Are groceries political?

I stopped at the new Walmart "Neighborhood Grocery" across from Harker Heights HS tonight.  They seemed to be doing a booming business.  But I left without buying anything  The produce was unappealing and prices were just enough higher than HEB's to irritate me.  The employees were grim-faced and looked harassed, which probably is explained by opening-week jitters.

The market will decide if Walmart succeeds against entrenched HEB, IGA, KMart, Target, and OMA stores in Killeen.  But there is a local political aspect to the grocery wars.  Walmart wants to open a second "neighborhood grocery" at 38th and Rancier in Killeen.  It's in an area that is a couple of miles from the big HEB and Walmart stores and which is served mainly by an aging IGA in the Eastlake shopping center and an aged HEB at 8th and Rancier.  The area, while not depressed, is not thriving, either: some of the least-livable areas of Killeen are within a 2 mile radius of the proposed location.

So we ought to be happy and excited about this development, right?  Probably, but maybe not.  Here are some concerns (and I think some of them rise to the level of political concerns) about a Walmart grocery coming to north Killeen:

• Walmart is not a good neighbor.  The chain has a reputation of not playing nice and of raising prices in areas where their stores gain dominance.  Towns and neighborhoods where Walmart becomes the dominant vendor are rarely described as "better off" than they were before the takeover.
• Walmart has a reputation for costing a community more than they bring to it.  With great success comes great power, and, apparently, low wages and government assistance for employees.
• Walmart exploits workers, both domestically (especially where the become the dominant retail vendor) and internationally.
• It will be great if Walmart's coming means we have more choices on the north side of town -- HEB, IGA and Walmart -- but what if it instead reduces the choices, to Walmart and HEB, or Walmart alone?  I don't see this increasing the quality of life for citizens of the 1st and 2nd wards.