In the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived in Iowa, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women’s apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, and 111 men’s and boys’ apparel stores.¹

All else being equal, U.S. counties where new Wal-Mart stores were built between 1987 and 1998 experienced higher poverty rates than other U.S. counties.²

Find out more here and learn why Wal-Mart’s running new ads and building new web sites focusing on how they’re not community-destroying, soulless bastards that are building stores on Indian burial grounds³ and directly next to important historical sites in Mexico.

(Thanks to Ryan in NYC for reminding me how much I despise Sam Walton’s legacy.)

¹Source: Iowa State University Study.

³Didn’t they see Poltergeist?