September 3, 2005

Wal-Mart and the Death of the American Labor Movement

By Richard Baehr
Weekend Holiday Classic   For many years, civil rights advocates have complained that major commercial chains— supermarkets and department stores, avoided locating stores in inner city neighborhoods.  Now Wal—Mart has decided to enter these neighborhoods. But the welcome mat has not been thrown out for them.    Residents of inner city neighborhoods often have to travel downtown today for department store shopping.  In many older cities in the East and Midwest, some downtown department stores have closed, as city and shopper populations declined, following decades of suburban flight.  Without area supermarkets, inner city residents have relied on smaller neighborhood grocery stores, where most items sell at substantially higher prices than in supermarkets. So Wal—Mart would seem to fill the 'shopping gap' for inner city residents.   In most of America, shopping means Wal—Mart. America's largest employer (other than the...(Read Full Article)