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> If Walmart vanished, almost no one in town would miss it because everyone complains about how high the prices are compared to local stores, and how little there is on store shelves; and what local stores can't sell us, we'd just order online.

I've read a lot of complaints about Walmart, but never once about how they are expensive. Fascinating.

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Apparently it isn't unique, it is a product of Walmart corporate interference into how each store individually operates.

Basically, no one, not even the Store Manager, has much flexibility in store pricing. Walmart corporate punishes stores by taking unapproved differences in pricing out of the store budget, and stores are all generally severely under-budgeted to begin with, so no store, especially not ours, is going to do it.

In poor areas like mine, Walmart doesn't give the store the flexibility to compete. Not that I care about Walmart's bottom line, but that can't be very cost effective for those stores.

Almost nothing at my local Walmart is cheaper than it is on amazon prime. UPS and FedEx stop at my house more than the postman.

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