Wal-Mart is not the Antichrist

This morning I watched "Cashing In" on Fox News, and someone named David Nelson said Wal-Mart was the Antichrist. Everyone else on the panel vehemently disagreed with him, but Nelson didn't back down.

He then spouted off some left-wing talking points about the world's largest corporation, including such awful offal that it destroys competition.

The first rule of capitalism is that businesses are supposed to fail.

Wal-Mart came up because it's appears likely that the retail king may soon greatly expand its presence within Chicago--where it has just one store.

Much of Chicago is plagued by "food deserts," areas where residents have to travel great distance to find a supermarket so they can pay reasonable prices for groceries. Safeway-owned Dominick's closed a bunch of Chicago stores two years ago, and the leading area grocer, Jewel, has not filled the void. What you'll find in the deserts are 19th century style mom-and-pop stores, the types of outlets that were greatly diminished by the rise of grocers such as Safeway.

So Wal-Mart, a 21st century operation, only wishes to supplant an 1800s business model.

Who will benefit?

The new employees, shoppers, and the government bodies collecting taxes on each sale.

In short, everyone.

Why can't David Nelson figure that out?

Related posts:

Wal-Mart: Undercover journalist likes what he sees, and fighting "food deserts"

Food deserts continue to plague Chicago

Chicago's "food deserts" well known to Obama

My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

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