The anti-Wal-Mart film "The High Cost of Low Price" is getting lots of attention. Most has been from the amen corner of Wal-Mart haters, but not so last night's "Special Report with Brit Hume." Hume's guest was National Review's Byron York who has been doing some digging on the film. He reported (sorry no link but I'll try to add one later) that a small hardware store in rural Ohio that the film depicts as a Wal-Mart casualty had actually closed before Wal-Mart arrived. Perhaps the store closed in anticipation of Wal-Mart's arrival, but York quoted the hardware store's owner as saying that Wal-Mart had nothing to do with his store's closure. Of course, I have no qualms if the perennial gales of creative destruction did replace a hardware store with a Wal-Mart.

UPDATE (11/16 10:15PM): The store in question was H&H Hardware of Middlefield, OH. The store closed nearly three months before a Wal-Mart opened nearby (and has reopened since Wal-Mart's arrival). From the original story in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer:

"I think Wal-Mart hurts a lot of small businesses," said Don Hunter, who started H&H in 1962 and is featured in the soon-to-be-released documentary. "But it's not the reason we closed. Absolutely not."

See also Ryan Sager in the NY Post (registration required). (A superstore-sized HT to Steve Horwitz for the links.) END OF UPDATE

Now there's a pro-Wal-Mart film "Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People Crazy" (view trailer here; the producer has a blog here). Good for him--I might just buy a copy of the film out of moral support. Even better--the producer's blog claims he got no funding from Wal-Mart.

While we're on the Wal-Mart soapbox, here's another example of how Wal-Mart benefits consumers--Business Week reports that Wal-Mart is attacking the business model of Best Buy and Circuit City by offering lower-cost extended warranties.

Business Week also reports on a new study warning of a slide [in the standard of living] for the U.S. as the share of lower achievers grows. To the extent this is true--and it may well be incorrect since educational attainment is difficult to meaningfully measure--an ample supply of folks who develop no skills probably has more to do with Wal-Mart's wages than any "unfair labor practices."