Didn’t the supermarkets kill the bakery, the butcher and the green grocer a few decades ago? What makes them sacred now? They replaced family owned and operated businesses and they may get replaced by the walmarts and costco’s, in time walmart will be replaced by whatever the next concept is. Niche’s will flourish in their wake, trader joes does nicely where walmart isn’t looking. There’s no reason to hate one and like another, the Spanish Armada no longer rules the seas and I don’t see anyone crying about that, things change.
On a personal note, I have a superwalmart near me, I like it. If I’m short on time, I can knock out a few errands in one place, use less gas and less time, novel concept. Maybe the grocery stores will adapt, maybe they wont, but if they don’t, they will be replaced. Have you ever needed some food and a light bulb. Why does the grocery store rape you for the lightbulb on price? Because they are banking on you being lazy. If anything, the superwalmart has forced my favorite grocery store to play along, my grocery bill is lower even if I don’t go to walmart.
It’s happening with television. Cable, dish, directTv, verizon fios, att. Throw them all in a room and let them fight it out, they don’t get my business because I think they are neato, they have to earn it with price and service. Who has ever switched to one television provider because they give their employees better benefits, when has that conversation taken place? 20 years ago I paid some horrible amount of money for long distance calls, calling a friend in the next county for an hour would cost more than dinner. Now it’s almost free, I’m not sure they even have itemized billing. Change isn’t always bad.
It also happened with real estate, we just had a buyers revolt, a big one. The consumers said No (or had to say no because prices got out of reach), and the prices changed as a result.
