Why Walmart’s Death Grip on Our Food System Is Intensifying Poverty

Date: 27 Mar 2013 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

When Michelle Obama visited a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, a few weeks ago to praise the company’s efforts to sell healthier food, she did not say why she chose a store in Springfield of all cities. But, in ways that Obama surely did not intend, it was a fitting choice. This Midwestern city provides a chilling look at where Walmart wants to take our food system. … Read More

Wal-Mart Destroys Social Capital, Study Finds

Date: 22 Jan 2007 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

"Our results indicate that the presence of Wal-Mart depresses social capital stocks in local communities," concluded Goetz and Rupasingha in their study, which was published by the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. The implications include both a weakened social fabric and "real costs for communities in the form of reduced economic growth."

The study examined both communities in which new Wal-Mart stores were built in the 1990s and those that already had a Wal-Mart at the beginning of the decade. The study controlled for other variables known to affect social capital stocks in a community, such as educational attainment.

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