The LA times reports on the results of the independent academic conference held to assess the economic impact of Walmart stores. It was funded by Walmart but they turned all aspects over to an independent contractor so the studies would lack bias, and it looks like it worked to Walmart's dismay.


At least two concluded that Wal-Mart stores' pay practices depressed wages beyond the retail sector. Another found that states on average spent $898 for each Wal-Mart worker in Medicaid expenses.

One study concluded that Wal-Mart's giant grocery and general merchandise Supercenters brought little net gain for local communities in property taxes, sales taxes and employment; instead, the stores merely siphoned sales from existing businesses in the area.

It is also a wonderful Give Up story. Some people are dyed-in-the-wool defenders of WalMart, it's bizarre, but they're only screwing themselves by supporting the building of these stores in their area.

Worse yet, he wrote, is Wal-Mart's influence in the South, where it has its greatest concentration of stores. There, Neumark and his coauthors found, Wal-Mart has decreased retail employment and total employment.

Ha! A curse on you! A pox! A hex! A WalMart!