Mega-stores that supply everything from soup-to-nuts are really nothing new.
Not so long ago, the “Wal-Mart” of the era was named …. Sears and Roebuck.
They had everything. From soup to nuts to houses to stoves to plows to … well you name it, they carried and sold it at one time or another.
And don’t think that their catalog offerings didn’t give some local merchants real heartburn.
Sears was the retail megalith of it’s day. And yet, where are they now?
Like most large organizations, Sears was both unable to keep up and adapt to the new retail environment, and also attempted to spread itself too thin, leaving themselves open to more efficient upstart rivals – like Wal-Mart.
Most of the corporate “big names” of yesterday are little more than memories today.
If you love to hate Wal-Mart (even as you push your loaded cart through their checkout at Christmastime, discount sale flyer in hand), you might console yourself by realizing that “nothing is forever”, and that most large businesses eventually fall “victim” to their own success, leaving the door of opportunity open for new, small local businesses and merchants to fill needs that are not being met, are not economical to service on a large scale, or to which a large organization cannot adapt quickly enough to.
In the meantime, appreciate Wal-Mart for what it is – a real American business success story, and a great place to find things you need and want TODAY (or in the middle of the night) – and to save money while doing it.
