One Big Box Towns

Here’s a fascinating look at a dimension of Wal-Mart you may not have thought about. Generally, we hear a lot about Wal-Mart driving down wages or running local retailers out of business. From the right, we hear paeans to Wal-Marts as engines of capitalism driving down prices for ordinary everyday products for tens of millions of Americans. Each is true in its way, two sides of the same economic coin. But there’s another reality. In many small towns throughout America today, Wal-Mart has become the de facto meeting place – open 24 hours a day – where all sorts of things happen beside just buying a TV or stocking up on dry goods. It’s replaced the mall, the town center, the drive-in, all the places where life happens, teenagers hang out or tailgate and drink, or people just meet up. This piece looks at the local Wal-Mart as the center of life in one Texas town.