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Are you sure Wal-Mart isn't too big to fail? Do you live in a place where it is dominant? A lot of Americans do now live in such places, where Wal-Mart has ou

by jzwinck 13y ago

Are you sure Wal-Mart isn't too big to fail? Do you live in a place where it is dominant? A lot of Americans do now live in such places, where Wal-Mart has out-businessed smaller shops. If your choices of where to shop are pretty much limited to Wal-Mart, Costco, and Home Depot, where does that leave you if one of them does something really bad? Do you think the US would be all right if all the Home Depots closed tomorrow? It would not be all right. Twenty years ago there was no such thing.

btian 13y ago
I live in Boston, MA, and I have not shopped at a Wal-mart except when I was in China. I'm quite optimistic that other supermarkets will be able to fill its shoes if Wal-mart were to fail. Perhaps Wal-mart is not a good example. My point is that when a 25000 employee company in any other industry fails (size of Lehman Brothers when it failed), the ripple is much smaller, and therefore, capping the number of employees is not a good idea. I do agree, however, that TBTF is bad. No entity should be TBTF and hold the country hostage.
freehunter 13y ago
In my area (Midwest), Walmart, Costco and Home Depot have some competition that would love to pick up that slack. Meijer is a super store challenger to Walmart, with Spartan Stores/D&W/Family Fare and Kroger challenging Walmart for food. Home Depot has Lowes (pretty sure they're nationwide). Costco has Sams Club (part of Walmart) for general merchandise and GFS Marketplace for food. The real monopoly in my mind is Best Buy. I don't know how they stay open, but I certainly don't see any competitors in my area. Walmart may drive out mom and pop stores, but there are plenty of regional chains still around.
justincormack 13y ago
It wouldnt matter if it failed, someone could buy it from bankruptcy and restart it. There are no real consequences.
ams6110 13y ago
It's not like other retailers wouldn't move in pretty quickly if WalMart suddenly vanished for some reason. They are big, but they are not the only game in retail.

by jzwinck 13y ago

btian 13y ago

I live in Boston, MA, and I have not shopped at a Wal-mart except when I was in China. I'm quite optimistic that other supermarkets will be able to fill its shoes if Wal-mart were to fail. Perhaps Wal-mart is not a good example. My point is that when a 25000 employee company in any other industry fails (size of Lehman Brothers when it failed), the ripple is much smaller, and therefore, capping the number of employees is not a good idea. I do agree, however, that TBTF is bad. No entity should be TBTF and hold the country hostage.

freehunter 13y ago

In my area (Midwest), Walmart, Costco and Home Depot have some competition that would love to pick up that slack. Meijer is a super store challenger to Walmart, with Spartan Stores/D&W/Family Fare and Kroger challenging Walmart for food. Home Depot has Lowes (pretty sure they're nationwide). Costco has Sams Club (part of Walmart) for general merchandise and GFS Marketplace for food. The real monopoly in my mind is Best Buy. I don't know how they stay open, but I certainly don't see any competitors in my area. Walmart may drive out mom and pop stores, but there are plenty of regional chains still around.

justincormack 13y ago

It wouldnt matter if it failed, someone could buy it from bankruptcy and restart it. There are no real consequences.

ams6110 13y ago

It's not like other retailers wouldn't move in pretty quickly if WalMart suddenly vanished for some reason. They are big, but they are not the only game in retail.