Bentonville, Arkansas never knew what hit it - twice. The first time was when good-ol' country boy Sam Walton started his chain of small discount stores. Sam was as common as the day was long, and - even after he became a billionaire - he still drove around Bentonville in his rusty old pick-up truck and stopped in for coffee at the local breakfast nook. By the time he died, WalMart had become one of the most successful retail chains in America. Bentonville was crawling with vendors anxious to sell their goods to WalMart buyers. The sleepy little town grew into a bustling region of activity that some lifelong residents resented while others welcomed all the new business and media attention.
Sam's relatives transformed WalMart into the biggest retail chain in the world, browbeating vendors into selling to them at prices that bankrupted many manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors. By the end of the 20th century, many suppliers were simply refusing to sell to WalMart under the perception that it was better to stay in business at a profit than to work for nothing just to pacify WalMart's ruthless buyers. For more than ten years straight, at least four or five Walton descendatns were among the Forbes magazine "top ten" list of the world's wealthiest people. While many American consumers loved "Wally World" because of its perceived "low prices - everyday" - many more infomred shoppers refused to patronize the stores due to news reports of employee abuse and degradation - particular among employees in China, where WalMart actually had a bigger presence than in the U.S.A. Chinese workers were virtual slaves; if you dared call in sick, you lost your 16-hour-a-day job, that might have paid you a dollar, for a plastic piece of junk that WalMart would sell to its low-incomed customers for a "low" $6.99. WalMart would announce plans to open a new superstore in any given community, razzle-dazzle a gullible City Council with promises of creating new jobs and boosting the economy of the region. What they didn't tell the municipal leaders was how they would methodically run small independent stores out of business, create only minimum-wage part-time jobs, and take no active participation within the community. WalMart rarely, if ever, joined a local Chamber of Commerce or made donations to the local Kiwanis Club. It failed to boost the town's economic base because all the money WalMart customers spent went back to Bentonville instead of being re-distributed within the local community. In too many cases, civic leaders were duped, employees were treated shabbily, and the WalMart heirs reaped all the profit after all the economic raping and pillaging. By 2000, many municipalities were opposing WalMart's coming to town, sometimes against the wishes of the consumer-driven populations,
The second time Bentonville, Arkansas didn't know what hit it was on January 17, 2008. The huge WalMart compound had been completely destroyed by a few well-placed bombs, activated from cell phones in the hands of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. rebels.
Additionally, hundreds of WalMart's largest retail stores and warehouses around the country were reduced to rubble. Most of the corporation's top-echelon executives were killed. And four of the wealthiest Walton heirs were killed when explosions rocked their magnificent mansions in the Arkansas countryside. The town was in ruins, and the giant corporation now had no rudder. Those stores that had been spared were operating at a local level with local managers making local decisions. Even regional supervisors were at a loss as to what to do next. For more than three months the chain of discount stores had had no corporate leadership; yet, most surviving stores were doing well, selling merchandise, and attracting customers. Getting new merchandise was a challenge, and managers found themselves relying on local farms for much of their produce and fresh foods instead of waiting for WalMart trucks to ship it in from corporate frams 1,500 miles away.
WalMart was just one of the many retail chains that had been obliterated by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. revolutionists. Sears, K-Mart, Target, J.C. Penney, Albertson's, Safeway, and many other large chains were in turmoil, unable to operate due to the loss of human and physical resources. Whether by design, or sheerly by accident, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had breathed life back into tens of thousands of small businesses that for years had fell victim to the encroachment of these mega-stores. Some local stores were even buying merchandise from chains tore managers that had not been damaged when their stores had been bombed.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members broadly encouraged American citizens to "shop locally" instead of relying on those big box stores, the Internet, or mail order catalogs.
One chain that saw little disruption was Cosco, a discounter with a difference. The CEO of this store actually wore a name tag like every other employee with only his first name. Employees and customers were treated with respect, dignity, and fairness. Pay scales were adequate, and usually more than competitive in most markets, and Cosco usually involved itself in the local communities. With some local stores unable to purchase goods from their usual distribution sources, Cosco often provided merchandise to those merchants at its cost, enabling many small businesses to stay afloat in a time of national crisis.
Across America, the retail industry had changed dramatically overnight. Now, for almost four months, American consumers were coming back to locally-owned, independently-operated stores for neighborly service, competitive pricing, and a sense of community that so many chain stores had traditionally neglected. Chambers of Commerce thrived in many communities, as did the local chapters of the Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary service clubs. Just as many citizens were returning to their churches and synagogues, many shoppers were returning to the businesses that truly created and maintained a community's economic base. 'Common' citizens, 'common' ideas, 'common' businesses, and the 'common' good prevailed across the nation. It was one more splendiferous sign of significant, positive change coming out of a horrific series of man-made and natural disasters.