Editing Walmart (section)

=== Effects on retailers===
Kenneth Stone, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, in a paper published in ''Farm Foundation'' (1997), found that some small towns can lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years of a Walmart store opening. Presumably, people who previously shopped in towns without Wal-Mart stores choose to shop in towns with Wal-Mart stores, part of an older pattern in which smaller centers lose retail sales to larger ones. Stone compared the changes to previous competitors that small town shops have faced in the past, such as the development of the railroads, the Sears Roebuck catalog, and shopping malls. He concluded that small towns are more affected by "discount mass merchandiser stores" than larger towns and that shop owners who adapt to the ever-changing retail market can "co-exist and even thrive in this type of environment".<ref name="Rural"/> In later research Artz and Stone (2006) reported that in Mississippi the impact of opening a Walmart was much larger on existing retailers in rural communities (17%) than more urban ones (4%).<ref name="Volpe"/><ref name="Artz">{{cite journal |last1=Artz |first1=Georgeanne M. |last2=Stone |first2=Kenneth E. |title=Analyzing the Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Local Food Store Sales |journal=American Journal of Agricultural Economics |date=2006 |volume=88 |issue=5 |pages=1296–1303 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8276.2006.00948.x |jstor=4123607 |issn=0002-9092 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This also suggests that Walmart has achieved its strongest growth in non-metropolitan areas, which tend to be low-income.<ref name="Volpe"/>

Studies of the impact of Walmart tend to focus on Supercenters rather than Neighborhood Markets. Comparisons of performance metrics such as sales per square foot suggest that supermarkets and other high-volume retailers in direct competition with Walmart Supercenters show significant decreases in profit margins.<ref name="Volpe"/> While Walmart has often been said to be a destroyer of small businesses, much of this is anecdotal. Research so far suggests that Walmart superstores have little effect on smaller retailers such as "Mom and Pop" businesses.<ref name="Volpe"/> A 2008 economic analysis published in the journal ''[[Economic Inquiry]]'' suggested that "the process of [[creative destruction]] unleashed by Wal‐Mart has had no statistically significant long‐run impact on the overall size and profitability of the small business sector in the United States".<ref name="sobel_dean">{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2007.00091.x|title = Has Wal-Mart Buried Mom and Pop?: The Impact of Wal-Mart on Self-Employment and Small Establishments in the United States|year = 2008|last1 = Sobel|first1 = Russell S.|last2 = Dean|first2 = Andrea M.|journal = Economic Inquiry|volume = 46|issue = 4|pages = 676–695|s2cid = 28554345|doi-access = free| issn = 0095-2583}}</ref>

Impact appears to be related to a number of factors, with a key factor being the goods offered for sale.<ref name="Volpe"/> A study by Ailawadi and others (2010) examined the impact of new Walmarts in detail. She reported that median sales dropped 40 percent at similar high-volume stores, 17 percent at supermarkets and 6 percent at drugstores. However, 30 percent of specific product categories at high-volume stores were unaffected. Many retailers reduced prices and cut product selection in an attempt to compete directly with Walmart, in effect attacking its areas of strength. A more successful approach was to track sales, identify vulnerable categories, and increase the range of products in those categories. By including products at both top and bottom price points, and offering temporary promotions on those items, retailers could attract both customers who were price-conscious and those interested in a wider range of options. A small store that specialized in a particular product area could compete effectively against Walmart.<ref name="Tuck">{{cite news |title=Think Outside of the Box (Store): Defending Against Walmart |url=https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/news/articles/think-outside-of-the-box-store-defending-against-walmart |access-date=October 14, 2022 |work=Tuck Forum |publisher=Dartmouth University |date=November 2009 |language=en |archive-date=October 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014211351/https://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/news/articles/think-outside-of-the-box-store-defending-against-walmart |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Ailawadi">{{cite journal |last1=Ailawadi |first1=Kusum L. |last2=Zhang |first2=Jie |last3=Krishna |first3=Aradhna |last4=Kruger |first4=Michael W. |title=When Wal-Mart Enters: How Incumbent Retailers React and how this Affects their Sales Outcomes |journal=Journal of Marketing Research |date=August 2010 |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=577–593 |doi=10.1509/jmkr.47.4.577 |s2cid=21105799 |url=https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/when-wal-mart-enters-how-incumbent-retailers-react-and-how-this-258YW2pwLT?key=sage |access-date=October 14, 2022 |language=en |issn=0022-2437 |archive-date=October 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014211350/https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/when-wal-mart-enters-how-incumbent-retailers-react-and-how-this-258YW2pwLT?key=sage |url-status=live }}</ref> Small specialized stores are less effective against big-box [[category killer]] chains such as [[Home Depot]] and [[Best Buy]] electronics.<ref name="Crowley">{{cite journal |last1=Crowley |first1=Martha |last2=Stainback |first2=Kevin |title=Retail Sector Concentration, Local Economic Structure, and Community Well-Being |journal=Annual Review of Sociology |date=July 30, 2019 |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=321–343 |doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-073018-022449 |s2cid=181369011 |language=en |issn=0360-0572 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Some studies have suggested that the impact a Walmart store has on a local business is correlated to its distance from the store. David Merriman, Joseph Persky, Julie Davis and Ron Baiman (2012) outlined the impacts of Walmart in [[Chicago]]. Based on three annual surveys of enterprises within a four-mile radius of a new Chicago Walmart it "shows that the probability of going out of business was significantly higher for establishments close to that store". The overall findings of this study reinforce the "contention that large-city Walmarts, like those in small towns, absorb retail sales from nearby stores without significantly expanding the market".<ref name="Merriman">{{cite journal |last1=Merriman |first1=David |last2=Persky |first2=Joseph |last3=Davis |first3=Julie |last4=Baiman |first4=Ron |title=The Impact of an Urban WalMart Store on Area Businesses: The Chicago Case |journal=Economic Development Quarterly |date=November 2012 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=321–333 |doi=10.1177/0891242412457985 |s2cid=155306293 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0891242412457985 |access-date=October 14, 2022 |language=en |issn=0891-2424 |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109191618/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242412457985 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ellickson & Grieco (2013) report in the ''[[Journal of Urban Economics]]'' that Wal-Marts most strongly affect outlets of larger chains that are within {{convert|2|mi|km}} of their location.<ref name="Ellickson">{{cite journal |last1=Ellickson |first1=Paul B. |last2=Grieco |first2=Paul L.E. |title=Wal-Mart and the geography of grocery retailing |journal=Journal of Urban Economics |date=May 2013 |volume=75 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1016/j.jue.2012.09.005 }}</ref>