Wal-Mart to The Rescue

It is necessary to commend loudly those who do not ordinarily deserve it. WalMart, one of the aggrieved parties in the looting, has exceeded anyone's expectations in helping Katrina victims. THANK YOU SAM, WHEREVER YOU ARE!!!!

Actually, the credit for about $20M in aid is probably due to Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. The Post article notes that Wal-Mart had 45 truckloads of relief goods loaded and ready to deliver from its Brookhaven, Mississippi, facility before the storm made landfall!! That beats the tar out of any government response. You have to say that there are good people at Wal-Mart.

All that stuff said, this generosity highlights one of the troubles that I have with Wal-Mart. The fact that Wal-Mart can absorb such a loss and still respond with a gigantic charitable donation speaks to a dangerous concentration of power in the retail industry. I’m hoping that the price of fuel stays high to protect some of Wal-Mart’s smaller scale competitors from the lure of the super-store.

9/8/2005 10:16 AM