Last month Walmart announced that it would close 154 stores. The majority of those stores are in poor rural areas, mostly in the Southeast, reports The Rural Blog. Now, some are wondering what these communities are supposed to do. When Walmart came in, many of these towns lost their mom-and-pop stores. These impoverished areas began to rely almost exclusively on their Walmarts for daily needs. Now a story for The Washington Post says that losing a Walmart could be lethal for some of these towns that are barely holding on.
In Raymondville, Texas, for example, the disappearance of tax income from Walmart could force city layoffs. And in Oriental, N.C. the arrival of a Walmart Express forced the local grocery store out of business. Now the community is left with few options for food.
The Post concluded that, Walmart’s disappearance will have many subtle ripple effects in these hardscrabble communities.