The Two Faces of Wal-Mart (Bill Bowden Editor’s Note)

Two documentary films premiered in mid-November presenting both sides of the Wal-Mart argument. Both of these films are preaching to their respective choirs.

In Northwest Arkansas, we’ve heard all this before. Wal-Mart crushes small businesses. Forget that Sears, Kmart and even supermarket chains like A&P had started that trend decades earlier. And, was it really Wal-Mart that put mom out of business, or did the consumers do that?

Can it all be blamed on Wal-Mart? Isn’t Home Depot displacing family hardware stores? Zales taking the shine out of the mom-and-pop jewelry shops? The Sports Authority kicking local sporting goods stores square in the grass?

Other companies have also figured out that purchasing power makes it possible for them to sell goods cheaper. This is the state of retail in the 21st century. It’s a global business with complex supply chains to make sure your favorite toothpaste is always on the shelf. We can’t turn the clock back to the days of Dobie Gillis and his dad’s corner grocery store. The small shops that thrive in today’s retail environment are selling goods that Wal-Mart doesn’t sell.

Yes, Wal-Mart’s prices are so cheap it’s like we each have an extra $2,000 every year. And yes, Wal-Mart doesn’t pay the little people squat. But they’re not forced to work there. In most towns there are other employment opportunities.

Basically, Wal-Mart played the capitalism game and won (at least for now). So we have a gaggle of mostly union-funded hate groups attacking Wal-Mart and calling for new rules. With more than 1 million employees, Wal-Mart is attractive to its union detractors.

The vast majority of Wal-Mart stores are just plain … well, plain. They’re big boxes. That’s about it.

I’m not happy about the demise of downtowns. I frequently drive through the small towns of Arkansas when it would be faster to take the interstates. But I’m afraid we’re about to lose something important, something we’ll never get back. These old downtowns are snaggle-toothed with empty buildings and peeling paint, with memories of what we believe were better times.

I often stop to take pictures along the way. In Huntsville, I saw a very old sign painted on the side of a downtown building. It read “Huntsville Hardware: Ammunition, Saddles, Radios.” What else does a person really need? In east Arkansas, I recently took pictures of the Brinkley Drug Store sign. A woman came out of the store and told me they were about to take it down. It had been there since the 1950s, an eyesore jutting into the Delta skyline.

Downtowns are becoming office zones — if they’re lucky.

But is that Wal-Mart’s fault? Does it make sense to have stores that are only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., when most people are at work? Sam Walton knew that wasn’t practical for most people, so his stores stayed open late. They were also built on the edge of town where land was cheap and parking was free.

The stores may not remind us of downtown America’s bygone heyday, but the speed with which Wal-Mart got supplies to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina certainly should. It was a spirit of community and caring that can’t be denied.

Many of Wal-Mart’s products are made overseas, of course, and we often hear that conditions in some of those factories are deplorable. That may be true. It’s almost impossible to police such things. The flip side of that argument is that, somehow, Wal-Mart is building those countries up and making an economic power out of China.

Wal-Mart makes mistakes. Every company does. But, from what I’ve seen, Wal-Mart tries harder than most to do the right thing. Just ask someone living along the Gulf Coast.

Related:
• Wal-Mart Among ‘Most Charitable’ As Critics Wage PR War
• ‘Outfoxed’ Director, Others Set Sights on Wal-Mart
• Wal-Mart Critic Begins Week-long PR Campaign