07-25-2013, 10:52 PM
john dough wrote:
When Wal-Mart opened in my area, a mom + pop store that was locally owned and run by some very nice people was driven to close (they were within 3 blocks of that store and a majority of the customers started shopping at the WM - according to the owner). That store was around for 15 years and everyone knew the family that ran it, and since then (about 2 years ago), the old store is still vacant.
there's a tendency to romanticize mom + Pop stores. remember, mom and pop may have done okay but they often did not employ hundreds of people, pay much more than minimum wage, or provide health insurance and other benefits.