Revisiting WalMart’s Impact on Iowa Small-Town Retail

Abstract

Ken Stone conducted the first study of WalMart stores’ economic impact in Iowa in 1988. Since then, research on WalMart’s impacts has exploded. Recent studies employ sophisticated statistical techniques to more accurately measure the size and direction of effects. Many reach conclusions similar to Stone’s original work. This article updates the original Stone study with additional years of data. It draws on recent methodological advances to help account for the effects of WalMart’s strategic location decisions on estimated retail sales in Iowa. As is consistent with previous studies, we find that WalMart’s entry into smaller trade centers in Iowa had a big initial impact on host-town retail sales, with some categories experiencing significant increases while others saw declines in sales per capita. WalMart’s presence helped stabilize or even expand the local retail sector of most rural Iowa host communities. To conclude, we discuss policy implications for local economic development officials.

Backlash against the "Big Box": Local Small Business and Public Opinion toward Business Corporations

“…In short, opponents of absentee-owned chain stores commonly argue that such stores pose the threat of displacing local businesses and undermining the political and economic independence of local communities. Indeed, contemporary research finds that the entry and prevalence of corporate chain stores is associated with declining sales and, consequently, job losses among local small businesses (Basker 2005;Dube, Lester, and Eidlin 2007;Neumark, Zhang, and Ciccarella 2008;Artz and Stone 2012;Bonanno and Goetz 2012;Drewianka and Johnson 2014).…”

“…Despite its pervasiveness, we unfortunately know very little about how this changing retail landscape-and the controversies that come with it-impact public opinion. While significant controversy exists as to the local economic (Goetz and Swaminathan 2006;Artz and Stone 2012;Bonanno and Goetz 2012;Hicks, Keil, and Spector 2012;Drewianka and Johnson 2014) and civic (e.g., Humphries 2001;Hopkins 2004;Goetz and Rupasingha 2006;cf Carden, Courtemanche, and Meiners 2009) impacts of big-box store development, scholarship has yet to address the public opinion research question of whether citizens' attitudes toward corporate big-box establishments, as well as business corporations more generally, are systematically related to the size of the small vis-à-vis large retail business sector in the local area in which they reside.…”

Spillover effects when IKEA enters: Do incumbent retailers win or lose?

“…When studying the development of retail revenues in 13 towns in Maine, US, Davidson and Rummel () found that total revenues increased by 41% in Wal‐Mart entry towns versus 28% in towns into which Wal‐Mart did not enter. Similarly, Artz and Stone () found that total annual per capita retail revenues increased by 11% following the entry of Wal‐Mart into towns in Iowa, US. Daunfeldt et al () investigated the regional effects of IKEA entry on a local market, finding that durable goods revenues increased by 20% in entry municipalities, compared with similar municipalities into which IKEA did not enter.…”

Agglomeration economies in urban retailing: are there productivity spillovers when big-box retailers enter urban markets?

“…The impact of big-box retail entry has been previously studied both in Sweden (Daunfeldt et al 2015(Daunfeldt et al , 2017Håkansson et al 2018;Han et al 2018;Rudholm, Li, and Carling 2018) and abroad (Artz and Stone 2012;Huang et al 2012;Haltiwanger, Jarmin, and Krizan 2010). 1 Several studies (Artz and Stone 2006;Maican and Orth 2012;Håkansson et al 2018;Han et al 2018;Rudholm, Li, and Carling 2018) report that positive spillover effects of big-box retail entry for incumbent retailers are limited to entries that have taken place in smaller local markets.…”