Walmart Waltons Launch Another Attack on Main Street

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The last time I can remember being in a Walmart store was late one night in the fall of 1999.  Before that, it had been at least ten years since I had last shopped with the world's largest retailer, but I had to go to the local Walmart that night because my dad was in the hospital and not doing well.  He woke up around midnight and told me that he wanted a peppermint, and as I walked out of the hospital in search of peppermints, I knew there was only one shopping option at that late hour:  Walmart.

I had quit shopping at Walmart for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that their monstrously big stores with their bargain pricing had literally killed-off many of the small businesses that had once been a hallmark of American life.  My father, who had spent most of his life as a small town merchant, had been forced to give up a way of life that he loved because of the spread of Walmart's "everyday low prices" and the ever-increasing variety of products available for sale in their stores.  He managed to change careers before losing everything, but some of his friends were not as lucky.

In the last few decades of the twentieth century, Walmart turned America's once thriving Main Streets from prosperous zones of free enterprise and bustling commerce into delapidated warrens of vacant buildings, flea markets, flop houses, and trash-strewn empty lots.  Norman Rockwell's America disappeared.

So I quit shopping at Walmart.  I don't buy much anyway, and I'm sure they don't miss me, but it's a matter of principle.  I grew up on Main Street, Walmart killed Main Street, and I find other places to buy what I need.

But I'm still not free of the beast.  The Walton family, which founded and controls Walmart, also completely owns a chain of banks in the midwest called Arvest.  The banking company which is controlled by Sam Walton's youngest son, Jim, was started with the purchase of the old Bank of Bentonville - the town in Arkansas where Walmart is headquartered.  From there other area banks were added and now it includes nearly 300 branches, primarily in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri - and there is even a branch in Mission, Kansas, close to where my son lives.

I bank with Arvest, at least for the time-being.   I did not choose to bank with Arvest, rather my business was acquired by them.  For years - and years - since childhood, I had done all of my banking with the State Bank of Noel, Missouri.  Then one day not too many years ago Arvest gobbled-up (purchased) the little bank where I had always done my business.  And while (as expressed above) I had no love for Walmart or the Walton family, I found it easier to keep my banking business there than to go through all of the bother of changing banks.

Arvest has a branch in West Plains, so when I retired here seven years ago, I was able to keep banking without changing anything.  Also the fact that most Arvest employees are extremely nice and courteous helped to make the decision to stay with their banks that much easier - even if the billionaire Waltons were still going to pocket my monthly checking fees.

But that was then.

This week I received a letter from the Arvest home office in Lowell, Arkansas, advising me that the branch bank in Noel, Missouri - my old bank - will be closing on June 30th, and that the safety deposit box that I maintain in that bank will have to be emptied by then.  No reason for the closing was given, but there was some speculation that profits at the Noel branch might have not been up to Walton family standards.

That shouldn't be a big deal, right?  Banks open and close all of the time.  But it is important to Noel because Arvest - the old State Bank of Noel - is the only bank in town.  The "Christmas City of the Ozarks" which had a population of 2,141 in 2019, will have yet another vacant building on Main Street, and residents will either have to travel to another community to bank, or do their banking business on-line or through ATMs.  It also means that several bank employees who live in the community will have to change to other Arvest branches or find new employment.

It is a very big deal!

A bank is a big part of a community's identity, and when the bank goes it represents a significant loss for the local business infrastructure as well as for the town's collective self-esteem.

A family of billionaires should have some respect for their roots and be eager to invest in the part of the world that nurtured them and gave them all of their opportunities - whether their investment turns a profit or not.

Someday soon I will drive over to Noel and close out that safety deposit box - and then I will drive back to West Plains and take the contents of that box - and my banking business - to a bank that is locally owned and has deep, personal ties to the community that it serves.

'Nuff said.