[cookiecaper]

>The reality is that Walmart is a victim of their own success in some ways. They have a core demographic (the employed and unemployed poor) which they've been extremely successful in attracting, so much so that the demographics even at a store like Target are markedly different (middle class-ish).

Note that this is only true in some geographical regions. In much of not-California, Walmart is one of the only convenient places to shop, so everyone shops there.

[chriskanan]

This is definitely true in most of rural Oklahoma, where I grew up. There were no other major retail or grocery stores.

[VLM]

Note that the demographic data can be argued but the core message of victim of their own success remains.

A world without walmart would have the police called to 3 of 20 small mom and pop shops and no individual shop would be considered the bad actor. A monopoly retail provider exists and 100% of retail police calls, 3 per day, will be at the monopoly provider and therefore the monopoly provider is causing crime or something. There's 3 police calls either way...

The police can't be called to Mom and Pop's shoe store for shoplifting because Walmart closed them down. And people who gotta steal shoes, have to do it at a store that's still open. So, walmart.

[phaus]

>everyone shops there.

And this is true pretty much everywhere I've ever been that wasn't a large city or very close to one.

[criddell]

I live in the suburbs of Austin and the Walmart here just closed. It's a middle class and upper-middle class suburb and they said the store performed poorly because people in this neighborhood shop at Target and Amazon.