We’ve just wrapped up our seminar focused on helping businesses in the St-Pierre-Jolys area prepare for the arrival of Walmart in Steinbach. We were expecting about 8-10 people, and actually had 15-18 people attend. What follows is:

• information about the workshop
• the background material used in the workshop

You can also see and download the PowerPoint used in the workshop by clicking here. For more information on this workshop, or to have it repeated in your community, contact Bruce Duggan, the Director of the Buller Centre.

When

• Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• 8:00am – 10:30am

Where

• Providence University College
• Reimer Student Life Centre
• 10 College Crescent
• Otterburne, Manitoba R0A 1G0

Cost

• $30/person for Chamber members
• $40/person for non-members

Register

• phone
  • Margaret Schonewille: 204-433-7488 e 236
• online
  • register at Providence University College, Calendar of Events, September 12, 2012
• email
  • margaret.schonewille@prov.ca
• mail
  • Providence University College, 10 College Crescent, Otterburne, MB R0A 1G0

Program

• Full breakfast (included in workshop fee)
• Workshop
• Handout
• Informal networking

There will be time after the workshop for one-on-one discussions for individual business owners.

Learn

• The fundamentals of strategy—defining, creating, and keeping a competitive advantage.
• How these fundamentals can apply to your specific business.
• How they can help your business thrive despite the arrival of Walmart—or any other competitor

Speaker

Bruce Duggan is the Director of Providence’s Buller Centre for Business. For the past seven years, he has taught in Providence University College’s Business Administration program, specializing in the areas of strategy and business ethics. Last fall, he co-presented a workshop on small business strategy with the Business Development Bank of Canada for the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce. He received his MBA from the Asper School of Business in 2003 and has run his own small business, Boke Consulting, for the past 15 years.

Background Materials

There is a significant amount of research available that attempts to figure out the effect of the arrival of a Walmart on a “host” town and the businesses that are already there. The research also attempts to understand the effect on outlying communities—other towns and smaller communities within driving distance of the new Walmart. Some of these are particularly useful because they concentrate on rural and semi-rural communities, in markets much like our own.

There are at least eight well-researched documents available online that collect data on these effects.

North & South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Montana

• authors:
  • Terry J. Fitzgerald, Ronald A. Wirtz; Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
• article:
  • The Wal-Mart effect: Poison or antidote for local communities?

Mississippi

• author:
  • Kenneth E. Stone; University of Iowa
• articles:
  • The Economic Impact of Wal-Mart Supercenters on Existing Businesses in Mississippi

Iowa

• author:
  • Kenneth E. Stone; University of Iowa
• articles:
  • Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities
  • The Effect of Wal-Mart Stores on Businesses in Host Towns and Surrounding Towns in Iowa

Nebraska

• authors:
  • Sean Golden, Noel Jeutang, Ratikanta Pattaik, David Rosenbaum, and Eric Thompson; University of Nebraska – Lincoln
• articles:
  • Big Box Stores: Their Impacts on the Economy and Tips for Competing

US overall

• authors:
  • Ron S. Jarmin, Shawn D. Klimek, & Javier Miranda; Center for Economic Studies, US Bureau of the Census
• article:
  • The Role of Retail Chains: National, Regional, and Industry Results

Chicago west side

• authors:
  • Julie Davis, David Merriman, Lucia Samayoa, Brian Flanagan, Ron Baiman, and Joe Perskey; University of Illinois at Chicago
• article:
  • The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses: An Evaluation of One Chicago Neighborhood’s Experience

Washington DC

• author:
  • John C. Haltiwanger, Ron S. Jarmin, C. J. Krizan; National Bureau of Economic Research
• article:
  • Mom-and-Pop Meet Big-Box: Complements or Substitutes

Other articles do a fairly good job summarizing data from other sources. These include:

North Carolina

• author:
  • Mitch Renkow; North Carolina State University
• article:
  • Wal-Mart and the Local Economy

We can use this information to build a prediction about the likely effect of Walmart’s arrival in Steinbach, both on businesses in Steinbach, and on businesses in communities throughout southeast Manitoba. Of course, a prediction is always uncertain. Just because something has happened elsewhere, doesn’t mean it will happen here. But an educated guess is almost always better than an uneducated one.