Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneaopolis released the findings in their fedgazette concerning a study on the impact of Wal-Mart on a community. For the most part they debunk the grossly inflated, negative assertions, and say that overall they have a positive impact on the community they move into.

In almost every benchmark used in the study, it was found the negative attacks by their enemies was not in correlation with the facts.

What was surprising to me, was even after making the findings, the Federal Reserve was timid and apologetic that they uncovered the results. If you go and read the findings, every time they say Wal-Mart either didn't have a negative effect, or improve the lot of a county, they then go into a discourse on how little the impact is. Who cares? The truth is the truth, they didn't need to apologize for bringing out the facts.

Saying that, at least they did present them, knowing that Wal-Mart's (WMT)enemies will attack them for coming up with this type of empirical data. Wakeup Wal-Mart has to deal with damage control now, as their house of cards just came crashing down.

The study was done in counties that included Wal-Marts versus those that didn't have a Wal-Mart in them.

This symbol used against Wal-Mart proved a lie by Federal Reserve Study

Here's some of the findings of the study:

* Wal-Mart is widely believed to destroy local firms and jobs and to have a dampening effect on wages. But fedgazette findings suggest the opposite: Firm growth, employment and total earnings were somewhat stronger in Wal-Mart counties and, in some cases, even in the retail sector. The research does suggest that retail earnings per job fell in virtually all counties studied. But they actually fell by less in Wal-Mart counties.

* Results are a bit stronger, and more favorable to Wal-Mart, when it comes to employment and earnings. Median employment growth was notably higher in Wal-Mart counties than in non-Wal-Mart counties.

* From 1985 to 2005, earnings per job grew faster in Wal-Mart counties by both median and aggregate measures. In the retail sector, earnings per job actually fell in Wal-Mart counties over this period—but they fell by even more in non-Wal-Mart counties.

* Wal-Mart is often accused of trampling the local business sector. But data on county establishments don’t support such a notion, at least not in the Ninth District. The most obvious place to look is at general merchandise establishments in a county (a business classification that includes Wal-Mart). Much higher levels of business closures might be expected to show up in Wal-Mart counties, but the data don’t bear that out.

* Trends in total county firms also go against the popular notion that Wal-Mart is laying waste to local businesses. Even among establishments with fewer than 10 employees, there was discernibly little Wal-Mart effect.

* In terms of aggregate establishment growth, non-Wal-Mart counties saw stronger growth. However, as mentioned earlier, establishment growth among non-Wal-Mart counties is heavily influenced by a small number of booming counties; if the top five counties are removed from both study pools, aggregate establishment growth is higher for Wal-Mart counties.

* Personal income growth over two decades was virtually identical in Wal-Mart and non-Wal-Mart counties, both in median and aggregate terms.

* Lastly, the fedgazette looked at Wal-Mart counties six years prior to the store opening, and these counties showed little evidence of having stronger income growth leading into the opening of the Wal-Mart. In other words, it’s not obvious that Wal-Mart was able to ride the coattails of strong county economies and hide any potentially negative local effects.

Amazing conclusion from the study:

"Findings from this fedgazette analysis suggest that much of the conventional wisdom regarding Wal-Mart’s nefarious effects on local communities is off base, at least in relation to measures that the public and policymakers often use to gauge community health. The analysis is also absent any discussion of the savings local consumers realize by having Wal-Mart in town."

While the findings were positive for Wal-Mart, although not overwhelmingly so in the sense of creating a boomtown from their entrance into the market. When you take into account the savings included with Wal-Mart weren't even taken into consideration with the study, that even shifts their positive impact to much larger than the study indicates.

It's amazing what facts can do to theories and demagoguery.