Thursday, November 24, 2011

Quote of the Day: Charitable Markets

But the truth is, Wal-Mart and its counterparts spread far more holiday-food cheer than do churches and public-service groups.

Scholars estimate that the presence of Wal-Mart in a community reduces food prices somewhere between 10% and 15%. That's equivalent to shoppers receiving an additional 5.2 to 7.8 weeks of "free" food shopping. That Wal-Mart's customer base is skewed toward lower-income shoppers reinforces the beneficent consequences of its price effect.

That’s from T. Norman Van Cott of Ball State University in a letter to the Editor at the Wall Street Journal (hat tip: Don Boudreaux)

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