Summary
Two studies reveal that Walmart’s entry into communities lowers household incomes by 6% over 10 years and increases poverty by 8%, even when accounting for cost savings.
Its practices, such as undercutting competitors, suppressing wages, and squeezing suppliers, harm local economies by reducing employment and forcing smaller businesses to close.
Walmart’s “monopsony power” enables it to pay lower wages and dominate suppliers, compounding these effects.
The findings challenge the idea that low prices alone benefit communities, emphasizing long-term economic harm.
——
I’m not sure it has been empirically proven.
Hypotheses that make sense at face value are dime a dozen in economics. Some of Milton Friedman’s hypotheses on inflation made sense but were proven wrong. Nevertheless they were used for decades to drive policy with horrible impact on the working class. Lots of people still believe they’re true, because they make sense at face value.
The “velocity of money” has been very much proven. You take money out of a community, you deny it to that community. That’s why the existence of the wealthy is the presence of a parasite.
It’s trade balance and it’s very well proven. If the money coming into a community is less than the money going out then that’s going to affect everything from road repair to groceries bought.
This is why at the international level there are balance payments in trade deals.