Another reason vendors take a big risk in selling their products through Wal Mart is the incredibly thin profit margin that they have to settle for in the promise that they will get big volume. The price points Wal Mart demands are extremely low, but as I said, manufacturers get wooed by the promise of huge volume. When the manufacturer has to cut back their own overhead to give Wal Mart the wholesale price demanded, while gearing up for a big volume order, they do things like buying tees from Hong Kong instead of USA (Russell Mills that made Jerzees from US cotton with US workers can't sell as cheap as Hong Kong).

The US garment workers and mills that used to make apparel have been drastically affected by this. The affect of Wal Mart, a business that has one fourth of the volume of the US defense budget, is like a huge domino falling on many areas of US manufacturing jobs, not just the locally owned shops.

Regarding local economy effect (Mom and Pop stores) the money from local purchases stays in the local town economy longer than the money spent at huge corporate stores. The dollars spent at a locally owned grocery will go to a local bank, locally anchored endeavors. The money spent at Wal Mart immediately goes out of your town to their headquarters. I don't think people realize how many things are affected by purchasing from the big box stores and Wal Mart.

Alice