As with A &P and Montgomery Ward great big-box hater writer Stacy Mitchel predicts the Wal-Mart empire will fall. The costs of growth will impede this company and recently they announced their first massive store closings mostly in rural elderly areas in America that this company no longer wishes to serve. The closure of one hundred and fifty four stores opened the eyes of investors to realize that Wal-Mart is headed to become K Mart and the big box low-wage concept is falling flat n its face as the workers most likely to be loyal to the place where they work can no longer afford to shop as often. Mitchell compared the fall of Montgomery Ward which struggled for fifty years before it was taken off life support with Wal-Mart current decline as the company is designed to quickly tap the reserves of an area an then pull out like an oil drilling company. This us a company that business plan was to drive local small-business out of an area and then lower their wages and use their lobbying power to fight a fifteen dollar minimum wage.
Those decades saw the company undergo various retrenchments, corporate takeovers, and attempted reinventions. “A very difficult retail environment simply did not permit us to complete the turnaround that might have been possible,” Montgomery Ward’s last CEO still maintained on the day the lights finally went out, 84 years after the retailer opened its first store. Mitchell also states there is some good news for the small business that survived the invasion species known as Wal-Mart through the years as they restock their shelves and anticipate more foot traffic with Wal-Mart leaving some of these small towns hopefully for good. In urban centers too Wal-Mart is in trouble closing many express stores and finding it difficult to sell stuff to high earning young people whose idea of a weekend entertainment does not include spending a couple of hours walking through the aisles of Wal-Mart.
Stacy Mitchel aside from being hot is a great vocalist against the destructiveness of corporate dominating monopolistic capitalism and should be read and listened to has much as possible on her knowledge of the joke that is the big-box all in one store. The idea that these companies tripled their size in such a short time saturating themselves with the un-private way of shopping is one that is going away as people return to trendy areas and smaller stores and downtowns.
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