Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Want to get trued up on this? See if you can find a copy of the Hilo phone book from before WalMart opened in what, 1996?, then walk through WalMart, department by department, noticing what small local businesses existed then for each category, but which are no longer in business today.
Saying that WalMart displaced many small businesses doesn't mean they were physically shoved aside by bulldozers to clear the site for the big-box store, obviously, it means they went out of business because WalMart's vastly larger corporate purchasing power meant they could underbuy and undersell the homegrown Mom and Pop concerns that had served the Hilo community long and well.
You name it... appliances, clothing, linens, sporting goods, toys, books, housewares, toys, tvs, cameras, tools... there were specialty stores in Hilo which served those markets then, but which no longer exist because they could not compete with WalMart. And those middle class shopkeepers, long gone now from empty storefronts, and their loyal and knowledgeable employees, have been replaced by minimum wage "sales associates" whom you have to track down just to get a question answered, if at all, or an item retrieved from backstock.
This is responsible for the now well documented "WalMart effect" of replacing three fairly paid local jobs with two lower paid jobs. That is what "displacement" actually means.
Hawaiian By Heart pointed out that many businesses are part of national chains and so therefore not "local" businesses. These are all franchises, so the local McDonald's is probably owned by a local resident and not by someone in New York City. And the people who have jobs there are local residents, not someone who lives on the mainland.
Franchisees are local owners, yes, who pay franchise fees in order to "buy in" to a proven business concept. They are most common in the restaurant business because of the very high rate of failure in starting food businesses from scratch. So local owners invest a lot of cash to not have to invent a food business from scratch, which theoretically reduces their risk. In exchange they give up control, have to buy supplies from approved vendors, have to meet strict contractual measures, and pay a franchise fee that can be eye-popping.
Quote:
I know that where I live near South Point one local restaurant is L&L Barbeque. They are part of a national chain, but a nice couple who live in Ocean View are the owners.
They are more of a small regional "plate lunch" chain, based in Honolulu, and in a completely different league from the big box stores.
Quote:
There are not many other restaurants in Ocean View -- just a couple of really small pizza places and a coffee shop. Jobs are very hard to find in this area, so we don't get mad at L&L because they are part of a national chain. They are providing jobs!
That's quite different, because the devil is in the scale and in the details. Somebody opening an L&L restaurant is not going to gut a healthy small town economy like WalMart has done, in many hundreds of cases.
Want to get trued up on this? See if you can find a copy of the Hilo phone book from before WalMart opened in what, 1996?, then walk through WalMart, department by department, noticing what small local businesses existed then for each category, but which are no longer in business today.
Saying that WalMart displaced many small businesses doesn't mean they were physically shoved aside by bulldozers to clear the site for the big-box store, obviously, it means they went out of business because WalMart's vastly larger corporate purchasing power meant they could underbuy and undersell the homegrown Mom and Pop concerns that had served the Hilo community long and well.
You name it... appliances, clothing, linens, sporting goods, toys, books, housewares, toys, tvs, cameras, tools... there were specialty stores in Hilo which served those markets then, but which no longer exist because they could not compete with WalMart. And those middle class shopkeepers, long gone now from empty storefronts, and their loyal and knowledgeable employees, have been replaced by minimum wage "sales associates" whom you have to track down just to get a question answered, if at all, or an item retrieved from backstock.
This is responsible for the now well documented "WalMart effect" of replacing three fairly paid local jobs with two lower paid jobs. That is what "displacement" actually means.
Due to the rise of internet shopping, many of those small businesses probably would've folded even if Wal-Mart hadn't opened in Hilo.
They are more of a small regional "plate lunch" chain, based in Honolulu, and in a completely different league from the big box stores.
Someone needs to travel a little more -- there are close to 200 L&L restaurants in Hawaiʻi, California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Texas, New York, New Zealand, China and Japan. It's more of an international "plate lunch" chain now, instead of a "small, regional" one. About L&L
Someone needs to travel a little more -- there are close to 200 L&L restaurants in Hawaiʻi, California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Texas, New York, New Zealand, China and Japan. It's more of an international "plate lunch" chain now, instead of a "small, regional" one. About L&L
Yeah, it's a complicated world, in which the mainland edition of Roy's Hawaiian Fusion is headquartered in Florida, as is Outback Steakhouse, mate.
I'm aware that L&L has locations in a half dozen western states on the mainland. And one in New York. I've even been to one in the Silicon Valley, as well as the one on Kinoole Street in Hilo. But to me that's still a regional chain, not a national one, and with their HQ in Honoruru, I can't imagine them being anything remotely like dealing with the McDonald's Corp. And the maybe 15% franchise fee the local owner pays isn't going to leave the state.
Gentrification: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into areas that often displaces poorer residents*...
L&L Drive inn we have one here in Portland, not upto par with the ones in Hawaii. Open D kinda answered your question for me, mahalo OpenD. But also take into fact that each department that walmart has that has closed ma and pa local businesses in a community. Each of those local businesses in total for each department in total hired more employees then one walmart does. Ever walked around walmart trying to find customer service? They don't hire 4 sales persons per department in a store.
Further my other point was about quality of life. I would take an L&L Drive inn any day over a mcdonald's or subway because its more unique then mcdonald's or subway. In my community we have a subway on every sixth block. Veriety is exciting. Alot of local businesses kepted a local economy going. Ala Moana was an example at one time.
Due to the rise of internet shopping, many of those small businesses probably would've folded even if Wal-Mart hadn't opened in Hilo.
I agree some would have, eventually, especially as older shop owners got older, and Junior didn't want to follow the family business, but there are many more which might have prevailed, might have even evolved into more internet friendly businesses themselves, if they had not been shouldered aside by big-box retailers.
Amazon is as much to blame as WalMart is for small business decline, but WalMart is the local bottom feeder pushing low prices in part by paying cheapy-cheap wages to their employees and coaching them on how to get public assistance. It's part of their business model. And it is not healthy for the communities they are in.
I agree some would have, eventually, especially as older shop owners got older, and Junior didn't want to follow the family business, but there are many more which might have prevailed, might have even evolved into more internet friendly businesses themselves, if they had not been shouldered aside by big-box retailers.
Amazon is as much to blame as WalMart is for small business decline, but WalMart is the local bottom feeder pushing low prices in part by paying cheapy-cheap wages to their employees and coaching them on how to get public assistance. It's part of their business model. And it is not healthy for the communities they are in.
An example of this is The Crack Seed Center, one of Hawaii's most popular crack seed retailers for over 50 years. They had a location in Ala Moana Center til rents went thru the roof. They are still in business and do a ton of online business and have a store stil. An example of a local business ran and owned by local people and is profitable.
Amazon is as much to blame as WalMart is for small business decline
Amazon and Walmart are running a business - if one feels like they must "blame" someone, blame the people who sold or leased them the land, blame the politicians who don't have zoning laws or sufficient minimum wage laws in place, blame the shoppers who frequent those stores, blame the small business for not having a loyal customer base.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
