I moved to a small town inspired by my love of Stardew Valley, and after living here for two years I can say that the supermarket vs small store subplot is absolute bullshit>small store here sells products almost 2x the price you would normally pay in the city>it has a very small variety of products as well>very few jobs>walmart opens some months ago>everybody is happy for the discount prices>tons of new jobsBasically the entire town is happy about this situation except for the faggot small store owner and his family. A sacrifice we are all willing to take.
>>736329108When's ConcernedApe going to let us convince Caroline to dump Pierre?
>>736329108and then once the small store is out of business the walmart jacks up its prices to be even higher than the small store.
>>736329108Because it's not really representative of the real economics at play, big box stores don't simply have better prices they have an entire established supply chain and own basically every facet of production that they can along the way small stores charge more because they actually reflect closer to what it would cost for you to procure/create the item yourselfone of the few places it does apply here in my town (2k population) are places like the veterinarian or the farmer's market
>>736329623Walmart prices are the same all over the country, so that's not true
>>736329769Least obvious paid shill. Are you even gonna fucking try.
>>736329769It's real on his mind, like all criticism of capitalism.
>>736329769prices are in fact not the same all over, for example Hawaii and New York are going to be more expensive>>736329837it's a valid criticism of capitalism, desusmall businesses used to provide economic security for the individuals involved
>>736329836Hey it's me, I work for Walmart and I get paid $59,000 a year to lurk online and shill the brand. Browsing /v/ was my lucky break, at least I thought. But you caught me in the act. Darn!
>>736329836Do you really believe Walmart is paying me to defend it here on /v/? I wish you were right but it's actually peak delusion on your part.
>>736329108small business owners are a plague
>>736329108Got similiar experiences to you except walmart never even arrived, people just drive to a different town to buy from the supermarket there instead. Small town prices suck some absolute dick, I lived next to one and still only went there for emergencies and stuff like milk at most.
>>736330023care to elaborate?
>>736329924>for example Hawaii and New YorkYou do realize that you named the two most communist places on the USA to attack capitalism, right?>b-but in these places where taxes are insanely high the prices of walmart are higher
>>736330149I'm not "attacking" capitalism.Texas is the cheapest version of Wal-Mart, I'm merely pointing out that what you said is incorrect.Wal-Mart will likely be cheaper on average, even in a place like Alaska. >taxesIt's really less to do with taxes as it is cost of living, Wal-Mart could actually end up in court if they set up in New York and used Texas prices.Though the irony here is that Texas has a pretty high cost of living in city centers.
>>736329924>small businesses used to provide economic security for the individuals involvedMore like provide economic security to the small business owner while everyone else gets fucked by the overpriced products.
all bourgeoisie are evil and deserve death, yes even the "small" business owners
>>736330329Their prices are only high in relation to massive chain enterprises. If Wal-Mart didn't exist most costs would even out to about the same, depending on the distance from the product's origin.
>>736330118corporations just coast on what works with the least amount of trouble and you never need to interact with management. small business cunts will constantly be in your face thinking they're god, will never pay a fair wage because they need their second summer home in the country and are the most likely to just never pay you because they probably fucking suck at running a business and will rather go out of business and try again then make sure youre looked after. they'll also steal tips if its not illegal, and even then they'll bank on the teenagers they hire to just never talk to a lawyerthey're little petty tyrants who think anything is justified because they had a "dream". that dream was of course maximum money for minimum effort, no matter how cute you think their signage is
Congratulations OP, you're discovering something that's been such common knowledge for so long that South Park already parodied it like 20 years ago, and it was already a trope for decades by then.
>>736330459As opposed to profits being funneled away to another state completely at your Wal-Mart?I don't think you have a real concept of what opening a business is like as an individual, Wal-Mart literally owns the companies that make their registers, shelves, etc. They have eliminated all their competitors and captured their markets via takeovers and buyouts, which is the only reason you can get such a low price. I personally have had a lot of decent jobs at small businesses, which is where I learned that the cost of business isn't as simple as you make it sound.
>>736329108>shop local>keep your money where you live>support your city's businesses>blah blah fuckity blah you're evil for using amazon or whatever>buy an appliance locally>it dies completely within a year and a half of light use>local store won't do shit for me whatsoever since I didn't buy some third party warranty from a known bullshit company>manager kicks me out of the store when I refuse to buy a new (and different, because they no longer sold the brand i bought) one for full price>order a new appliance directly from a different manufacturer and get 3yrs full (will replace if it's noisy or beat up) warranty and 10yrs limited (will replace if nonfunctional) warranty
>>736330601If it's such common knowledge then why did the Stardew Valley devs write that subplot like that?I'm not OP but something similar happened in my town. A wal-mart equivalent from my country opened here. The fun thing is, logic would tell you (and the game as well) that the small store owner would get completely fucked in this situation, but actually his sales changed very little.Turns out people were driving many towns over for their monthly groceries in another supermarket and were using the small store to buy certain key products that were not worth traveling to get anyway. So people will always keep buying from small stores as long as they are closer to their homes than the supermarket.The only way a small business would get absolutely fucked would be if a supermarket opens literally next to them, and even if that were to happen they would get almost an entire year to prepare while the construction of the supermarket completes.Imagine getting noticed that you are going to lose your job in about 12 months. That's a dream situation to any wageslave.
>playstarde expanded, go joja route>joja villain can be befriended>with time he reflects on his life, himself and others on the valley>end up bringing modernity to stardew valley>happy ending for everyonefuck pierre and the faggot sprites they might as well be worthless hippies.
>>736331272>joja villainJoja is the good ending, though.
>>736329108I used to live in the middle of nowhere (40 minutes to the nearest walmart) and small chain grocers were the best. Had the cheapest shit and good variety. The only non-chain grocers I've seen were ethnic and those are not expensive. Shit like Family Dollar or Dollar General are the real cancer that have the worst prices, the worst variety, the worst service AND don't provide many jobs to the area. Honestly don't know what you're talking about.
>>736330963I have not seen anyone offer a >1 year free warranty since covid.
>>736329108Local services almost always suck. And even if they didn't, getting blacklisted because you fucked the owner's daughter and called him a cuck is a real concern no one wants to bother witht. living in a 10k pop town
>>736331760And you consider that small? I've lived in places with a few hundred people. a 10k pop place would have enough alternatives in your example anyway.
>>736331841It's small enough for that shit to matter, a village like Stardew Valley would be hellish in that regard
>>736329623Exactly. It takes an incredibly naive person to not be familiar with the capitalist playbook in this day and age.
>>736329623Is there any actual truth to this, or is that just a myth?
>>736332532not true. Walmart is just cheap. Typically walmart is worth it if you can make the drive. If you want one thing, you just pay 1$ more close by instead of spending 40 minutes and gas going to walmart.
>>736332532Undercutting competitors just to price gouge the market is a real phenomena that happens but I don't think Walmart is doing that to small towns.
>>736330329Hey! I have the solution to your problem! Open up a store and sell everything at cost and only charge enough to cover utilities and other taxes and then work there for free after work/school! If the entire town takes turns, then you all probably only have to work there once a month or once every couple of months!
>>736332797Because a middle ground between work for free and have everything 3x more expensive doesn't exist?
>>736332797I have an even better solution to the problem: Get a walmart to open in town
>>736329623>>736332058>and then once the small store is out of business the walmart jacks up its prices to be even higher than the small store.ok and then people go to the Target or the Costco or the Tesco or the Whole Food's or the TJ Maxx or just order online
I got my yellow gameboy and my copy of pokemon blue at walmart. I still remember it was too dark to play on the ride home.
>>736332920>>736332939But you would only have to work once every couple of months or whatever and the food would literally be as cheap as humanly possible. If you want good shit, you're gonna have to sacrifice, you know that, right?
