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Wal-Mart's Impact On Obesity And Food Costs

669 Words3 Pages

We were asked to identify two peer review articles and to examine and detail the economic and/or social benefits/drawbacks of this big box retailer as discussed in these works and to detail how these findings could apply to inform our Walmart scenario discussed in previous modules. The articles I chose focused on two different analysis of Walmart. The first article by Courtemanche (2011), examines the impact of Walmart on body mass index and obesity. It also examines a relationship between the increased cost of medical care due to obesity in contrast to reduced food costs that supercenters deliver and how that affects the bottom line in total household expenditures in a given period. The second article, by Meeks (2011), looks at …show more content…

Increased obesity has a direct impact on the cost of medical care in America causing increases in high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke and other related illnesses. However, the increased costs in medical services due to poor health and illness caused by more affordable and accessible food does not outweigh the cost savings experienced in overall reduction in food costs. Even though this study indicates that medical cost increases do not outweigh food cost reductions, I could not in good conscious suggest to my region of interest in the Southeast that locating a Walmart in that area is necessarily beneficial. With heart disease and related illnesses being so prevalent in low income, poverty stricken, predominately black areas already, this study gave me even more incentive to not encourage the attraction of a Walmart Supercenter to various Blackbelt regions of the US, instead to continue to encourage sustainable, organic and other more healthy alternative means to supply food to the region. That is like saying to a population, you will die faster but you will die with a few more dollars in your

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