As Mitchell describes it, the United States economy was mostly a localized one before the 1950s, when huge tax breaks for retailers built our suburban malls and created a haven for chain stores. American consumers today enjoy a sort of masochistic love affair with chain retailers — up for the quick, cheap fling, but blind to the long-term devastation the relationship will likely produce. Since 1996, the top ten global chains (half of which are American) have more than doubled their global market share and now account for almost 30 percent of the more than $2.3 trillion Americans spend in retail every year. The largest of these giants, Wal-Mart, pocketed one out of every ten dollars Americans spent in 2005 and has accepted more than $1 billion in local and state subsidies since the early 1990s. The store’s business strategy hinges on becoming the ultimate one-stop shopping experience to the exclusion of all major retailers in a community. Nationally, Wal-Mart sells 27 percent of toys, 31 percent of DVDs, 18 percent of cameras and film, and a third of all household staples (like toothpaste and soap) that American households purchase annually. In some states, though not yet in Maine, Wal-Mart has added gas stations to its superstores, many of which have already added groceries to their basic offerings. Mitchell asserts that Wal-Mart, along with other corporate chains, prices items below independent competitors long enough to drive them out of business or weaken them considerably, before raising prices to rates often higher than independents would charge. Communities bereft of local competition end up needing Wal-Mart more than it needs them. This equals bad news for consumers and great news for shareholders.
Big-Box Swindle, packed with detailed research and anecdotes strong enough to spin even the most ardent skeptic, connects Wal-Mart and its other bloated business peers to the nation’s struggling downtowns, environmentally-deadly urban sprawl, and declining quality of craftsmanship. Focusing much of her efforts on the heavy hitters with thousands of outlets, Mitchell analyzes how big boxes and corporate chains target communities for maximum profit, erecting massive stores thanks to multimillion-dollar tax breaks from local governments, and abandoning locations without a second thought should the retail winds change.
Mitchell estimates corporate chains have driven, with taxpayer money, tens of thousands of local stores out of business. Many big chains replace the jobs lost at independent businesses with jobs offering average wages below the poverty line and health insurance too expensive for most employees to afford. According to one national study, Wal-Mart actually decreased the number of retail jobs in the counties it moved into after driving local businesses under and chronically short-staffing its stores. Mitchell also describes the demand large retail chains make on suppliers — create cheaper goods or lose your biggest client — and the extensive damage the multi-acre, one-story developments cause to the local environment with stormwater runoff, massive land occupancy, and auto-dependent shoppers.
