Walmart has a very strategic business model…. Always has.

In the beginning it was…

1. Have company’s / manufacturers fight for your business, while they shave their profit margins to win a spot on the shelf.
2. Low paying wages and undershot the 40 hour a week minimum required to provide health insurance.

Results… Puts the squeeze on mom and pop shops in rural areas. Reduces selection of all products and therefore monopolizes town/area/region. Prepares them to accept a lower quality, foreign made product.
1st wave of mom and pop shops start closing down on Main Street America.

Two pronged effect proves very favorable to this biz model. Both manufacturers AND independent mom and pop retail stores are losing profits. Which directly impacts their ability to pay decent wages/retain employees/provide benefits.

Stage 2…. Conquer every market with total dependency
Now that they have corners the market on cheap products with high margins.. expand to every market possible 5000 stores in USA employ more the 1.6 million people.
Most in early years again, make low wages compared to counterparts in other large retail corporations, with few benefits if any at all. Priming the pump for a demographic that wants and needs government provided healthcare.

Test a biz model that requires fewer employees and greater opportunity for profits in a “Warehouse” style biz model. Where consumer “pays you” to shop. … the birth of Sam’s Club.

Stage 3…. Now that most all small independent brick and mortar businesses in rural America have closed and Main Street America is desolate and years of lessons learned from Sam’s Club time to switch gears.
Convenient pandemic pushes even more customers to Walmart via online shopping and the last remaining mom and pop shops..including grocers and butcher shops are hit hard with their inability to pivot in a cost effective way while continuing to compete with the Walmart giant. …. Don’t forget pandemic policies played right to there hand by shutting down small retail businesses across the USA Walmart begins eliminating products that do not hit streamlined profit margins as it reduces face to face interaction with employees via mobilization of online ordering and pick up/instacart delivery. Now there’s no need to pay employees a wage, as they are strictly working for tips. Now is the time to eliminate employees/ high wages.
Offer stocking positions in small rural markets extremely high wages. .. almost $16 per hour where we live. This will drain employees from other employers as the shift from biz shut downs to reopening occurs. Restaurants, bars, manufacturers, farmers, municipalities…. All struggling to compete for employees not only the government incentives to NOT work, but as they choose to work, they will choose to work fewer hours at higher rates further killing our small town communities.

In my opinion, Walmart leads the way as one of the most invasive retail strategies EVER!! And this is why we ALL need to stop shopping big biz.