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Have you been to a small town in rural America?! Walmart In many communities is the town square and effectively the only retailer other than maybe a dollar stor
by digitaltrees 7y ago
Have you been to a small town in rural America?! Walmart In many communities is the town square and effectively the only retailer other than maybe a dollar store.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoDoes most of America live in small towns? With a 82% urbanization rate, it doesn’t really seem that way.
- blihp 7y agoI suspect that when most people refer to small towns they are implicitly including most suburban areas which are a big chunk of that 82%. (i.e. there are a lot of cities that don't have a significant downtown population but have massive suburban sprawl)
- digitaltrees 7y agoSmall towns are urban. They are not classified rural (ie unincorporated)
- EpicEng 7y agoThat doesn't make them a monopoly; it makes them a preferred option by consumers. In the US, antitrust laws are concerned with vertical domination of a market. The consumers of these small towns made a _choice_.
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoIt makes them an effective because Walmart will lower prices to put other stores out of business.
- EpicEng 7y agoAre they losing money on it? Lowering prices to compete isn't a crime.
- digitaltrees 7y agoIt is a crime if the intent is to gain so much market share that pricing power is achieved at which point predatory pricing is pursued. This is an old business model; operate at a loss until your competition is driven out of business and then sit back and collect windfall profits. This was one of the main drivers of anti trust policy to begin with.
- EpicEng 7y agoI understand that, "operate at a loss" being the key component there. Is that what's happening?
- stale2002 7y agoLower prices is explicitly what the government encourages. You are describing a benefit, not a drawback.
- digitaltrees 7y agoNot if it is part of a pattern of anti competitive practices. If you lower prices with the intent of putting competitors out of business that is not competition.
- yeahitslikethat 7y agoWith a Claire's, subway, and little Ceasars pizza in the strip mall with it.
- skybrian 7y agoEven small towns have lots of choices when buying things online, which is what the article is about.
- kbenson 7y agoFrom what I've been hearing[1], you might want to consider the "maybe" in "maybe a dollar store". At 15,000 stores, there's probably a Dollar General in every community with a Walmart as well as every community in the surrounding 200 miles. 1: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=702679681 https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...