Wal Mart destroys small businesses.
Like hell they do.
Smaller town I lived in, in central FL - Sebring, I watched it happened.
Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes all moved into the town within a 5yr period.
Downtown Sebring, historic circle, etc...turned into something just short of a ghost town
CVS and Walgreens killed the 2 old mom&pop drugstores downtown
IGA? Gone
Hardware stores? LMAO *poof*. Though there is one around I really like.
When you walk in there's someone there to greet you and ask you what you need, You tell them or show them, they walk you back and show you exactly what you need and how.
I'd pay them $$ more for an item before wandering the acres of HD and Lowes.
But places like them and/or Walmart typically pay a tad more than minimum wage. And the DC area in the story pays a bit more than the Fed minimum.
To mandate any specific company to pay even more than that is utter bullshit.
What a great way for the commissioners to drive away new businesses to their area. Their constituents must be so proud.
One reason why so many of those big box stores popped up in Sebring is because our county commissioners stroked them up with tax breaks out the ass.
DC the next Detroit??