https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/walmart-prices-poverty-economy/681122/
Walmart’s many defenders argue that the company is a boon to poor and middle-class families, who save thousands of dollars every year shopping there.
Two new research papers challenge that view. Using creative new methods, they find that the costs Walmart imposes in the form of not only lower earnings but also higher unemployment in the wider community outweigh the savings it provides for shoppers.
I am shocked, shocked I tell ya.
1998
A season later after this, Hank and everyone else have become completely indifferent to shopping at the Megalow Mart, most likely due to local business being driven out or becoming complacent treat hogs due to the low prices.
A show truly ahead of its time for noticing the obvious patterns of the time. This mirrors my shitty small southern US town's experience of having Walmart come to town. A surprising amount of resistance (mostly from local business owners), then a complacency and even appreciation for the beast that devoured the local economy, because of the SAVINGS.
Then the Megalow Mart explodes in a fatal but preventable accident.
Truly a tale of Capitalism at its finest.