Major Flaws Uncovered in Study Claiming Wal-Mart Has Not Harmed Small Business

The Hometown Advantage

The jounal titled Economic Inquiry reported August 30, 2007 published a paper titled HAS WAL-MART BURIED MOM AND POP?: The impact of Wal-Mart on self-employment and small establishments in the United States by Russell S. Sobel and Anderea M. Dean of West Virginia University..

Stories were printed about the research including a Q&A with Russell S. Sobel in US News & World Report.

Even more convincingly, the CATO Institute’s publication titled Regulation ran a cover story in its Spring 2008 edition, which subsequently gave Wal-Mart fodder to create a so-called “fact sheet” that was reportedly distributed in communities where it planned to open new stores.

The Hometown Advantage reported December 1, 2008 that Stacy Mitchell, author of The Big-Box Swindle and The Hometown Advantage reveals that some of the data of the Sobel and Dean research was flawed including misinterpretation of U.S. Census Bureau definitions.

I apologize for all the links, but you deserve to read it from the sources rather than to have me get permission to reprint the information at the links. If you believe at all that you need to think and believe that the cause for local business is worth fighting for you’ll make the time to check it out.

None of this will change the fact that we are responsible for making our own businesses relevant and worthy of being chosen by consumers. However, it is fair to fight for yourself and to counter any information that Wal-Mart or others are distributing that unfairly represents the cause and effect of their activities in your local area.

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