You've gotta admire Wal-Mart from a business success story. Like many other companies who have grown from nothing to dominant very quickly, there are lessons to be learned by studying their successes.
And I'll buy a lot of things from them....basically anything that is a commodity or disposable where you're going to be buying solely based on price anyway.
However, they do often have a negative impact on towns of all sizes. They can kill all of the small retailers in a small town just by showing up.
Out in the burbs they cause different issues. They have a nasty habit of opening a Wal-Mart then as the area grows, they'll abandon that building to go to a larger one leaving behind an empty eyesore. And then if that is successful, in some cases, they'll abandon yet another building to build a Super Wal-mart.
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