The Wal-Mart Effect

Numeric life sums up a study on Wal-Mart from Discover magazine:

A group of Penn State agricultural economists find in (US) counties with new Wal-Mart stores, the usage of food-stamps is 100% higher. They blame Wal-Mart causing the collapse of mom-and-pop local business networks and low wages.

Maaaybe Wal-Mart simply builds new stores in counties that already use lots of food stamps, but I doubt it. Once you're an employee of Wal-Mart, you can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart. And get your insurance through Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart becomes a form of company store for some people. I highly recommend the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price for anyone interested in such stuff.