Big Business Comes to Town

A store called EPA recently opened up near where we live in Costa Rica. EPA is basically Home Depot meets IKEA. All of the same stuff as a Home Depot but in the blue/yellow/white color scheme of IKEA. Some people in Costa Rica don't like it. They make the commonly heard argument about big business pushing out the local merchants.

Late last year, Wal-Mart bought a stake in Central America's largest grocery store chain. According to a conversation that I had with a guy who works for Wal-Mart in Central America, they are now building 6 Wal-Marts in Costa Rica.

About 5 years ago, Costco opened up a Pricesmart here in Costa Rica.

I have to be honest. As much as I don't like to see small retailers and local merchants get squeezed out, I like EPA. I like Pricesmart. And I'm sure I'll like Wal-Mart when it opens. Why? Because convenience is important. And you don't realize you don't have it until--well--you don't have it. And Kerri and I noticed it right away when we moved to Costa Rica. It was hard to get anything done because we didn't know where anything was and--when we would finally get there--they wouldn't have the size/color/quantity/etc. we wanted.

Now I guess we'll have that a bit more.

Although Wal-Mart isn't entirely taking over the world. As 100,000 square foot warehouses start popping up all over Costa Rica, Wal-Mart quits Germany and South Korea.