Summary
Two studies reveal that Walmart’s entry into communities lowers household incomes by 6% over 10 years and increases poverty by 8%, even when accounting for cost savings.
Its practices, such as undercutting competitors, suppressing wages, and squeezing suppliers, harm local economies by reducing employment and forcing smaller businesses to close.
Walmart’s “monopsony power” enables it to pay lower wages and dominate suppliers, compounding these effects.
The findings challenge the idea that low prices alone benefit communities, emphasizing long-term economic harm.
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Or, more likely the economic incentives that they are exposed to (academia, grants and the politics of both) reward this behaviour.
The principals are understood, I remember reading about similar issues with the Dutch East India Company (you know that recent company that just went under in 1799) back in school. The reason we are where we are is that people (economists often try to say otherwise, but are included in this set) in the system we have are incentivised to not actually change things, but to come up with reasons why they should stay this way.