Comment by eru

Well, feel free to propose a different metric for seeing how Wal-Mart is evil. And instead of Wal-Mart firing all employees, we can have a look at the more plausible scenario of Aldi vs Wal-Mart. Aldi runs a different labour model: their shifts are much more intense but pay more. Their model can't and doesn't utilise the kind of older and less fit people that Wal-Mart employs.

You have to look at the counterfactual of what these people would do, if Wal-Mart weren't around. You seem to implicitly assume that they'd be getting higher paying jobs somewhere else (so they wouldn't have to rely on welfare)? If so, what's stopping those people from switching to these better jobs right now, even while Wal-Mart is still around?

And sure, let's disregard how many times you can eat your groceries. That was a cheap shot. However I think quality vs price trade-off is something customers have to make for themselves anyway. Who am I to judge their choices?