[Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass destruction

[R Williams]

My experience, Carolyn, of small retail stores in my small East Texas town (which is not that far from Ada, OK) is that they run their businesses like a "Field of Dreams" with an "open it and they will come" mentality.  They put out the merchandise and take the money--no marketing, no merchandising, no service and no knowledge of products and inventory.  Frequently you ask for something, they tell you they don't have it, they offer no alternatives, and then you walk two aisles over and find precisely the product you had asked about.  We're working with the local chamber of commerce to remedy this.
   
  Randy

Carolyn Antenen <cantenen at mac.com> wrote:
  Fascinating study. My entrepreneurial mind wonders:

Why did the chain store win over the customers of the original 3 stores?
What needs or wants did the 3 smaller stores not fulfill?
Were they innovative and responsive?
Did they take out too much capital and not reinvest in resources?
What did 1 chain store do better than 3 different local stores?

Cincinnati has local groceries that compete very well with Kroger:
through better quality products, better service, better displays, 
better prepared food deli, and many other
creative approaches.

Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have gone to national scale because of 
superior innovations over Kroger and Safeway.
Now the creative local stores have become the latest large chain.

Carolyn Antenen

On Apr 8, 2008, at 5:34 PM, Bill Bailey wrote:

> Ada, Oklahoma (1974) the Chamber of Commerce & the OKC house did a 
> joint
> study of what happened to Ada's economy over the past 10 years. In 
> 1964 Ada
> had three local owned grocery stores; one on the north side, one on 
> the
> south side, and one in the town center. Each of the three stores 
> was owned
> and operated by two local families. Each store provided summer and 
> afternoon
> jobs for high school kids.
>
> In 1968 a large grocery store chain opened owned and operated by a 
> firm
> headquarter in Dallas Texas. The managerial staff of the store 
> lived in
> Oklahoma City and commuted to Ada on a weekly basis. The new store 
> hired
> local workers from Ada at minimum wages, but none of the managerial 
> staff
> participated in the economic, political, or cultural structures of 
> Ada. The
> goods for the super market all came from the outside and the 
> profits were
> sent out of state.
>
> By 1972 all three locally owned grocery stores had closed, but the 
> super
> market still provided some jobs for after school and summer jobs 
> for a few
> high school kids.
>
> The Chamber concluded that Ada had lost the economic, political and 
> cultural
> benefits to the city of:
> 
> 1. Six residential families,
> 2. A market for some locally produced food items,
> 3. A down turn in citizen's presence in town center, and
> 4. A small number of summer jobs for high school kids.
>
> This was just one simple story of what can happen when the chain (box)
> stores come to town. Instead of circulating locally, the money and 
> business
> decisions no longer support the quality of life and economic growth 
> of the
> local community.
>
>
>
>
>
> Bill Bailey
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] 
> On Behalf
> Of David Dunn
> Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:16 PM
> To: OE Community
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Wal-Mart and the weapons of mass 
> destruction
>
> On 4/8/08 1:04 PM, "Marianna Bailey" wrote:
>
>> Let's not forget the economic principles that we used in human 
>> development
>> projects.Money should circulate 5 times before it leaves a 
>> community. When
>> Wal-Mart comes into a town small family owned businesses that have 
>> been
> their
>> for several generations go out of business. The family owned business
>> circulated the money 5 times and use to pay living wages. Wal-Mart 
>> pays
> low
>> wages and the money leaves the community everyday. What we gain 
>> short term
> by
>> low prices does not reflect the long term consequences of our local
> economy.
>
> This is the story of Burna's hometown, Ironwood, MI--on the decline 
> because
> of a whole system of factors, but Wal-Mart didn't help. The 
> downtown has
> been dying for many years.
>
> David
>
> -- 
> David Dunn
> dmdunn1 at gmail.com
> 720-314-5991
> Skype: dmirror
> www.mirrorcommunication.com
>
> -- Please note new "GMAIL" address --
>
>
>
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Carolyn Antenen
cantenen at mac.com




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