Big Push for Big Box Stores
Analyzing the effects and economic impacts of Wal-Mart superstores on the community
A research proposal submitted to the Urban Studies and Planning Program
Senior Sequence Class of 2010-2011
February 22, 2011
David Luu
University of California, San Diego
Urban Studies and Planning Program
USP 186 / Section 4:00pm – 4:50pm
dbluu@ucsd.edu
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine how big box retail stores, Wal-Mart in particular,
affected the surrounding community. Over the past decades, Wal-Mart has earned the title of
world’s largest retailer by offering the lowest prices found anywhere. Its success has raised many
questions as to how their annual revenue was achieved and at what cost? Data was gathered from
various methods including research, surveying, and an interview with a former City Manager of
San Diego. This study found that the incorporation of Wal-Mart stores drastically changes the
dynamic of a city, specifically infrastructure and public criticism. Conversely, these stores
contribute to much sales tax revenue that the city can use to reinvest back into the community.
This study provides supplementary information to previous literature on big box stores and WalMart associated investigations. The results of the research will be shared with the community in
the hopes that for those who feel uncertain about Wal-Mart superstores, that they may receive a
factual representation of their neighboring retail provider.
Key Words: economic impact, spill-over effect, low-prices, public opinion, labor force
Introduction
Retail trade has been around for centuries, commencing with small and rather simple
general and specialty stores. With time, however, and as a result of the rapid economic growth in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of our capitalistic world, these small retail shops had
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quickly flourished into department stores, which in turn, gave rise to many chain stores and
discount houses, making them no longer small and simple stores but huge and complex big-box
retail establishments (Vedder and Cox 3). Wal-Mart, specifically, surfaced along with many
other big-box retail stores during that time. However, only Wal-Mart, through Sam Walton’s
entrepreneurship abilities and the incredibly low prices he offered his customers, has become the
largest public corporation in the world. Walton, many could argue, was the “quintessential
American entrepreneur—bold, risk-taking, God-fearing, innovative and visionary” (Vedder and
Cox 3). His obsession was cutting costs and bringing low prices to its customers, and by doing
so, he even invented the widely praised computerized inventory control system. He had not only
transformed general merchandise retailing, but also greatly influenced many other forms of
retailing as well.
Sam Walton’s guaranteed low prices have succeeded not only in founding the largest
commercial retail store in the world, but also in receiving considerable gratification from its
customers. On a global scale this can be considered a grand success. However, this can
undoubtedly also make one question: what are the economic effects that such a powerful and
incredible corporation, such as Wal-Mart, has on its community? This question can be answered
with the use of documentaries, scholarly arguments, an interview with a former city manager for
San Diego, Jack McGrory, as well as my own speculation on the topic. Through these sources, I
will demonstrate that a wealthy, powerful, and monopolizing corporation, like the multi-million
company of Wal-Mart, does indeed have a positive influence on a macroeconomic and global
level. However, I will also reveal that, on a more microeconomic and community level, big-box
superstores, such as Wal-Mart, actually have a general negative and detrimental effect in the
economy of the community and community life.
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Literature Review
History / Background
The expansion of big-box retail stores, like Wal-Mart, thrived especially with the rapid
suburbanization of the 1950’s, which created a fertile ground for these chains. At first, families
in suburbia traveled downtown or back to the old neighborhood to do their shopping since the
suburbs were strictly residential. However, “by the late 1950’s auto-oriented, suburbanshopping-center construction was in full swing” (Mitchell 4). This means that because of the
invention of the automobile, wealthier upper-middle class Americans were able to live in their
secluded suburbs and shop at these big retailers. There was no need to drive to the inner cities or
to downtowns to make their purchases. Wal-Mart since then has continued to appeal to suburban
households, and at the same time, continues to reach out to all mixed-income families with their
low price guarantee and a promised increased quality of life. With their slogan, “Save Money,
Live Better. Wal-Mart.”, it has convinced it shoppers that through low prices they can earn a
better quality of life.
Suburbia was not the only factor that drove these changes in shopping centers, as public
policy also played a major role. To a certain degree, the federal government underwrote the
chain store expansion. Taxpayers paid the cost of massive road-construction projects, including
the $130 billion for the interstate highway system (Mitchell 5). Interstate highways made
reaching a big-box retail store a whole lot easier and more convenient. In addition, newly created
federal mortgage guarantees in the 1950’s also strongly favored new suburban homes and
restricted lending in established neighborhoods (Mitchell 5). In addition, in 1954, when
Congress adopted changes to the tax code that made shopping centers highly profitable tax
shelters. “Under tax law, buildings are assumed to deteriorate and lose some of their value every
year. The government allows owners to set aside a portion of the value of their buildings tax free
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each year to cover the cost of replacement” (Mitchell 6). After this time, money unsurprisingly
poured into real estate and over the next twenty years, eighteen thousand shopping centers and
malls were built in the United States (Mitchell 6). These policies undoubtedly favored the
building and investing in big department stores and shopping centers such as Wal-Mart. The
political influence can easily be seen as one of the factors in the increase in popularity in these
stores.
It was into this world in which Sam Walton made his foundation and legacy of Wal-Mart.
After establishing his first Wal-Mart store in 1962, Walton had found that his idea of opening
discount stores in small towns would work (Vance and Scott 56). He was obviously correct as he
started not only placing these smaller discount stores in small towns, but also was able to open
up even bigger stores in more populated cities. By the 1990’s, when all the companies that
seemed successful started to lose momentum, the big three- Wal-Mart, Target and K-Martextended their reach and never lost momentum. In fact, with the closing or unpopularity of the
other retail stores, momentum was indeed being increased. By in 1996, the top ten retail chains
(of to which group Wal-Mart pertains) accounted for a fifteenth percent of all consumers
spending (Mitchell 8). And finally, in 2005, the top ten held almost thirty percent of more than
$2.3 trillion that Americans spent shopping each year. Above all, however, Wal-Mart is now
America’s leading retail firm with 1.2 million employees and a $240 billion-a-year supermarket
business- not to mention its $9.4 billion through its expansion of Sam’s Club (Charles and
Fishman 48). It is evident that Wal-Mart and Sam Walton were the popular choice for America’s
shopping necessities.
Effects on residents, community life, and other spillover effects
Walton surely knew how to make his way to the very top from the very beginning. The
cost of goods to consumers has always been an ongoing struggle for business owners but it
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seems as though he found the solution. Not only do business owners of large retail
establishments benefit from offering lower prices, but consumers enjoy the savings. People feel
better and happier when they are able to save on costs in every way possible. For instance, “In an
indirect way, the development of discount stores has stimulated the development of discount
airlines like Southwest and Jet Blue” because consumers save up money for vacations (Vedder
and Cox 12). As if the lower prices weren’t incentive enough for consumers to shop at these
places, as of recent, most big box retailers have expanded to include a grocery aisle.
Type of Big Box Establishments
Definition
Retailer
The sale of goods from a fixed location,
such as a boutique, kiosk or mall in small
or individual lots for direct consumption by
the purchaser
Supermarket
A self-service store consisting mainly of
grocery food items
Megastore/Superstore
A retail store encompassing a large lot size
and selling department, discount and
general merchandise items
Supercenter
Synonymous with the terms
megastore/superstore except with the
addition of a grocery market and/or auto
center
With the addition of grocery food items, stores such as Wal-Mart have truly enveloped the idea
of one stop shopping. It is evident that saving costumers money and selling at lower prices is the
best strategy in keeping costumers shopping.
However, now that Wal-Mart is the largest company in the world, there are plenty of
other externalities to focus on. One way to measure Wal-Marts impact is by looking at it from a
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micro-economic perspective. For instance, I must mention the very strong effects a big-box retail
company, like Wal-Mart, has on a community. A small community with a Wal-Mart superstore
typically suffers economically, as local businesses lose customers through Wal-Mart’s success,
causing them to struggle financially and changing their entire way of life (Vance and Scott 137).
Wal-Mart, therefore, also causes the destruction of many Mom and Pop retail stores as well as
the idea of personalized customer service that comes along with these smaller merchant stores
(Boyd 224). Residents of the new Wal-Mart community thus lose their favorite and trusted
neighborhood shops, and the owners of those small stores lose their business and often times
even their stores.
Furthermore, the purpose of establishing a giant retail store in a city is to generate more
sales tax revenue to be recycled back into the city for services and improvements. The problem
with many inefficient site choices is that when a Wal-Mart opens up in the city, it pushes out
competition as mentioned before. This process is essentially cannibalizing sales tax because
when they take customers away from other stores, the sales tax revenue is simply moving from
one establishment to another (Greenwald 2005). This means that additional revenues are not
being met and the city remains in the same economic position as it was prior to a superstore
opening.
In addition, the idealization of a Wal-Mart benefitting a community neglects many of the
realities of rural communities, especially, that often include largely invisible and marginalized
populations with high rates or poverty and limited access to health care and basic social services
(Brunn 63). The battle to keep Wal-Mart out of rural areas is due to their characteristics off
globalization, including “endless corporate greed, low wages, sweatshops, and homogeneous
landscapes” (Brunn 64). Rural communities thus do not want Wal-Mart stores in their
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community, and if they do get one, it becomes detrimental to all those local, and Mom and Pop,
business.
There are many other spill-over effects that Wal-Mart has, additionally to hurting the
community directly. Some have to do with exploiting its employees, or simply their negative
externalities on the environment they surround. For instance, building a new Wal-Mart may add
to traffic congestion on the road on which the store is located, lengthening the time it takes some
drivers to get to work or to other responsibilities (Vedder and Cox 21). Or a second example: if
the Wal-Mart is “constructed on a pristine open meadow that was aesthetically pleasing to local
residents, and the destruction of the meadow lowers utility to many in town” (Vedder and Cox
21). In addition, there have been thousands of recorded Wal-Mart warehouses closing down just
after a few years because they are not reaching their quota (Greenwald 2005). What is left behind
is a large warehouse sized lot that stays abandoned and unutilized for years in many cases. These
closures promote and perpetuate urban “blight”, which is a term used to describe an unsafe or
unhealthy area in the city that is not utilized in an efficient manner. Blighted areas bring land
value down and so redevelopment agencies must step in to finance the rehabilitation of these
areas.
Production / Labor
As far back as the 1920s, retail chains have been accused of paying low wages, paying
fewer taxes than local merchants, and turning America into a nation of clerks. Though the
identity of large retailers has changed over time, very similar accusations are being pointed at
Wal-Mart today (Basker 178). Essential to the Wal-Mart business model is keeping a choke-hold
on operating costs. This choke-hold is on the necks of human laborers. There have been
countless accusations that Wal-Mart is a capitalistic organization where “the stores depend on a
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constant stream of workers willing to work for wages that offer little prospect of becoming
sustainable” (Dicker 80).
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) is a documentary that follows the
destructive path of the private corporation. It takes an in depth look into the lives of various WalMart “associates”, as they are titled, and shows how their lives have been altered in the years
they have worked there. The employees complained that their hourly wages were too low for the
amount of work that they were required to do. Many of these people have families to support but
their wages do not cover the health insurance offered by the corporation, let alone groceries
every week (Greenwald 2005). The film also contained interviews of shop-owners in the
Midwest that had to close down because Wal-Mart moved in. One man by the name of Jon
Hunter had founded and operated a hardware store for 43 years until he had to close down
because of the competition. Jon Hunter is only one example but many of these small business
owners that close down due to nearby Wal-Marts end up working at Wal-Mart doing what they
did in their businesses but for a lot less money. This is one of the main reasons that have given
Wal-Mart superstores such a negative reputation. They monopolize and inadvertently close out
the competition. Countless stores all across the Midwest succumb to the pressures of low price
and eventually are defeated.
Another example of mistreatment of human labor would be examining the workday of a
Wal-Mart associate in China. “Pay stubs of Chinese workers producing goods for Wal-Mart
show them punching in at 7:51 a.m. and clocking out at 4:30 a.m. the following day, putting in
20-plus hour shifts, seven days a week. These workers earn 16 cents an hour” (Roddick 6). This
would be considered living in subsequence because even though these workers are poor and
possibly live in small, cramped one-room apartments, the dollars that they earn each day is not
enough for basic food and water. There are also unethical practices that Wal-Mart uses to exploit
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these workers even more. One of the policies is that they do not allow overtime. If workers
happen to go over their shift hours, they still will not be compensated for the extra labor
(Greenwald 2005). This is clearly a violation of human and workers’ rights. These Chinese
laborers already do not get paid enough, work too long, and are exploited as laborers. It is an
unfortunate situation that laborers in China are overworked but looking at it from the corporate
side, these people need jobs anyway. If they did not choose to work at Wal-Mart manufacturing
facilities, what alternative options do they have?
Location
A factual reason behind the success of Wal-Marts is their location. The location of
megastores are planned and strategized in order to attract the most customers. The idea behind
this is called the gravity model. “Essentially, the gravity model suggests that the relative volume
of purchases by consumers at a store, and the frequency of trips to a store, is a function of the
size of the store and the distance between the store and the origin of purchasing trip” (Rams 73).
Measuring the action space of customers is a simple yet effective business model because it
projects a profitable radius to plant a new building. In short, consumers will gravitate toward
plazas and shopping malls so building along their action space will inevitably bring more
consumers to its stores.
However, the most efficient way to incorporate a Wal-Mart into the city is to have it
teetering on the edge of the city limit. This marks the “trade area” of retail companies when they
generate their business models. The reason behind this strategy is to pull customers and sales tax
revenue from neighboring and adjoining cities so as to not take away revenue from your own
city.
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Figure 1: Visualization of two trade areas encompassing projected revenue streams
It is evident, with all the scholarly sources that I have accumulated and the information I
have provided, that Wal-Mart is in fact a detriment to the community it is built upon. However,
in addition to the information provided, I have also done research and experiments of my own to
prove that my thesis is true and that Wal-Mart, although it has a positive effect on a macro level,
community life suffers greatly.
Research Design
In order to prove that my thesis is factual, there was much research to be done. My
primary goal was to figure out the economic impacts of a Wal-Mart superstore on the
community. I did this by asking specific questions like: how is the city infrastructure affected?
How do cities benefit or what may be the costs of having a Wal-Mart in a city? And finally, how
do residents feel about having a Wal-Mart nearby? To answer these questions I conducted
research using three principal methods: archival research, an interview with an important city
figure of San Diego, and surveys and observations that I have completed as evidence to support
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my thesis. Each of these techniques is unique and provides a base for primary and secondary
sourcing. Primary and secondary sourcing, in this case, are important comparisons because there
are indeed positive and negative externalities to Wal-Mart but one cannot fully come to a
conclusion without a first-hand look at the corporation.
The major source of information for this study has already been extracted from previous
findings. My main objective for looking at this type of data is to compare Wal-Mart at a
macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective. At the macroeconomic level, the data has
included information such as annual revenue, cost of production of goods, government subsidies
and other types of statistics. With this information, the numbers have demonstrated that the city
is ultimately benefitting from the revenue generated from the low pricing. At the microeconomic
level, however, Wal-Marts are detrimental to the communities they are built upon. Gas prices,
home and property values, and other microeconomic factors are affected by Wal-Marts.
Internationally, the research archives have additionally followed Wal-Mart into the foreign
borders of China, where their base of production is located. The workers in China play a key role
in the corporation’s economic footprint.
The second approach to this study was my interview with Jack McGrory, a former city
manager of San Diego. Using him as an interviewing subject has allowed me to see the bigger
picture of the effect that big-box retail stores, like Wal-Mart, have on our very own city of San
Diego. I have, of course, first and foremost inquired about the work he has done for the city of
San Diego, as well as his personal thoughts on this topic of big-box mega stores. In addition to
that, however, I have also asked him logistical and technical questions regarding traffic, sales tax
revenue, and the political decision in building a Wal-Mart in San Diego. This interview is
significant for my paper as it concrete evidence of the negative effects of a Wal-Mart to a
community, as it is coming from a leader/ manager of the city itself.
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The last method I used for this study was surveying San Diegans and as well as my own
observations in this topic. The survey was conducted in the neighborhood of Clairemont Mesa,
which is located in San Diego. Clairemont Mesa is primarily residential and is easily accessible
from the 805 freeway. The surveys given to residents of nearby communities enhanced the
findings by presenting public opinion. Of course there are positive aspects as well as negative
stigmas to Wal-Mart but the reaction from those most affected by the location of these stores also
need to be taken into consideration. The purpose of this survey was to gather the opinions of the
residents in a Wal-Mart community and expose their general attitudes towards these stores. One
example of the types of questions I posed was, “How often do you shop at Wal-Mart?” Similar
questions included a scale from 1 to 5 to get a more accurate reading. Of course the survey was,
to my best ability, unbiased and more simplistic to not confuse or make the homeowner feel
uncomfortable. The questionnaire also incorporated many Yes/No questions to easily find a
percentage of those for or against Wal-Mart’s strategic location. Examples of these questions
were, “Do you like the close proximity to Wal-Mart?” or “Have you ever been employed by a
Wal-Mart?” A full outline of the survey is presented in Appendix A.
In order to generate an accurate representation of public opinion, a random sample of
about 12 suburban residents were used. The twelve households surveyed represent a small
sample of families living in a large city, specifically San Diego. They were selected at random
down a narrow neighborhood street, all within a block from the Wal-Mart store. This sample
population cannot be compared to a rural community because the dynamic between city and
country are economically and socially different.
In addition, with using observation as a method to answering the question of this paper,
this approach has sent me into the field to record what really goes on at Wal-Mart. By observing
the facility inside and out, I was able to grasp a better feel for the kind of service they provide,
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the materials in each department and, of course, the famous low prices. I, again, tried to arrive
there with an unbiased state of mind so I could have the feel of a normal everyday consumer and
shop for low prices.
Findings and Analysis
Interview
To further understand the economic impact of Wal-Mart in the community, I was able to
arrange an interview with a former city manager of San Diego, Jack McGrory, to record his
experiences with incorporating large retail establishments. Currently, McGrory is the director of
the Manchester Financial Building, which lands under the umbrella of the Manchester Financial
Group. His company acquires, develops and manages high-profile properties throughout the
United States. Throughout his professional career, he has assumed countless managerial
positions including notable offices such as: Executive Vice President of Real Estate and
Development of PriceSmart Inc., Chairman of Price Legacy Corp., and of course, City Manager
of San Diego from 1991 to 1997.
I opened the interview by asking McGrory to describe the process of bringing a Wal-Mart
store into a certain location. He informed me that it was not the City that sought out the
incorporation of these store but the Wal-Marts themselves that came to him. The real estate
representatives from the corporation will generally come in and request opening up a location in
a particular spot. Generally the agents come prepared with approximately three proposed
locations, which were configured through surveys the company conducted prior to the meeting.
It was McGrory’s job to work with the company to point out immediate concerns that the
community may have had or if the parcel of land had any historical importance that needed to be
preserved. He admitted that at first, Wal-Mart business ventures were a bit bull-headed because
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they did not fully take into account all the potential impacts a new store would have on traffic,
infrastructure and competition from smaller stores.
The next set of interview questions continued to be logistical because he had accurate
knowledge of San Diego Wal-Mart openings. Jack McGrory, during his term as City Manager,
worked with two superstores; one located in East San Diego, and the other residing on Palm
Avenue in South San Diego. The process of entitlement into the proposed site, from start to
finish, took between twelve months to eighteen months. In addition, I also asked about the sales
tax revenue the stores generated. McGrory could remember back in the nineties when sales tax
revenue was nearly two to three million a year but his guess now would be annual revenues of
twice as much since his time. He also included the idea that the sales tax could be largely
connected to cannibalizing sales tax from surrounding smaller stores. As presented earlier, these
stores could very well be cannibalizing the same sales tax that was accrued from other stores. To
his knowledge, roughly 60% was attributed to new money extracted from adjacent jurisdictions
and 40% was recycled revenues.
I concluded the interview with Jack McGrory by asking his personal thoughts about the
corporation. He feels that with the right approach to generating sales tax for the city, working
with the company can be a positive tool but he would not shop there. Speaking for his
colleagues, other businesses and the public, everyone is somewhat against the company because
they are so tough on the community.
Survey
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Data was gathered from surveys administered to residential households surrounding a
Wal-Mart in Clairemont Mesa, San Diego. There were some notable findings that both satisfied
and differed from prepared hypotheses. One of the questions asked was “How often do you shop
at Wal-Mart?” Out of 12 households that took the survey, about 75% rarely or occasionally
shopped at their nearby Wal-Mart. The majority finding was similar to my expectations. Most of
the households were not regular shoppers of Wal-Mart and it is evident that having a one-stop
shop near their home does not incentivize families to shop only at this location. This objection to
shop at Wal-Mart carried on to the following question as to how satisfied the households were
with the quality of goods. Only 5 out of the 12 households were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’
with their past purchases.
Furthermore, when asked if the residents liked the close proximity of the Wal-Mart
location, more than half of the participants said that they DO NOT like how close Wal-Mart is to
their home. A related question to the close proximity was “Do you feel your city has changed
since Wal-Mart opened up?” I found that 7 out of the 12 participating households believed that
Wal-Mart had a definite effect on the city infrastructure. Although no specific details about how
the city has changed were asked, the majority of the participants that answered Yes or Slightly,
believed that the physical impact was negative.
This question is especially significant to my argument because it has revealed that WalMart is in fact affecting these residents negatively. These households were not asked to give
specific reasons why they believed the community had been affected, but when asked if they
believed that those changes were negative or positive in their opinion, most of them said
negative. Not only have we seen the logistical facts that demonstrates that Wal-Marts and
superstores have detrimental effects to communities, but now we have the opinions and beliefs of
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the residents themselves. They do not want Wal-Marts so close to their homes. The graph below
demonstrates these responses.
Change in City Dynamic?
Sample Population: 12 Households
No
42%
Negatively
33%
Yes/Slightly
58%
Positively
25%
Finally, I wanted to know if any of the residents of the Wal-Mart community had been
previously employed by Wal-Mart judging by the closeness of the store. Out of 12 respondents,
only one man had worked at a Wal-Mart before. When asked if he enjoyed his employment at
Wal-Mart, he replied, “Yes, I did.” This was shocking to find out because of all the negative
employer-employee disputes that Wal-Mart has been accused of. He justified his response by
saying that he kept busy and it was close to home.
Observation
I visited four Wal-Mart Superstores in the course of five weeks. Their locations in order
of importance were Clairemont Mesa, Mission Viejo, Huntington Beach, and Placentia. Each site
mirrored the next and all were positioned no more than a block away from residential housing.
Before entering the doors I observed the massive parking lots dedicated to each establishment
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and thought to myself what an unfortunate burden it would be on the community, if these parcels
of land ever went out of business and stayed that way for an extended period of time.
Upon entering the sliding doors in the Mission Viejo Wal-Mart store, I could
immediately see countless racks of clothing and aisles as far down as I could see. Directly to
either the left or right of each store there was a McDonalds fast-food establishment. I would
assume that this is a corporate strategy to keep or incentivize customers to come more often. Up
and down the open aisles, there were bright blue price tags that showed a relatively low price
according to the item. Lastly, located near the grocery aisle, there was an arguably large
Pharmacy available for customers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the research study has undoubtedly revealed many positive and negative
impacts that Wal-Mart has on the community. Wal-Mart stores bring in much sales tax revenue
that cities desperately need to fund various public services. These megastores bring in customers
from not only the nearby vicinity but from outside the city as well. However, these benefits and
profits come at an expensive price. These establishments require much physical maintenance, i.e.
street building, building construction, and in some locations, millions of dollars are spent in
recruiting Wal-Mart stores.
The findings from the survey were beneficial to this study because it provided a firsthand opinion of Wal-Mart superstores in a nearby community. The accuracy of the results from
the survey should not be interpreted as representing the entire city of San Diego, or the general
consensus of the United States. With a larger sample group and more Wal-Mart locations, the
survey would be more reliable. Also, the survey was conducted in a suburban setting and not in a
rural, small town community.
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This research study is beneficial to the other ongoing Wal-Mart studies because it
specifically analyzes the economic impact of Wal-Mart superstores on a community and briefly
taps into the broader microeconomic effect of other cities. Overall, there was a general negative
cloud over these large retailers because of their efficiency in operating. Just like what Robert
Greenwald’s documentary states, with the opportunity of low price comes the high cost of
community impact. “When Wal-Mart comes to town, jobs are lost, cohesive downtown
businesses are destroyed or severely damaged, urban sprawl intensifies, and a myriad of other
secondary effects occur, ranging from deterioration of the local community to loss of jobs due to
globalization and the sale of imported goods” (Vedder and Cox 2). Though there will be ongoing
negative views of Wal-Mart, the corporation has been operating efficiently since it’s inception in
1962 and will continue to offer low prices for years to come.
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Appendix A
The results for the questions asked were the following (results in red- # of people out of 12
surveys):
1. How often do you shop at Wal-Mart?
1- Never [2]
2- Rarely (only when necessary) [5]
3- Occasionally [4]
4- Relatively often (due to their low prices) [1]
5- Always (it is my store of choice) [0]
2. On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate your satisfaction with the quality of your past
purchases in Wal-Mart stores?
1- Very Dissatisfied [0]
2- Dissatisfied [2]
3- Neither [5]
4- Satisfied [4]
5- Very Satisfied [1]
3. Do you like the close proximity to Wal-Mart? Yes? No?
1- Yes, it’s very convenient to have it only a block away [4]
2- No, it’s too close for a comfortable living community [7]
1 respondent didn’t really care about the proximity. Never shops there.
4. Do you feel your city has changed since Wal-Mart appeared in your city?
1- Yes, drastically. [5]
2- Slightly. [2]
3- No, not really. [5]
a. If it has, has it changed negatively or positively?
1- Negatively [4]
2- Postively [3]
5. Have you ever been employed by a Wal-Mart?
1- Yes [1]
2- No [11]
b. If so, did you enjoy working there?
1- Yes [1]
Respondent said it was fine. He kept busy and it was close to his home.
2- No [0]
6. Would you recommend shopping there?
1- Of course. [2]
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2- Indifferent. [5]
3- Absolutely not. [5]
Works Cited
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(1997): 224. JSTOR
Brunn, Stanley D. Wal-Mart World: the World's Biggest Corporation in the Global Economy.
New York: Routledge, 2006.
Fishman, Charles. The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really
Works-- and How It's Transforming the American Economy. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Greenwald, Robert. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Video 2005). Brave New Films,
2005
Mitchell, Stacy. Big-box Swindle: the True Cost of Mega-retailers and the Fight for America's
Independent Businesses. Boston: Beacon, 2006.
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Interview
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