I think the bigger issue not given enough attention to is that the town is dying in general. If young people are leaving in droves and business are closing left

I think the bigger issue not given enough attention to is that the town is dying in general. If young people are leaving in droves and business are closing left and right, that's not the sign of a healthy town at all. From the article I got the impression that the town boomed as a coal town, but we all know that the industry is declining now. The town needs to revitalize itself somehow or accept that once its natural resources are no longer enough, maybe it can't be sustained. (there are plenty of ghost towns in the US that were once sites of gold or oil riches) Regarding Walmart though, this article demonstrates painfully well the cold soul of a corporation. Lots of megacorps love touting that they are people-first or refer to themselves as a "family", but the truth of the matter is that they have no loyalty: once the profits aren't large enough, they start axing jobs. (note I'm not saying they should run an unprofitable business, but in general it seems they prefer to fire employees and cut salaries rather than paying the CEO less exorbitantly or trying to run leaner and at a cost for a while for the economy to get better; you won't improve it by giving the local populace less money) Walmart especially comes in displacing local businesses, hiring hundreds and creating a strong dependency on themselves. Like a parasite, it enters an area and drains its resources, and once it runs dry it moves elsewhere. The sad truth of it all is that at the end of the day, everyone cares about getting cheap goods rather than studying the local economic effects of allowing such a business to encroach on their town. The suits will just tell you that, at the end of the day, it's just capitalism. And maybe that says more about the soul of America than it does just about Walmart.