Wal*Mart Keeps Poor People Poor
by Joe Pulcinella
Or so The Nation would have you think. Seems that marketing low prices to those who could really use them most is a no-no in the eyes of those that fancy themselves as "progressive."
That's not a mistake the big-box behemoth is likely to make again. Wal-Mart knows its customers, and it knows how badly they need the discounts. Like Wal-Mart's workers, its customers are overwhelmingly female, and struggling to make ends meet. Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the landmark sex-discrimination case against the company, points out that Wal-Mart takes out ads in her local paper the same day the community's poorest citizens collect their welfare checks. "They are promoting themselves to low-income people," she says. "That's who they lure. They don't lure the rich.... They understand the economy of America. They know the haves and have-nots. They don't put Wal-Mart in Piedmonts. They don't put Wal-Mart in those high-end parts of the community. They plant themselves right in the middle of Poorville."
Uh, and what did these people have before Wal*Mart came along? According to Liza Featherstone, people can't be trusted to enter into consentual, mutually beneficial transactions with one another or with corporations. My bet is that Liza doesn't need to shop at Wal*Mart and doesn't associate with those who do.
Thanks to Art Carden at The Mises Institute blog for the tipoff.