite the poorer customer service.

[Gregorian]

6. There's more to it than that. These big companies offer huge incentives to city planning.

Promises often not kept. Like highway alterations and improvements. And large tax revenues. It gets really ugly. Things the little guy can't possibly compete with.

What you said is true. But I for one would prefer to keep the monsters away for a number of reasons.

[Odin2005]

8. replace "choose" with "are brainwashed" and you'd be correct.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Sherman A1]

13. Agreed

There is that predatory pricing thing and the cost savings supplied by Wal Marts labor practices that do contribute to the situation.

[Lucian]

11. The Walmart that opened in my city last year...

forced the taxpayers to pay for the roads to be put in. You know who had to pay for them? The families that live in the neighborhoods around the store. $15,000/family.

No bogeyman? Bullshit!

Oh, and Walmart exploits third world countries so you can "save money, live better." You know how much the people in Haiti get paid to make your Levis and Hanes products? Just 31 cents/hour. Here's the link: http://www.thenation.com/article/161057/let-them-live-3day

But go ahead. Go and save a few pennies on cheap plastic crap.

[geardaddy]

12. Exactly.

And a whole bunch of TIF allowances from city governments.

[devilgrrl]

16. I take it that you're a huge fan of Wal-Mart???

It wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[sofa king]

18. That ain't how it's working.

By killing off its competition here in my beloved Valley, here's a short list of things that consumers now cannot buy easily or at all:

* Ultralight fishing reels

* Quality white and motor-oil colored jigs

* Live bait

* Good duct tape

* 2-cycle injector oil

* Full-face riding helmets

* Parts for any old or American made laundry machines, gas heaters and stoves

* Computer heatsinks, fans, power supplies

* Any BSW-standard tools or parts

* French-press coffee makers

Wal-Mart didn't just kill off their direct competition, they killed off every industry that supported itself in part with retail sales. So even though there's a thousand 2-cycle mopeds in this city, there is not one place that sells 2-cycle injector oil, not one place that repairs mopeds, and so on. Worse, half of the moped riders in this town can be seen riding while wearing toy helmets from Wal-Mart, because nobody except the overpriced Harley shop even sells motorcycle helmets, and what they sell is not affordable.

The poorest and most disadvantaged people ride mopeds, so they're not easily getting online and buying what they need with credit cards they don't have. So they struggle, kill their bikes by dumping regular 2-cycle oil through the injection systems or just seeing how far they can go without oil at all.

Nobody chose to kill off the small-bike industry here, just as it ballooned along with the ranks of the impoverished like me. It's an entire sector of business that is no longer viable because a they were supported by retail sales, and now they cannot be supported that way. Now one of the few options for the poor to get around is immensely more difficult and requires creativity and versatility from the people who are often least able to muster up those things.

[fredamae]

5. Corporate control, price setting, low wages will result/are resulting

We need to get More small busineses going and stop shopping these places; Oh wait, I already did 5 years ago.

[CrispyQ]

7. And people will shop there, often times supporting them over local business.

Our local Ace Hardware went out of business because the community supported the new super Walmart more. Now if you want anything beyond what you can find at a grocery store, it's Walmart or you have to drive to the next town. The Walmart is always busy.

In the movie, "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price" they interviewed a young woman who lost her job because the local business she worked for went under because of Walmart. She admitted that her behavior was part of the cause & she still shopped there. :crazy:

[jsamuel]

10. I have shopped at that store.

To put it in context. The closest real Walmart is 20 miles away. This one is about 6 miles away. The only other choice for us is Harps. Before Walmart, there was already a monopoly by Harps in the area. They owned the only two grocery stores in the area. Harps' prices are awful. Their produce is often bad. I have actually had to return FROZEN food before because we couldn't even tell what had happened to it. A frozen cake we bought looked like it had been boiled. The truth is that this will save tons of gas and money for those of us in rural areas for products that Harps simply doesn't even sell. The only time Harps' prices are reasonable is if they are on sale and you have a coupon. Expect to pay well above 150% the cost of the same product if it is not on sale.

[glinda]

17. Dems need to wake up or be replaced with Weiners.

[snot]

19. I invite all to join me in NEVER patronizing a chain, if

there's a feasible individual- or family-owned alternative.