Well, they are usually called 'convenience' stores, so there's a bit of that in the price. Small store owners in 'poor neighborhoods' obviously can't price goods the way WMT can; so what is to be done? It seems odd to take a side in this issue: do you support the small business owner who shoulders the risk but charges high prices, or do you support the low-price-leader whose other practices make you ill?
[WS:] It is a good point. Things should be viewed from a "big picture" perspective in which costs and benefits of ALL (rather than selected few) factors affecting everyday life should be considered. Wal-Mart customers may save pennies on household items or clothes, but they pay premium for other factors.
For example, driving costs about 40 cents per mile, so driving to a Wal Mart center (almost always located on the outskirts) instead of walking to a neighborhood store can cost anywhere from 4 to 10 dollars each time. Ditto for employees.
Wal-Mart vehemently resists unionization, paying living wages, and providing health insurance. This not only shifts some of the burden of operating Wal-Mart centers on the general taxpayers, even those who do not shop at Wal-Mart, but also reinforces the anti-union climate.
Aesthetically, Wal Mart centers are consistently hideously ugly. Neighborhood stores may or may not be, and many of them are actually quaint. I personally think that the US landscape beyond Manhattan is hideously ugly in general, so any aesthetic break in the monotony of the vast wasteland of suburban America and big box malls is simply priceless (for everything else, there is the Master Card.).
I think that on balance, Wal-Mart drains more from this society as a whole than it contributes to it.
Wojtek