Wal-Marts Roll Out Across America
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.26.08
Watch an absolutely mesmerizing video where software developer Toby Segaran plots the opening of every Wal-Mart store since 1962. He even gives you instructions on how to build it yourself. "To create the animation, I generated 30 images for each year starting with 1962. I spread all the Wal-marts that opened that year over the 30 frames. To show the appearance of a Wal-mart, all I had to do was plot a large white dot over the small yellow dot for the appropriate ZIP code." -Just like that! ::Kiwitobes via ::BoingBoing
Charles Fishman, author of the Wal-Mart Effect, was right; even if you have never set foot in a Wal-Mart it affects you every day.
That is a obscene amount of wal-marts! In Grafton, WV like many towns in rural ameica that wal-mart has conquered has taken away from the local businesses. Simular to other places, wal-mart posititions itself right outside city limits to avoid taxes and regulations... So the question comes up.. Do we really need that much one stop shopping in america? I wonder what that map would like with k-mart, target, costco, bj's, sam's club, and any other sort of multi-shopping in one building.
There's a spot near Wilkes-Barre, PA where you can stand in the parking lot of a now-empty Wal*Mart and see a brand-new supercenter less than a mile away.
I'm sure there are more places like this, but it was interesting for me to actually be there.
A video of the roll-out of Starbucks would be rather interesting as well.
Well duh, plot anything retail or commercial (gas stations, 7-11's, shoe stores, lawyer owned offices, banks, tow trucks, schools, tatoo parlors and the list goes on), the video will look the same.
Holy cow! Can't help being reminded of how bacteria spreads in a petri dish. Yet another plague is upon us!