Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty (2004)
Topics: Community Impact | Economic/Small Business | Hiring an Expert
This Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology study from Pennsylvania State University, examined the impact of Wal-Mart stores on county-level family poverty, and found “the presence of Wal-Mart unequivocally raised family poverty rates in US counties during the 1990s relative to places that had no such stores. This was true not only as a consequence of existing stores in a county in 1987, but it was also an independent outcome of the location of new stores between 1987 and 1998.” The study suggests three possible reasons for these findings: 1) poverty rates rise when displaced retail workers have no alternative but to work at Wal-Mart for less pay 2) a reduction in charitable help for the poor results from the loss of local businesses 3) destroying a local class of entrepreneurs eliminates the social problem-solving ability that once came from local leadership.
