This topic has seen a lot of discussion of Walmart's famous ability to put local businesses out of business. Although that happens sometimes, Walmart has caused its greatest destruction on the U.S. manufacturing sector. Once Walmart achieved massive market share, it started as a retailer to dictate prices to its suppliers. Make it cheaper Walmart commanded or you won't be in our stores. Many suppliers complied and complied until they had to move their factories to China. Walmart (and to a lesser extent other big retailers) has contributed substantially to eliminating manufacturing jobs. This is a much bigger problem than people losing jobs on a small scale throughout communities where smaller retailers went under. Manufacturing used to employ many people and at a living wage. Many of those better jobs are gone from the U.S. and the cheap prices at Walmart are derived from cheaply made goods from overseas, predominately China. The effect has been lower quality of products and lower wages in the U.S. Yes, Walmart has some cheap prices, and everyone gets exactly what they pay for, which is junk made by people earning very little.
For more clarity and specific details about this, please reference the link to the Frontline episode about Walmart.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ce=videosearch