Walmart Didn’t Kill the Small Town, It Is the Small Town
www.discoursemagazine.com
The idea of a commercial space aping the design of a city is somewhat familiar when it comes to the suburban shopping mall. Malls were famously designed after urban downtowns or shopping districts. The big-box discount store, on the other hand—with its exposed steel ceiling, utter lack of ornamentation and warehouse atmosphere—makes no pretensions. So it is striking that even in such a utilitarian setting, and such a quintessentially suburban one, the old urban DNA still survives.
  • SmolderingSauna@midwest.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    Author needs to get out into rural America and see an old-time company store or a general store (no, not a Dollar General, tyvm, think 1860s-1940s shopping in small towns).

    And fwiw, Walmart has raped every small town they’ve set foot in. So the Walton’s could be trillionaires by using our tax dollars to fund their business. Their ‘dark store theory’ damage in one tiny town https://www.cityofhoughton.com/walmartbreach/ (tl:dr - Walmart won’t pay their long-agreed-on property taxes because they’ve come up with yet another way to stiff the locals).