Wal-Mart giveth ...

... and you know the rest. Wal-Mart is the number one enemy of small towns throughout the South. Thanks to its notoriously low wages, its reliance on cheap foreign imports, and lucrative connections in government, it sweeps away smaller competitors, draining small downtowns of business and personality.

What a laugh, then, to see this campaign to make Wal-Mart appear to be supporting small-town economies by using more local suppliers. But it's a trap. Wal-Mart, like all the rootless, globalist megastores, use their enormous power to exploit local suppliers. Most become so dependent that they're forced to outsource, too -- harming not just the American workers who lose their jobs, but also the foreign workers who replace them. What happened to Etch A Sketch has happened to many other local producers snared by the "big box" retailers' overwhelming market domination:

Etch A Sketch is the same child's drawing toy today that it was in 1960, when Ohio Art first produced it in Bryan, Ohio. But efforts to keep its selling price below $10 on shelves at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us forced the company to move production to China three years ago.

Today the same toy is made not just for lower wages, but also under significantly harsher working conditions.

But there's another reason local businesses should not let themselves be suckered in by Wal-Mart. Also in today's news is this story about Wal-Mart adding computer tech support operations in its retail centers. This is troubling news for local tech providers -- and a clear warning that no independent business is immune from assault by the big boxes.