It also depends on the existing composition of businesses in the area, I think. For example, there’s something called The Walmart Effect, where Walmart murders small towns. It goes like this:
- Walmart moves in, undercutting prices on all local businesses
- Local businesses all go under, so all their staff lose their jobs
- Those workers all go to work at Walmart, which is now the only job in the area
- Walmart does not pay enough to survive, even shopping in their own store, so people move away for better jobs
- The population drops to where the Walmart isn’t viable any more, so they close it
- There are now no businesses in town and everyone has moved away. The town is now dead and nobody ever comes back.
Walmart is effectively strip-mining these towns. Maximum one-time value is squeezed out, then they leave. This is a documented effect that has happened all over rural areas in the US. So a Walmart might fill a gap in, say, groceries in the area. But the area has other businesses that will get Walmarted and the town will probably ultimately be killed.
