It's tucked away just a bit north of I-290 on Niagara Falls Boulevard, hidden behind a thick layer of trees like it's trying to keep a secret, marked only with a single, plain sign. Though when you turn up the driveway and get past the trees, the gleaming, ubiquitous Wal-Mart fa?\0xA4ade smacks you with a bright low-priced guarantee on anything you could imagine in its big blue monolith, surrounded by, well, nothing. Buffalo's first Wal-Mart did indeed bring its own brand of deals to the area, but the constantly full Amherst Wal-Mart lot draws a stark comparison with the growing number of empty lots in many other Buffalo-area businesses. Wal-Mart is regarded by some as a model of capitalism, but a growing number of citizens and responsible consumers are standing up to the juggernaut, recognizing the deleterious effect Wal-Mart has on the economy, jobs and in their communities.
Since this first Wal-Mart was built in 1994, two more regular Wal-Marts and a Wal-Mart Supercenter have opened in Erie County, undercutting local businesses. The jobs they provide are not as good as the jobs they ruin; Wal-Mart jobs are part-time with low wages and no benefits for the most part. On Wednesday, developers dropped plans to build the first New York City Wal-Mart, bending to pressures of unions, neighborhood groups, and small business owners. Other recent victories include towns in Pennsylvania, California and Florida, where groups have blocked rezoning ordinances preventing Wal-Mart construction in heretofore untouched land, a recovering gravel pit, and in locations where a Supercenter would lead to problematic traffic volume. These groups' success is tempered by Wal-Mart expansion in Mexico and other states, but it shows citizen groups can stand up to the financial might of Wal-Mart.
It's not that Wal-Mart is all bad. It offers many one-stop shopping and cheaper prices than its competitors, two aspects that make it a poor college student's dream. The problem is Wal-Mart uses a business model that goes beyond competition: it strives to create a monopoly. Wal-Mart is able to undercut its competition, by a long shot, by buying a majority of the products it carries from overseas manufacturers in Asia and Latin America, taking business away from American manufacturers. While this is a typical tactic of discount retailers, Wal-Mart takes its competition beyond undercutting American manufacturers; it destroys or absorbs the services smaller businesses provide a community.
A Supercenter offers more than the typical departments a Wal-Mart would hold. These mega-complexes offer a discount retailer, a grocery store, gas station, auto service center and pharmacy all under one roof. Sure it's convenient, but Wal-Mart has the reserves to undercut any competition, losing money by offering certain services and drawing money away from smaller, local operations. A drive down Niagara Falls Boulevard or Transit Road shows a bustling strip of chain restaurants, malls and Wal-Marts, but looking closer and you see the small grocery store that closed this year in Tonawanda, the local pharmacy barely keeping afloat, and workers in blue Wal-Mart vests that have to shop at Wal-Mart because they don't get paid enough to shop anywhere else.
Capitalism, in the end, creates better products and services at a better value for everybody. Unfortunately, those with enough money can abuse the system to the detriment of everyone. The system does allow for certain checks on companies like Wal-Mart in the form of free choice. Luckily, groups like those that prevented a New York City Wal-Mart are finally succeeding, showing Americans that saving a few bucks comes at a bigger cost than saving their communities.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
