We've all known that Wal-Mart increases poverty rates for quite a while. However, so far that information has either been based on common sense or anecdote. But now it seems that scientifically valid, peer-reviewed research has been published that lends a ton of weight to that idea.
I don't have access to this particular journal, so I'm basically biting this from
The Science Blog. If anyone else has access, they should definitely post.
This was research done at Penn State and published in the most recent edition of Social Science Quarterly. It looks at food stamp dependence across various counties over the last decade and finds that it grew nearly twice as fast in counties that contain a Wal-Mart than the national average -- 15.3% compared to just 8% nationally. This is after controlling for various social and demographic factors. Even when poverty rates decreased across a region, rates in Wal-Mart counties increased less rapidly and less dramatically than in non-Wal-Mart counties.
The authors also specifically point out the ripple effect caused by the arrival of Wal-Mart, and the fact that it doesn't just put "mom and pop" stores out of business, but the whole business ecosystem that existed around them. They cite supplies, manufacturers, lawyers, and a ton of others who are impacted, and conclude that Wal-Mart "destroys local leadership capacity".
This is only a bare-bones stub, but this sounds like a REALLY interesting study, and if anyone has access to it I'd love to hear more about it.