They get tax abatements because they employ a large number of new workers, both in the construction and in the operation of their superstores.
That tax revenue from those who work there offset any lost revenue from the abatement and is used as an incentive, Usually where a Wally’s opens, a Lowe’s or Home Depot follows...more jobs. MORE JOBS than the mom and pop stores ever provide, and at better benefits, too. As for the unionized groceries? They’re expensive, and when people go to Wal-Mart instead it puts another union=dominated business on notice that to survive they’ll have to somehow bust the union.
The reasons people oppose Wal-Mart are many and varied, and all bad reasons. The most odious are the NIMBY knockers who want their bucolic little areas to remain so. Well, you cannot stop progress or halt development. If you don’t like it, move somewhere else.
Good grief. Guess what? I liked my bucolic little America the way it was when I grew up and I do not like the change --- this trend to overbearing big government (even a government-capitalism-tax-revenue complex) but I'll be damned if I'm going to cut and run, but rather fight for what is right.
They get tax abatements because they employ a large number of new workers, both in the construction and in the operation of their superstores.
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I stopped reading after the first sentence. The part time jobs they provide are at the expense of stable full time jobs with benefits. The jobs are not additional new jobs to the area, the are simply moved from one location to the other. Sales tax revenues are not increased in the long run. When you have a Walmart food center open, another food store closes. I’m not naive enough to buy the theory touted by Walmartist’s that because a Walmart moves in all of a sudden people eat that much more food. NO - it’s business taken from somewhere else. The tax revenue abatements and givebacks never seem to pan out 10-20 years down the road. The benefits are channeled directly to Bentonville.
The scholarships they offer sound grand until you figure it based as a percentage of gross sales. Then they’re pathetic.
The insurance they offer is laughable.
Their charitable donations as a percentage of gross sales doesn’t equal a fraction of the local donations and support the communities received from the “evil” local businesses.
Bottom line - A Free market entity does not subsidize one business at the expense of another. If you believe that you’re living in the wrong country!