Wal-Marts Destruction on Society
...evelopment. The average Wal-Mart store is 150,000 square-feet or larger. (For comparison, 150,000 sq. ft. is equivalent to 3-1/3 football fields). This does not include the parking lot which takes up roughly the same amount of space as the store. Wal-Mart typically uses 30 acres for each store they build. In 1998 the company was trying to start a campaign to open a new store every three days. (http://www.harbornet.com/pna/WalMart/walmart.html) If this became a reality the US would be losing approximately 3,630 acres of land each year just for a Wal-Mart store. In 1998, voters passed 70 percent of a record 240 smart-growth initiatives on state and local ballots. That year, voters also approved over $7.5 billion in new funding to protect open space. And this trend shows no signs of dying out. Many Americans would be shocked then to learn that as we fight to protect these open spaces, millions and perhaps billions of dollars are being given out by state and local governments to encourage their destruction. State and local governments are trying to get large corporations to build in their communities by promising local citizens more jobs. (http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report98/report.asp) Business’s such as Wal-Mart promise communities’ jobs and lower cost of products that most everyone uses. It all seems like a great idea in the beginning and very few people will question a promise of cheaper goods and services at their disposal. All the community has to do is give up some undeveloped land. The building of a Wal-Mart in any community has severe ecological side effects. A concern of many citizens is not only the loss of valuable land resources but the increase in commercial traffic that accompanies such a business. Not only do Wal-Mart stores bring in customers outside the city in which they are located increasing traffic, they also are bringing in the large service vehicles to load the stores with supplies. This causes a major strain on the roads which surround the stores and increases the pollution that the exhaust is letting off in the air system. Many communities that have had a Wal-Mart for several years now have huge empty building as Wal-Mart has expanded i...