Walmart vs Hannaford and the American Dream.

In the United States, the idea of something being “American” is not a uniform idea, rather a idea that differs from person to person and shaped by their political beliefs, social class, and environment, though not explicitly. The goal of this is to sort of detail the differences between Hannaford and Walmart and my perception of them being “American”. I know Walmart is not a grocery store, however they sell groceries, and literally anything. They are a harmful and unnecessary business for a equal economy, which I will go over in this note.

Some background information to know.

The reasons as for why Hannaford and Walmart were chosen as comparisons boil down to my geographic location. I’m American and for that reason I am essentially guaranteed that there is a Walmart near me, and I live in New England so I am blessed with the presence of Hannaford Supermarkets. On top of that, I live in Maine which is the birthplace of Hannaford with its headquarters located in Scarborough.

Origins of Hannaford.

Anthony92931, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hannafords started back in 1883 as a small produce store on the waterfront in Portland, Maine, founded by a man named Arthur Hannaford. In 1902 he was joined by his brothers Howard and Edward and they incorporated Hannaford Bros. Co. By the year 1920 the Hannaford Bros. Co became one of the leading produce wholesalers in the northern part of New England.

Origins of Walmart.

Deans Charbal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Walmart started back in 1945 when a man named Sam Walton bought a branch of the Ben Franklin store chain from the Butler Brothers with the focus of was selling products at lower prices to get more people to buy them, at the expense of lower profit margins. Walton found lower-cost suppliers compared to other stores and was able to consistently offer lower prices than other stores.

Why them starting in the USA does not feel “American” to me.

They feel kind of American but also not. It depends on context. For the literal meaning of American, “coming from America”, they are absolutely American of course. But as for adequately representing the country that they reside in, that’s another story.

They feel American?

The way something feels American to me outside of just being in America relies on two perspectives, a capitalistic perspective and a humanity perspective.

From a capitalistic perspective.

From this perspective, American means something that represent the USA’s heavy industrial power, globalization, and status as a country with one of the highest GDPs.

From a humanity perspective.

From this perspective, American means the something that represents the “American Dream”, the idea that all people in the United States have a chance to succeed and live a better life.

American in different ways.

I’ve built my perspective of the two companies based on their treatment of their employees, the quality of their offerings for groceries, and the care that they have for their communities. I have a overall negative view of Walmart and a overall positive view of Hannaford. The reasons why I will detail now.

Walmart is American from a capitalistic perspective

You step into a Walmart supercenter which is a giant warehouse with everything you could possibly need at the lowest possible price with plenty of variety, a true representation of the industrial, agricultural, and trade capabilities of the USA. This is what supercenters generally are, Walmart doing it exceptionally well. Walmart calls their customer-facing employees their “associates” which Walton claimed is because he viewed them as partners in his business, which is cool but not reflected in how Walmart treats their female employees, employees with disabilities and labor unions. Oh and they started rolling back DEI 3 months ago.

The company also sells guns, which is fucking hilarious. Tell that to a European and they’ll look at you like you’re lying. In addition to that they have a pharmacy, a selection of financial services through Walmart Center, photo-related services, Auto care, insurance services, and prescription glasses. Which is all very convenient but intentionally so to put local places out of business. Why go to 8 different locations when you can go to Walmart? Nobody really talks about how Walmart increases poverty in the USA but it is a real problem.

All or these things make Walmart American from a capitalistic perspective. They try to cover every market and provide it at a lower price and put other places out of business in the process. That’s so American capitalism 💅 and that concludes this section.

Hannaford is American from a humanity perspective.

You step into a Hannaford supermarket which has all the food you need to support yourself and/or family coupled with essential items if you have a baby, car, home, and or/pet to care for. In addition they offer a pharmacy and health products. These are also given at an affordable price although higher than the prices you’d see at Walmart. The supermarket part of Hannaford is done rather well in my own personal opinion and I have yet to see better quality food offerings from a supermarket chain. This selection of services keeps Hannaford in business a spot as one of the leading supermarkets in New England. Hannaford also calls their employees “associates” which unlike Walmart are treated as such. Hannaford says they treat all their employees equally, which is a fair statement considering they have been awarded a 100% score in LGBTQ+ equality from The Human Rights Campaign, recognized by Forbes with a “best employer” award, another award called the “Patriot employer” award from the Disabled American Veterans organization, a Campus Forward award for hiring earlier career talent, and there’s also awards for individual stores, and awards for their charitable acts and offerings to customers. I can’t list everything so I invite you to look at their press releases. Hannaford has received many awards for how it treats its employees and provides equal opportunity to everyone, which is a true representation of the American dream of being able to achieve a good life with hard work regardless of where you come from. Also in true representation of the American dream, Hannaford is very charitable and gives back to its community through the Hannaford Charitable Foundation. I actually am a primary source that can also support this claim. When I volunteered at the Belfast Soup Kitchen we received a fair portion of our food through Hannaford’s charitable giving.

Why this matters to me.

I know the US isn’t perfect, in fact it’s far from. I’ve detailed in this article the ways in which Walmart and Hannaford are different based on the way they conduct business. I understand that both companies are businesses with intent to make a profit and that neither is perfect or necessarily. However, I consider it important to note that the well being of people is something I am very concerned with and for that reason I can not say I prefer Walmart’s version of American. I prefer Hannaford’s version. Thanks for reading my post.