Wal-Mart Rocks
If you can’t find it at Wal-Mart, you probably don’t need it. That’s what the locals here said when I moved from the city looking for greener pastures – or actually for pastures of any color (things don’t stay green here for long). Those trips back to the city that we made frequently at first are becoming more rare. Wal-Mart is the place to go for groceries, hoses, underwear, digital cameras and, yes, ammo.
Wal-Mart is also becoming a major player in the music business. The New York Times carried an article about the deals Wal-Mart is making directly with musicians.
The deals highlight the changing dynamics of the music industry as once-powerful labels decline because of the migration to digital downloads. To fill the gap, musicians are scrambling to connect with fans, and Wal-Mart is using these exclusive deals to assume a new role: hit maker.
Groups like the Eagles and Journey are selling CDs at $11.98 and pocketing about half of that amount. The consumer pays less and the musicians make more. Hmm. Maybe the Maryland legislature or the anti-Wal-Mart blogs could find some unfairness in that.
To those who cannot pronounce Wal-Mart without a sneer, this is the kind of thing that makes Wal-Mart a success. Traditional record retailers, a dying breed, are trying to play catch-up.
Yes, Wal-Mart opened its superstore on the edge of town, and there is some empty retail space on the main street, but many of those businesses were defunct before Wal-Mart arrived. And the retailers on
This is not to say that I don’t have occasional complaints about Wal-Mart, but the vitriol that Wal-Mart generates is irrational. Some people combat terrorism, or poverty, or ignorance, or injustice – and some have such frivolous priorities that devote their lives to combating a retail chain.
