The Effects Of Big Box Retailers

The Effects of Big-Box Retailers Versus Mom-and-Pop Retailers

Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot: all of these are ubiquitous in the American mind and economy. Big-box supermarkets and department stores dominate the American retail industry, offering unparalleled convenience and selection and employing millions of people across the country. Their sheer presence may make it hard to imagine a time when they did not hold the prevalence they do today, but that is exactly the case for many years before their rise, their void being instead filled by smaller “mom-and-pop” retail establishments. Many accuse these huge establishments of stifling their competition into obscurity and virtual nonexistence, as well as reducing the well-being of both

Big-box stores also provide a worse and less comfortable experience compared to mom-and-pop stores, with emphasis on their lack of personalized service and their infeasibility as locations for social connection and cohesion. Furthermore, big-box stores favor only the members of a community that they can possibly make a profit from — if a person does not have the means to access a far away big-box store that has displaced other once viable options, they have little choice in their options for obtaining essential goods without expending much of their limited resources, such as their time, in order to purchase them in the first place. Additionally, these people are often in precarious positions, financially or otherwise, that make these lifestyles risky and unsustainable. For all this trouble and uncertainty, big-box stores might not even contribute as much to the economy as would be desirable, contributing less value to the economy as part of their sector than other, less controversial industries and

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