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Wal-Mart and Other Nightmares, Part Five |
Bill Hudson | 1/6/10
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Read Part One
The two ladies were headed for their vehicle, somewhere in the acres of parking lot outside the Durango, Colorado Wal-Mart superstore, with two shopping carts piled to the brim. They had four little children in tow, and as I approached them, I assumed from their familiar behavior with one another and from their similar appearance, that one was the mother of these little children, and the other was the probably the grandmother. Continued...
Durango Wal-Mart, a popular place to shop. |
As I walked up to them and asked for their help in researching today’s Daily Post article, they stopped walking and relaxed into the conversation.
“I’m writing a news article for the Pagosa Daily Post, about Big Box stores,” I explained, “and I wonder if you would tell me about the friendliness of Wal-Mart — compared with other shops in Durango?”
They chimed in together, one finishing the other’s sentence as if they were of one mind.
“Friendliness?? Ha, you’ve got to be kidding.”
Wal-Mart didn’t strike them as a friendly place to shop?
“No, it’s not. Not this Wal-Mart. The one in Farmington is a lot more friendly than this.”
Do they shop at other places in Durango?
“Sure. City Market. Albertsons’s. Rite-Aid.”
And they strike you as friendlier places to shop?
“Oh yeah. What’s that other one, Walgreens? These people at Wal-Mart go out of their way to avoid you. Even the Durango Mall is a lot friendlier than Wal-Mart.”
I thanked them for their comments.
“You bet.”
I had gone to the Durango Wal-Mart yesterday, specifically to find out, not about low prices, but about how the people of Durango experienced this monster retailer on an emotional level.
We've all heard about Wal-Mart and its phenomenal corporate growth all around the globe. The store was started by innovative retailer Sam Walton in 1962 — the same year that discount retailers Kmart and Target also got their start. Walton had run various variety stores during the 1950s, and had felt the pressure from the new “discount store” movement in America. Before opening his first Wal-Mart, Walton traveled the country studying everything he could about discount retailing — and became convinced American consumers wanted a new type of store. Trusting his vision, Sam and his wife Helen put up 95 percent of the money for the first Wal-Mart store in Rogers, Arkansas. Continued...
Although the Durango Wal-Mart itself seems to be thriving in the current economy, the rest of the shops next door in the Wal-Mart shopping center appear to be struggling. This whole stretch of shops is vacant, except for the Subway Sandwich shop (with its $5 Foot Long specials.)
"Sorry for Any Inconveniences. We regret that this location has been closed."
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Walton built his retail model around hiring local farm labor, mostly women — women who had lost their jobs due to increasingly mechanized farming in the Midwest. By giving these women jobs — at low wages — and by smart wholesale purchasing, Walton was able to keep his prices below his competition.
By 1989, there were 1,402 Wal-Mart stores, and 123 Sam’s Club locations. Employment had increased tenfold. Sales had grown from $1 billion in 1980 to $26 billion.
Today, 8,159 Wal-Mart locations around the world employ more than 2.1 million associates, serving more than 176 million customers a year.
According to the Wal-Mart website, “Our history is a perfect example of how to manage growth without losing sight of your values. Our most basic value has always been, and always will be, customer service.”
I was standing in the parking lot outside the Durango store, to find out if, indeed, the most basic value of Wal-Mart is “customer service.”
After talking to about twenty shoppers, coming out of the store with their shopping carts, I had the distinct impression that the Durango Wal-Mart was not an overly friendly place.
 Back home in Pagosa Springs, 60 miles east of the Durango Wal-Mart, a debate has been ongoing for half a decade. The key question: should the Town of Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County governments encourage — or discourage — the building of Big Box superstores in our community?
In 2005, a task force made up of mostly local small business owners produced a report for the Town and County leaders, suggesting that the overall effect of Big Box stores like Wal-Mart would be a negative one. The report itself quoted numerous studies showing that arrival of a Big Box store in a small rural town generally meant some additional jobs and access to discount shopping — but also depressed wages, increased pressure on social services, and resulted in the loss of the town’s long-time, local ‘mom and pop’ retailers.
According to a news report produced in September by CNBC, Wal-Mart experiences a startling turnover of employees. Over half the employees at a new Wal-Mart quit within the first year. A 2008 study showed that the overall effect of Big Box stores in a community was a net loss of jobs — and particularly, a loss of full-time jobs, since Wal-Mart and other discount retailers often build their staffing around part-time positions.
On the other side of the debate, the proponents promoting Big Box retail in Pagosa Springs have argued that the residents of Archuleta County would benefit from the low prices and selection offered by a Wal-Mart store — and that the overall local economy would get a boost from the additional dollars circulating, instead of being “leaked” to Durango and Farmington where discount shopping is now a major part of both economies.
As I stood outside the Durango Wal-Mart, approaching people with their shopping carts, I found that about half the people felt this Wal-Mart exhibited about the same level of friendliness as the other stores in Durango. About half felt the friendliness was measurably less than in other places.
Not one person felt that Wal-Mart stood out as an exceptionally friendly place.
But that isn’t the whole story. The people who told me the level of friendliness at Wal-Mart was acceptable were all, themselves, unfriendly and in a hurry.
The people who were willing to stop and chat in a friendly way — the way I generally experience the residents of Pagosa Springs — inevitably told me Wal-Mart was an unfriendly place.
Pagosa Springs has very little going for it, economically speaking. But it has very beautiful surroundings, and it has maintained a certain “Western” charm that visitors often find remarkable. Those are really the two things Pagosa has going for it, as a place to live or to visit — beauty and friendliness.
I don’t think any of our local government leaders would suggest we encourage the building of pollution spewing factories that would hide the innate beauty of this place. Surely, such an approach to economic development would help destroy the essence of Pagosa Springs.
What reason would we have, then, for encouraging the presence of a corporate retail culture that drains the friendliness from our little town and replaces it with low priced plastic goods from China?
Read Part Six... |
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