• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Smaller parking lots, cheaper insurance, fewer staff.

    Amazon already has all that and they didn't need to install a bunch of cheapo clear plastic lock boxes to do it.

    Walmart's stuck in their antiquated model, sitting on a bunch of worthless real estate in rural neighborhoods with declining populations. Which has more than a hint of irony behind it, given how Walmarts were instrumental in killing all the rival retail establishments and driving down the local wages that gave their turf value to begin with.

    Storefronts as last-mile warehouses for distribution make sense when you're within a mile of your buyers. But Walmarts largely aren't, because that real estate was too expensive. They're built out on the fringe and deep into the suburbs where land is cheap. Even the big strip malls and mega-malls don't host Walmarts, because they're too damned stingy. I can get my basic-bitch white cotton shirts from the Academy down the street for the same price Walmart is having them caged and ball-gagged five miles further.