Courser Says Wal-Mart Debate Nothing New

Not surprisingly, a study released in December by the conservative, business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute says Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville is good for American consumers and the U.S. economy.

Zachary Courser, the author of the study titled “Wal-Mart and the Politics of American Retail,” says the current public debate surrounding Wal-Mart is nothing new — that it is typical of responses to changes in the retail sector.

“Americans have always met changes to their retail economy with fear and loathing,” wrote Courser, who is an instructor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “Despite the tremendous benefits in value, efficiency and service that have accrued to the consumer through the passing of each era of retailing, Americans do not react well to such change.”

The report also looked at whether or not Wal-Mart is good for America; how Wal-Mart treats its employees; and its effect on the American economy, small towns and small retailers.

Bottom line? Consumers benefit from the company’s innovation, Wal-Mart is very much in line with the rest of the American retail sector in terms of benefits and pay, and that the decline of Main Street retail “is not caused by Wal-Mart per se, but is part of a larger overall change in consumer habits.”

Where the company is failing, Courser says, “is in its belated recognition of its obligation to engage in open communication with citizens about its business practices and as to why it ultimately provides a benefit to American consumers and to the broader American economy.”

We agree with much of the report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Wal-Mart is in business to make money. That’s the American way. Wal-Mart does that better than any retailer in history.

Frankly, we have a hard time understanding the animosity toward Wal-Mart, since the average American can save thousands each year by shopping there. No one is being forced at gunpoint to shop at Wal-Mart or to work at Wal-Mart. We all have a choice. Most people simply want to find the best deals and save money.

We do understand the union-backed campaigns that feed on the fear of change that Courser writes about. But if he’s right, someday we’ll have another company rise up through the use of some new technology and do retail better than Wal-Mart, and we’ll go through this cycle again.

Maybe the backlash against Wal-Mart will end then. And we won’t have to be concerned about where Jesus would shop.