Walmart and Amazon are in a neck-and-neck race over online sales and delivery to rural Americans

Adobe Stock photo

America's biggest retail giants, Walmart and Amazon, are going head-to-head in a bid for online sales domination by delivering to rural areas "once deemed too remote or unprofitable," reports Anne d'Innocenzio of the Independent. "These sparsely populated regions, previously overlooked by major retailers, are now recognized as a significant source of untapped sales."

Walmart seems to have the upper hand because of the proximity of its brick-and-mortar stores to rural communities. D'Innocenzio explains, "Nearly half (45%) of its full-service Supercenters are located in towns with populations under 20,000."

Even with Walmart's edge, Amazon is betting speedy and accurate delivery will help it outperform the competition. D'Innocenzio reports, "Amazon last year invested $4 billion to bring same-day or next-day deliveries to 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities."

Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate the pot of money rural deliveries will generate rings in at $1 trillion in annual sales, d'Innocenzio explains. With that amount of revenue on the table, the race for the rural online consumer has "intensified."

Part of the reason rural and underserved delivery areas are now getting noticed is because of their changing demographics. D'Innocenzio adds, "This surge is partly driven by the increasing number of remote workers relocating to smaller towns and communities on the outskirts of metropolitan areas."

Until recently, delivering to a more remote address generally posed a problem for companies, who in turn relied on the U.S. Postal Service to go "the last mile" to reach the customer.

Now Walmart is using more delivery drones and robotics, paired with a new delivery mapping system to speed package fulfillment. D'Innocenzio reports, "The system replaced traditional service boundaries like ZIP codes, which can leave out small areas at the edges."

Amazon is taking a different approach by "setting up small delivery stations to serve a group of nearby communities based on travel drive time, customer demand, and delivery efficiency," d'Innocenzio adds.

Quick hits: Cold Case Card Deck to solve crimes; USPS podcast; Walmart's new milk plant; states snip SNAP snacks

Maine State Police hope their card deck 
will generate tips on unsolved cases. 
(Maine State Police photo via Midcoast Villager)

The Maine State Police are launching a Cold Case Deck of Cards initiative to generate leads for unsolved cases. "The deck features 52 of Maine State Police’s unsolved homicides and suspicious missing person cases and will be distributed to inmates in correctional facilities across the state," reports Jim Leonard of the Midcoast Villager. "This marks the first time the concept has been implemented in Maine. Similar initiatives in more than two dozen states have been credited with helping solve multiple homicide investigations."

Just because cranberries are tart doesn't mean they require a ton of sugar to become tasty. "Diabetics or anyone who wants to reduce the added sugars they’re consuming can try a few culinary tactics to lower their sugar intake while still enjoying this holiday treat," writes food scientist Rosemary Trout for The Conversation. "Don’t cook your cranberries much longer after they pop. You’ll still have a viscous cranberry liquid without the need for as much sugar. … For a richer flavor and a glossy quality, add butter. … Adding chopped walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts can slow glucose absorption, so your blood glucose may not spike as quickly."

In a tribute to snail mail and history buffs, a new podcast, "People of Agency," offers listening excursions into "the stories of individuals who have shaped USPS over its 250-year history," reports Sean Michael Newhouse of Government Executive. The show is co-created and co-hosted by Aileen Day, a political communications consultant, and Maia Warner-Langenbahn, who co-hosts the "Well, I Laughed" podcast. In the show's first episode, the duo recount the story of Mary Katherine Goddard, who was "put in charge of Baltimore’s mail in 1775 and printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence that listed all of its signatories."

In a bid to have more control over production and supply, Walmart recently opened its "second U.S.-owned milk processing facility in Valdosta, Ga., a $350-million plant supplying milk to more than 650 Southeast stores," reports Taylor Leach of Dairy Herd. While the company does purchase milk from local farmers, "some critics have warned Walmart buys milk from only a handful of large farms, putting smaller farms under further pressure. … The opening also follows Walmart’s recent investments in case-ready beef plants in Thomasville, Ga., and Olathe, Kansas."

Shaking your real Christmas tree before bringing it 
into your home can keep bugs from coming inside.

The holidays can be full of surprises, but discovering six-legged stowaways in your freshly cut Christmas tree shouldn't be one of them. "Bringing a real Christmas tree into your warm living room can accidentally wake up thousands of dormant bugs, turning your cozy holiday into a surprise visit from nature," reports Jenn Jordan of The Weather Channel. To prevent insect or spider visitors from entering your home, while your tree is still outside, give it more than one seriously hard shake. Many tree farms use mechanical shakers, which can also do the trick.

From the bubonic plague to cholera pandemics to deadly staph infections, bacterial illnesses often pose one of the biggest challenges to human survival. But with innovation, microorganisms can also help humans do remarkable things. "In the boulder-strewn desert east of Tucson, Arizona, miners are using sulfuric acid and bacteria to bring online the first new U.S. copper production in more than a decade," reports Ryan Dezember of The Wall Street Journal. Advances in technology are key to how this copper is mined. The enterprise uses "microbes to strip copper from ores that are otherwise uneconomical to mine." The Grand Canyon's state motto just happens to be Ditat Deus, which is Latin for "God Enriches." Last year, 70% of U.S. copper came from Arizona.

A total of 18 states have banned some non-nutritious foods from SNAP purchases. 
(Axios graph, from USDA data)

More states are restricting junk food purchases with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to increase the federal funding they receive. "Six more states agreed to ban the use of SNAP benefits for junk food under new deals with the Trump administration," reports April Rubin of Axios. "The new waivers restrict the purchase of non-nutritious items like soda, energy drinks, certain juices, prepared desserts and candy." While which foods and drinks are restricted varies by state, all states with added nutritional restrictions will all receive more federal dollars to support their SNAP programs.

Cattle ranchers concerned about Walmart’s impact on U.S. beef industry

Photo by Tyler Delgado, Unsplash

Walmart’s new beef processing plant in Kansas has raised concerns among cattle ranchers that Walmart “will soon look to drive down the price it pays for cattle,” John McCracken reported for Investigate Midwest.

The U.S. beef industry is already struggling. There is a dwindling domestic herd, and four companies control most of the nation’s supply of beef, which makes it hard for independent ranchers to remain in the market.

Additionally, America imports a large amount of beef from JBS, a Brazilian meat processing company, which just went public on the New York Stock Exchange. To Mike Callicrate, a rancher and an advocate for family farms, the entry of JBS into the American stock market is a sign that independent ranchers are going to go out of business.

Big companies, with no other competition, will be able to set the prices as they see fit, completely dominating the market.

An example of this was when Walmart opened a milk-processing plant in Indiana in 2018. As a result Walmart milk prices rose, according to former Walmart CEO of American stores Greg Foran.

“The writing is on the wall,” CEO Bill Bullard of R-CALF said in an interview with McCracken. “We will continue to see more ranchers exit the industry, and we will continue to see fewer cows in the U.S beef cow herd. Walmart is simply just another step in the road to fully integrated, industrialized food production.”

Quick hits: Wallet-draining breakfast prices; the 'Walmart effect;' rural short story winner; bird flu stats; shouses

Photo by E. Aceron, Unsplash

Budget-busting beef with eggs and coffee breakfasts won't be cheaper anytime soon. "While commodities such as beef and eggs have long been volatile, others such as coffee have jumped in price more recently," report Patrick Thomas, David Uberti and Elizaveta Galkina of The Wall Street Journal. "Average prices for food at home rose in November by the largest annual pace in a year. . . . Store-bought ground [coffee] roasts have jumped 11% in price over the past year to an all-time high." In slightly less of a buzzkill, pork prices have remained steady, and "the average price of white bread is down around 3% over the past year."

Walmart's motto is "save money, live better," but oftentimes, that's not what happens to places after Walmart moves in. "New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer — even taking into account its famous low prices," reports Rogé Karma for The Atlantic. "Walmart’s many defenders argue that the company is a boon to poor and middle-class families, who save thousands of dollars every year shopping there. . . .Two new research papers challenge that view." Read the research here.

Haworth's character, Michael, decides to venture home.
(Photo by Julian Scholl, Unsplash)

When one season of life ends, another begins -- or does it? Jeremy Haworth's short story "Blood Brother" explores Michael Riordan's path from retirement boredom to the uncertainty of going home. Haworth writes, "The sudden thought of home occurred to him. . . . Years had elapsed since he had crossed the threshold of the old farmstead. But the twinge in his chest told him time was shortening. The thought of death. . . an instinct to finally lay the ghosts of the past to rest. . ." Hadworth's story is the winner of the second annual “Best in Rural Writing Contest” presented by the rural literary journal The Milk House with support from The Daily Yonder.

The spread of bird flu or H5N1 in dairy cows has put many dairy farmers and consumers on edge. To help measure and mitigate the virus in cow herds, the Department of Agriculture rolled out mandated milk testing in December. The USDA is sharing its testing results with up-to-date graphics of confirmed bird flu cases, also called HPAI, found in U.S. herds. Over the past 30 days, testing found 182 new cases in two states. See the details here.

Shouses don't have to be small. This shouse is located in Okeana, a small unincorporated
community in rural Ohio. (Morton Buildings photo)

Rural landscapes have made room for country-living architecture that goes beyond barn-shaped homes and wood cabins. "Barndominiums" and "shouses" are dotting the countryside in surprising numbers. "Look carefully the next time you’re driving on the back roads of America, and you’re bound to spot a shouse — a hulking rectangular structure. . . . It could easily be mistaken for a machine shed," reports Dionne Searcey of The New York Times. "From the outside, shouses look a lot like the better-known barndominiums, or barndos for short. . . . It’s difficult to trace the genesis of shouses. . ."

'Fancy mechanic' Brienna Hall works for a company few have heard of doing work vital to maintaining all the tech in our lives. "The piece of equipment that the entire world has come to rely on — and Hall is specially trained to handle — is called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine," reports Ben Cohen of The Wall Street Journal. "It’s the machine that produces the most advanced microchips on the planet . . . maybe the most remarkable thing about these invaluable machines is that they’re all made by the same company: ASML. . . . This one Dutch company is responsible for all of the EUV lithography systems that help make the chips in so many of your devices. Like your phone. And your computer. And your tablet. And your TV. Maybe even your car, too."

With its $12.98 T-shirt, this company shows how retail apparel production can thrive in the U.S.

American Giant photo via The Wall Street Journal

It isn't fancy -- it's practical. It's sold at Walmart, but it's no import. It's a "Made in America" T-shirt woven with U.S. cotton sold by an American company making a tidy profit off its $12.98 tee, reports Suzanne Kapner of The Wall Street Journal. The T-shirt maker, American Giant, used the "heft" of Walmart's guaranteed sales contracts to garner enough investor support to make affordable "Made in the USA" apparel items possible.

American Giant's success wasn't spurred by tariffs on Chinese imports. Instead, it was Walmart's 2013 pledge to spend more on items that were made, grown or assembled in the U.S. that helped the company grow. Kapner explains, "In 2021, Walmart increased its goal and promised to spend billions more each year through 2030."

Bayard Winthrop, the chief executive of American Giant, said that "without Walmart acting as a backstop by committing to buy a predetermined number of shirts over time, American Giant’s suppliers wouldn’t have had the confidence to make the investments in automation and other upgrades that drove down production costs," Kapner writes. "The T-shirt project brought together what Winthrop has called 'strange bedfellows.'"

The T-shirt is made out of "yarn that is grown, spun, dyed and sewn in the U.S., contracting with suppliers mainly in the Southeast," Kapner reports. "It also owns a cutting and sewing facility in Middlesex, N.C., and is part owner in another sewing facility in Los Angeles, which opened specifically to make the Walmart T-shirts."

Even with its $12.98 price tag, American Giant's Walmart T-shirt competes against similar 100% cotton tees at half the price. American Giant differentiates itself with American emblems, which other apparel makers cannot use. Kapner explains, "Walmart bars suppliers from using the term 'American Made' or the American flag on products that aren’t made in the U.S."

So far, the $12.98 T-shirt boasts solid sales and "American Giant is making 100% cotton sweatshirts for Walmart that will sell for $38.98," Kapner reports. Despite the company's success, "it is unclear how much Americans care about buying products made in the U.S. . . . With the uptick of inflation in recent years, budget-minded shoppers have become even more price conscious."

Grocery store chains still use 'old-school' spying to out-price competitors. The practice has piqued antitrust interests.

Kroger ads provide competitors price information, but
"spies" also visit stores in person.

When big grocery stores battle for market share, most chains deploy old-timey spies who sleuth prices, quality and customer behaviors. The "old-school tactics are fueling the government’s case against Kroger-Albertsons deal," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "Grocery-store operators scrutinize the websites and promotions of rivals and send managers to walk through competitors’ stores to help establish what shoppers will pay for items."

In the case of the proposed $20 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, how grocery stores compete matters. Government antitrust lawyers seek to block the merger because grocery companies "commonly use rivals’ prices as a benchmark in setting their own," Thomas explains. "Federal Trade Commission attorneys argued that Kroger won’t have the same incentive to lower prices in its stores without Albertsons. Price checks can provide a ceiling for what grocers charge shoppers."

While antitrust lawyers say competition between big grocery store chains helps keep prices down, attorneys for Kroger say merging with Albertsons will enable them to compete with Walmart. Thomas adds, "Kroger and Albertsons also said they price check against a number of different competitors in a given area, including Walmart, Target, and Amazon.com’s Whole Foods Market, not just each other."

Still, the active competition between grocers demonstrates how prices can be affected by grocery store sleuthing. James McCann, the former chief executive of grocery chain Ahold USA, told Thomas, "It’s about the perception of price in your store. If you are expensive, a lot of customers will migrate to other places." Thomas reports, "McCann said it is common to send an employee across the street to a competitor three times a week to check prices on about 30 items."

Even though Walmart is the world's largest retailer, it also uses old-school spying to gain market knowledge, and in turn, the company uses that on-the-ground information to squeeze cheaper prices out of suppliers. Thomas adds, "The retailer also has regional managers visit competitors and its buyers pressure suppliers to offer lower wholesale prices if managers find items sold cheaper elsewhere, people familiar with the process said."

Independent rural groceries seeing a boost during pandemic

File under "silver linings": Though rural independent grocery stores have been increasingly struggling in recent years, the covid-19 pandemic has provided them an unexpected economic lift.

It comes at a good time. Chains like Walmart and Dollar General have siphoned many customers from independent rural grocers in recent years, and "wholesale distributors have consolidated, making it challenging to find vendors that are even interested in supplying small stores," Nathaniel Meyersohn reports for CNN. "And sales have dried up as the population has declined in many rural areas and some jobs have shifted outside small towns to larger suburbs and cities."

The pandemic has brought increased traffic to independent local groceries as customers seek to stay close to home and avoid crowds, or hunt down necessities that may be out of stock at bigger stores, Meyersohn reports. But, though smaller grocers have tried to expand online ordering and delivery, such efforts eat into independent grocers' already thin profit margins.

The pandemic could accelerate consumer preference for online ordering, which could hurt independent rural grocers after the pandemic, said Jordan White, who owns five groceries in Kansas.

Trump administration shielded Walmart from criminal prosecution over opioid prescriptions, investigation finds

A ProPublica investigation has found that top Department of Justice officials shielded Walmart from criminal prosecution in 2018 for allowing suspicious opioid prescriptions to be filled over the objections of thousands of Walmart pharmacists. This happened as the Trump administration told the public it would crack down on those responsible for the opioid epidemic, Jesse Eisinger and James Bandler report. Their blockbuster report is based on Walmart internal emails and documents, legal correspondence, and interviews with nine people familiar with the investigation.

Joe Brown, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, and a team of employees including Heather Rattan, who has spent most of her career prosecuting drug cartels, began investigating Walmart in 2016. According to the evidence they gathered, Walmart pharmacists in Texas and other states reported hundreds of thousands of suspicious or inappropriate opioid prescriptions to their supervisors. They knew these opioids were being prescribed by "pill mill" doctors, and begged the corporate office to allow them to refuse to honor such prescriptions. Some of the doctors had been banned from sending prescriptions to all of Walmart's major competitors.

Walmart corporate officials didn't take broad action in response to these claims at the time, even though some customers who got those prescriptions died from overdose. The company said it could not cut off a doctor entirely, and that each prescription must be evaluated individually, the Texas prosecutors found. Some doctors were only banned after prosecutors began investigating Walmart, Eisinger and Bandler report. But pharmacists in some states had limited power to block individual doctors because of protective measures by state boards of pharmacy and medical boards.

The company appeared primarily concerned with the profitability of such opioid prescriptions: "An opioid compliance manager told an executive in an email, gathered during the inquiry and viewed by ProPublica, that Walmart’s focus should be on 'driving sales'," Eisinger and Bandler report.

It wasn't the first time Walmart had gotten in trouble for failing to vet opioid prescriptions; in 2011 the company entered into a secret settlement with the Drug Enforcement Administration in a similar case and promised to make greater efforts to curb improper filling of opioid prescriptions, admitting no wrongdoing. That settlement has not been previously reported. "Walmart had repeatedly run afoul of the Controlled Substances Act," Eisinger and Bandler report. " The company had received more than 50 'Letters of Admonition' from the DEA for its prescribing practices from 2000 to 2018, according to records obtained by ProPublica."

In 2018, Rattan, the federal prosecutor in East Texas, told Walmart she was going to indict it for violating the act, an unheard-of step against a Fortune 500 company, for failing to properly track and report suspicious opioid prescriptions.   Walmart had admitted to mistakes and appeared open to a civil settlement, but stopped cooperating with prosecutors in mid-2018. Through law firm Jones Day, which has deep ties throughout the government, Walmart "added a Trumpian tactic: At a moment when the president had established a habit of attacking the investigators in his own government, the company followed a similarly aggressive approach," Eisinger and Bandler report. "Walmart lawyers complained to Washington about the Texas prosecutors, accusing them of seeking to 'embarrass' the company while using the threat of criminal charges to extort a larger civil fine. Criminal and civil investigations can run in parallel, but it’s an ethical violation for prosecutors to use the threat of criminal penalties to generate a higher civil settlement."

A Walmart lawyer also said in a letter to a Justice Department official that criminally convicting Walmart could harm millions of senior citizens and low-income people who rely on federal programs for food and medicine, since a convicted corporation might be barred from participating in such programs. As prosecutors continued their chase, "Walmart exercised its PR and political muscle," Eisinger and Bandler report: In May 2018, the company announced it would limit first-time opioid prescriptions to no more than a seven-day supply.

Walmart got high-ranking Justice employees to intervene, and the department informed Walmart that it would decline to prosecute. The prosecutors didn't give up, and in October 2018 got a sympathetic ear from acting DEA Director Uttam Dhillon. They all headed to Main Justice to meet with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He refused to revive the criminal case, and suggested prosecution of individual employees. But Justice blocked that too, and Trump appointees in the department consistently sided with Walmart when the team filed a civil case, Eisinger and Bandler report. One of the Texas prosecutors resigned in protest in October 2019.

Big-box stores try to get lower taxes, hurting towns' coffers

"Big-box retailers and other businesses around the U.S. in recent years have been battling with local governments to get the assessed value of their stores lowered so that they can pay less in property taxes," Bill Lucia reports for Route Fifty. "In some cases, where their appeals are successful, cities and counties can end up owing the companies sizable tax refunds. The localities are also forced to grapple with the long-term effects of the lost revenue, which can mean shifting tax burdens onto others or service cuts."

Property-tax cuts particularly hurt public schools, which depend heavily on such revenue for funding, and can make a big difference in small-town budgets. In Franklin County, Missouri, for example, Walmart wants the county government to halve the assessed value of its two stores there. The county had appraised the properties at more than $24.8 million, but Walmart claims the value is just over $14 million, Monte Miller reports for The Missourian in Washington, Mo. Walmart and other large retailers are pursuing the same strategy in stores all over the country.

Businesses that seek such a reassessment are employing a tax-avoidance strategy some call "dark-store theory." Essentially, "this involves retailers and others appealing property tax assessments on the grounds that their active stores should be valued in line with similar property that is vacant," Lucia reports. "The thinking goes that even though a big-box store may be valuable to its current owner, it’s worth far less on the resale market. Among the reasons that this argument can gain traction is that the stores are often built for a business's specific needs and aren’t easily repurposed, and because there’s a growing abundance of empty retail space available around the country."

Indiana state Rep. Lisa Beck filed a bill this week that aims to help communities who lose tax battles with big-box stores. The bill would allow local governments and school districts to get zero- or low-interest loans to help them cope with the loss of revenue, Lucia reports.

Quick hits: old rural hospitals need widespread repairs; rural Italian restaurant gives felons a second chance

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

An Italian restaurant in rural California gives felons a second chance. Read more here.

The absence of coordinated federal policies and little regulatory accountability are some of the reasons rural areas still lack broadband, writes the CEO of a fiber-optic internet service provider. Large telecoms have lobbied for laws to block restrict local broadband projects, and such laws have passed in 19 states. But local solutions tend to be better, he writes. Read more here.

America's aging hospitals need widespread structural repairs and aren't ready to be wired up for new health technology such as telemedicine, according to an op-ed. Read more here.

As part of its efforts to strengthen ties with law enforcement, Walmart stores have begun reserving prime parking spots for police officers. Read more here.

VA puts telehealth sites at Walmarts and VFW posts

In an effort to reach more rural veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs is adding telehealth diagnostic facilities at selected Walmarts and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts.

The VA announced in August a partnership with health technology company Philips to implement the Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations (ATLAS) pilot program at rural VFW posts in Linesville, Penn.; Los Banos, Calif.; and Eureka, Mont., Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder.

Walmart donated space and equipment in five stores across the country for similar telehealth locations. In December, the first Walmart ATLAS site opened in Asheboro, North Carolina. Four more ATLAS sites are slated to open in Boone, N.C.; Fond du Lac, Wisc.; Howell, Michigan; and Keokuk, Iowa, Carey reports.

"The Veterans Administration has faced harsh congressional criticism for wait times for veterans to get in to see VA healthcare providers," Carey reports. "The VA estimates that nearly 5.2 million veterans, or about a third, live in rural areas and have to travel long distances to access care at a VA hospital. That’s up from 5 million veterans living in rural areas in 2017, according to the U. S. Census Bureau."

Quick hits: Appalachian Trail mural project; how a Texas town bounced back after losing its Walmart

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A rural Wisconsin doctor fights to manage patients' opioid use amid the addiction crisis. Read more here.

Proposed bipartisan legislation would expand federal housing aid to rural volunteer firefighters and first responders. Read more here.

An op-ed writer writes about why rural voices must be included in the renewable energy debate. Read more here.

Here's how one small Texas town rebounded after it lost its Walmart. Read more here.

An art project reflects the beauty of nature through murals in towns along the Appalachian Trail. Read more here.

Newspapers must show their complacent communities that they are an essential civic asset, not like 'news from Google'

By Al Cross, Professor and Director
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

Does the reportedly mixed reaction to the death of a small newspaper on the Lake of the Woods show we are in "the golden age of ignorance," as Minnesota Public Radio blogger Bob Collins declared? Maybe, if newspapers can't convince communities that they are an essential civic asset.

Richard Fausset of The New York Times looks over a proof of the
final edition with Publisher Rebecca Colden. (Photo: John Engler, MPR)

Collins followed up on MPR reporter John Engler's report on this week's demise of the Warroad Pioneer, one of three weeklies in Roseau County, on Minnesota's northern border. Engler paraphrased New York Times reporter Richard Fausset: "He said he spent a week in Warroad, talking to locals about the paper closing. He admitted that most folks, outside of the Pioneer staff and their husbands, didn't seem too broken up about it."

Fausset disputed that, in an interview with me: "I talked to a lot of people who were very worried the newspaper was going to quit. What MPR reported does not accurately reflect what I found in the town. There are a number of people concerned about what happens next."

Engler did a little of his own reporting on the point. After paraphrasing Fausset, he wrote: "Out on the streets of Warroad, a handful of locals backed up his assessment," and cited one as saying that "he gets his news from Google, 'just like everybody else'."

That comment reflects "monumental ignorance," said Reed Anfinson, former president of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson, in central Minnesota. "There is no local civic reporting from Google. Google captures our work and pirates it – if it is available."

Anfinson also said, "A reporter finding some disgruntled, or disinterested, people and using them to imply definitive assessment of the community’s feelings about the newspaper, I find troubling."

Publisher Rebecca Colden told me, "There were people coming in throughout the day who said just the opposite." Interviewed before Fausset was, she said, "I think Richard's saying they're just complacent with the value of a newspaper. They like it, but they don’t value it as they should."

Colden said that feeling played a role in her decision to get out of the newspaper business. She said she met with many people in the community, looking for ways to rejuvenate the paper, but "The challenge was that there is a complacency within these small communities, that they just feel like the paper will always be there, especially a paper of this age." The Pioneer lasted more than 120 years.

And it wasn't as if she hadn't warned the whole town, in stark fashion. Colden said the Pioneer was the first of many Minnesota newspapers to run a blank front page in 2017, asking readers to imagine that there was no local paper. She told me that she did the sort of accountability news coverage that readers expect, and "They’re gonna miss all the information they didn't know they needed."

Colden said she could have borrowed more money and taken the risk of converting to free, total-market circulation, "but I need to know that there's really community buy-in to do that, and . . . the community buy-in was really lacking." She said that showed in school news, a local-paper staple: "Teachers and coaches just throw some things up on social media rather than send it to the paper."

Engler reported that Fausset was assigned to "tell the story of the prototypical American small town losing its voice." If so, he seems to have made a good choice; the paper is like many rural weeklies that have closed in the last 15 years: in a small town outside a county seat, with a shrinking advertising base and independent ownership that couldn't find a suitable successor or buyer.

Roseau County, Minnesota (Google map)

Colden said she couldn't work out a deal with the paper's former owners, who have five nearby weeklies based in nearby Baudette. That was after she'd considered going to free distribution, which she concluded was too risky, and tried to compete more directly with the county-seat paper, the Roseau Times-Region, 22 miles away. As often happens, local loyalties trumped other factors, Colden said: "Because of that community loyalty over there, we were never able to capture that advertising base."

She said her local ad base has shriveled because Marvin Windows and Doors, the main local employer, has "a new generation of workers" who were more willing than their predecessors to shop in other towns. "It doesn't bug them to drive two hours to go to Walmart," she said, so more than a dozen of Warroad's approximately 50 storefronts are empty. "We're really a community in transition."

The Pioneer's death "is more than a one-off loss of a newspaper," Anfinson wrote. "I am hearing from newspaper publishers and executive directors of state newspaper associations that their concerns about the future of small-town weekly newspapers is growing." Almost a year ago, Anfinson was featured in a Rural Blog item headlined, "Times get tougher for rural newspapers."

Now it seems even tougher. As the old saying has it, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And prove to their communities that they are needed.

Struggling dairy farms should form a cooperative like tobacco growers did decades ago, Wendell Berry writes

Berry (Photo by Guy Mendes)

To save their farms, struggling small dairies should consider banding together in a cooperative as tobacco farmers did decades ago, author and farmer Wendell Berry writes for the Henry County Local in Kentucky. In March, the Sentinel-News in nearby Shelbyville reported that Dean Foods ended its milk-procurement contracts with dozens of small dairy farmers in Kentucky, and others nationwide, as of May 31. Walmart, Dean's largest regional buyer, plans to start processing its own milk.

"The story of Dean Foods’ cancelled contracts is a representative piece of the story of rural America since the 1950s, when [President] Eisenhower’s secretary of agriculture told farmers to 'get big or get out,'" Berry writes. "And so the story of rural America has been the story of the dispossession of millions of farm families, the disintegration of rural communities, and the destruction of small businesses and small towns."

Berry writes that, from what he's read, Kentucky's agricultural offices and organizations don't seem to have a solution to the problem of overproduction or much help for farmers affected by it. They also don't blame Walmart for it. Shelby County Extension Agent Corrine Belton told the Sentinel-News, "It's not Walmart's fault; they just made the best business decision for them."

Berry also notes that, according to Reace Smith of Dean Foods, American dairy farms are producing about 350 million more gallons of milk each year than the year before. That benefits huge agribusinesses because it's less efficient and profitable for large corporate customers to buy from many small dairies.

The best solution, he writes, is the one proposed by dairy farmer Gary Rock in the News-Sentinel article: a nationwide cooperative that sets production quotas in line with market demands. The Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, which Berry's father helped create, is a good model, he believes. "That organization effectively controlled production, maintained fair prices, and gave the same protections to small producers as to large ones," Berry writes. "The history of the Burley Association disproves, as its membership conscientiously rejected, the 'inevitability' of the destruction of family farms by agribusiness corporations."

Walmart stops paying more for working on Sunday

Walmart, which in 2011 discontinued premium pay on Sundays for new hires, has now discontinued the practice for employees hired before the practice was halted, Lydia DePillis reports for The Washington Post. Walmart is disproportionately located in rural areas, and Sunday premium pay was typically considered a reward for coming in on a day many considered a day of rest. Craig Rowley, a retail compensation consultant with Korn Ferry, told DePillis, "When I was growing up, Sundays were kind of family day, church day. As we’ve gotten to be a more secular society, staying at home on Sunday is not necessarily expected. 'We’re all going to be here all day Sunday' is not as strong a cultural norm."

Instead of premium pay for Sundays, "those who had continued to receive it will receive a lump sum equal to half the amount of Sunday pay they received last year, according to a company release in January outlining a handful of adjustments that Walmart explained were a way of 'simplifying its pay structure'—and reducing the overall cost of increasing base wages to $10 an hour across the board," DePillis writes.

"In cutting Sunday pay, Walmart is actually behind most of the retail industry, which made that change as legal requirements to pay more on Sundays were stricken from state laws across the country," DePillis writes. "So-called 'blue laws' once prohibited Sunday commerce altogether in 34 states in the 1960s. They were often weakened through compromise, with higher pay mandated in exchange for shopping being legalized. Even with no mandate, premium pay was often what the labor market demanded."

"Sunday premium pay hasn't disappeared as quickly from other sectors, such as manufacturing and transportation, which have held on to a more traditional five or six-day work schedule," DePillis writes. "Most federal employees are still entitled to time and a half on Sundays. But more and more of their neighbors in the private sector won't be so lucky." (Read more)

Many Walmart closings are in poor, rural areas; reporter examines impact on one Appalachian town

Walmart's announcement last month that it will close 154 stores will have the greatest impact on poor rural areas, Tim Meko and Lydia DePillis report for The Washington Post. Of the 154 stores closing 96 are in low-income, low-density and predominately rural areas, mostly in the Southeast. Of those 96 stores, 88 are Walmart Express stores, which were created as "part of a pilot program intended to compete with dollar stores." (Post map: Stores closing in mainly low-income, low-density rural areas)

Losing a Walmart could be lethal for some towns that are barely holding on, DePillis writes in another story for the Post. Residents of Kimball, W.Va., which is already reeling from the loss of mining jobs, fear that losing its Walmart could be the end of the town. "In Raymondville, Texas, the disappearance of tax income from Walmart could force city layoffs. In Oriental, N.C. the arrival of a Walmart Express had been the final straw for a local grocery store, leaving the community with few options for food—also the case in Juneau, Alaska; Fairfield, Ala.; and Winnsboro, S.C."

While Walmart officials cite financial performance as the primary factor in closing stores, an analysis by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that 89 percent of stores to be closed are "in states with higher-than-average square footage per capita. According to Walmart itself, 95 percent of the closures are within 10 miles of another Walmart." That suggests the company overbuilt, perhaps in areas that have stagnant or declining population.

Walmart, the largest private employer in West Virginia, in 2005 transformed a former K-mart in Kimball (Best Places map) into a Walmart "to fill a gap between two other towns both about an hour’s drive away," DePillis writes. "It did so — but in January the massive retailer announced its 'sharpened focus on portfolio management' and the revenue in Kimball wasn’t quite enough to sustain the location, according to McDowell County Commission chairman Harold McBride."

"The company didn’t get what it wanted in profits," DePillis reports. "But the store certainly met many needs of the community. Some are obvious: A second option for shoppers who wanted fresh, affordable food in a place with only one other full-service grocer. And jobs—140 of them that will be difficult to replace. But Walmart’s disappearance will have more subtle ripple effects, like a drop in traffic to the small neighboring hotel and gas station, and the loss of a place to buy phone cards and hire tax preparation help. It was the main donor to the local food bank, and contributed $65,000 annually in taxes to the county, most of which goes to the school district."

Walmart removes 'Made in the U.S.A' logo from website after origin of products questioned

Retail giant Walmart has been forced to remove "Made in the U.S.A." labels from its website, under suspicion that some of those products were made in other countries, Phil Wahba reports for Fortune.

The Federal Trade Commission, which had conducted an inquiry into Walmart, said "that it would not pursue action against Walmart because the retailer had taken voluntary steps to 'prevent consumer deception,'" Wahba writes. "Those included removing 'Made in USA' logos from product listings on its website and removing U.S. country of origin claims that appeared in product descriptions or titles. In some cases it is also making more detailed disclosures regarding the percentage of U.S. content contained in the product."

Walmart announced in 2013 intentions "to source an additional $250 billion worth of U.S-made goods over the following decade, part of a campaign to improve its reputation as a corporate citizen," Wahba writes. "The strategy also has a sound business case: a Consumer Reports survey this year found 80 percent of Americans prefer to buy Made-in-the-USA products when possible." But watchdog group Truth in Advertising "said it found more than 100 examples of items labeled with a 'Made in the U.S.A' logo on Walmart’s web site that misled consumers." A Walmart spokesman said some of the items were mislabeled because of coding errors. (Read more)

Walmart phasing out assault weapons; company cites dwindling customer demand

Walmart, the nation's largest retailer and a staple in rural areas, announced it is phasing out assault weapons, not because of political reasons, but because of lagging interest from customers, Sarah Halzack reports for The Washington Post. The chain, which is in the process of fully phasing out assault weapons, carried MSRs in about one-third of its 4,588 stores nationwide. Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesman, told Halzack, "We’re focusing on other hunting and sportsman firearms, such as shotguns and rifles, based on customer demand."

The chain "has recently received pressure from shareholder Trinity Church in New York to reconsider its gun sales policy," Halsack writes. "The church last year filed a lawsuit that aimed to force the retailer to allow a shareholder vote on Trinity’s proposal for the board of directors to more closely review Walmart’s decision to sell weapons with high-capacity magazines. After a federal judge initially ruled that Walmart must allow the shareholder vote, an appeals court later lifted that injunction, meaning Walmart will not be required to include this proposal at its upcoming annual shareholders meeting." (Read more)

Walmart, which just raised its minimum wage, announces plans to cut employee hours

Walmart—which in April announced it was installing a company-wide minimum wage of $9, with plans to raise the minimum wage to $10 in February—announced this week that it will reduce employee hours at some stores to cut costs, Sarah Nassauer reports for The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman said stores that will cut hours are those that have been scheduling more hours than they have been allocated. Walmart, a staple in rural areas, has 4,600 stores in the U.S.

Officials, who said some stores increased hours during peak times to move shoppers quickly through checkout lines, said "those efforts contributed to a 15 percent drop in second-quarter net income compared with a year earlier," Nassauer writes. "Store managers being told to cut back have been exceeding those already expanded employee hours . . . In the latest quarter, Wal-Mart also lowered its profit target for the rest of the year despite gains in sales and shopper traffic. Shares of the retailer are down 25 percent so far this year." (Read more)

Obamacare hurting Walmart's pharmacies; more insured Americans spells bad news for corporation

Walmart officials are blaming an increase in the number of Americans who gained insurance under federal health reform for its pharmacies taking a financial hit, Carolyn Johnson reports for The Washington Post. "It's one of the dirty secrets of the pharmacy industry that uninsured people frequently pay more for drugs than those with insurance," said Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting.

"That's because the prescription drug plans can use their clout and scale to negotiate lower reimbursement rates with the pharmacies, while uninsured people pay more," Johnson writes. "In addition, Fein said Walmart, which runs the third largest pharmacy business in the U.S. bringing in an estimated $18.8 billion in revenue, has made strategic decisions that may have made it more vulnerable to this shift."

Walmart's move in 2006 to begin offering hundreds of generic drugs for $4 "was novel because retail pharmacies haven't traditionally competed on the price of prescription drugs, which are largely hidden from consumers and attracted people who were paying full price for drugs, without insurance," Johnson writes.

Now that more Americans are using insurance to pay for medication, "the company is seeing lower reimbursement rates from drug insurance plans and a decline in high-margin cash transactions," said Greg Foran, president and chief executive of Walmart. He told reporters during a conference call that it reflects "a marketplace shift in which more customers are now benefiting from greater drug insurance coverage." Walmart reported "that its health and wellness business was growing, including an increase in prescriptions filled but that the profit margins are lower than expected."