RyansWorld: Department store

'''Special Note: Please note that this scenario is meant to be read as entertainment, not as an accurate prediction of the future. Also note that the viewpoints and opinions that may come across in this scenario are not necessarily the viewpoints and opinions of the author.'''

A huge price war between the retail department stores of the world is underway; reaching its climax around the Christmas shopping season of 2012. The Great Recession of the early 21st century has caused people to tighten their spending habits; causing them to spend money at Wal-Mart instead of higher-end stores.

While higher-end stores are laying off workers and offshoring support staff to Southeast Asia and France, Wal-Mart has been known to offer good-paying jobs to desperate people that can't afford to live and work in the metropolitan cities. Wal-Mart never caves in into being unionized; citing that unions cause the price of food and quality items to rise dramatically. Everybody develops the common sense to shop at Wal-Mart for the cheapest groceries in town and not have to worry about the employees going on strike.

Summary


All the retail stores in the world will be under the Wal-Mart brand name by the year 2029. Even rustic destinations like the Bahamas, Europe, Southeast Asia, Vancouver, New York City, and Toronto will have a strong presence by the Wal-Mart franchise. Higher priced stores like The Bay, Macy's, and Sears will be bankrupted first because they "have lost touch with the people." When the big Sears store closes at the Toronto Eaton Centre in 2016, it will cause a terminal decline in the profits of Sears; they would eventually close their doors 5-10 years later. The environmentalism that saved Wal-Mart's reputation in the early 21st century will allow their stores to run without needing fossil fuels and refusing to sell products that need fossil fuels to run.

By the year 2036, Toronto's Eaton Mall on Yonge Street will be reconfigured into a giant four-storey Wal-Mart HyperStore. This four-storey department store will come complete with a food court, residential quarters, an anime/manga shop, wedding services, Service Ontario kiosks and a working human cloning/stem cell clinic. People who cannot afford to live in the expensive houses and apartments of the Toronto area will be thankful to know that the residential quarters provide for company-subsidized utilities and the cheapest rent within a 50-mile radius. Residential chambers for Wal-Mart have all the furnishings of a five-star hotel of the early 2000s completely with free satellite television and a "basement shopping mall" delivering free shoppping, education, healthcare, health/beauty, and banking services to the employees of Wal-Mart and their families. In the year 2068, Wal-Mart would declare itself a "nation within a nation" and call themselves The Republic of Wal-Mart. Anyone could become a "citizen" as long as he/she promised to renounce trade unions and family members who belonged to trade unions. Most of the first-generation employees will be born around the year 1982, married, and with one to four children.

Department stores (under the Wal-Mart banner) will reach a surge in profitability by the year 2105 as stores are allowed to open on days formerly used for Christian holidays like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. The reason this occurs is because the lawmakers in the government are no longer bound by Judeo-Christian social mores. Wholesale stores like Costco and Sam's Place will not be affected by the department store wars because they are wholesalers, not retailers, and have a limited customer base of businesspeople, friends of businesspeople, and family members of businesspeople. Second-hand stores, liquidation stores, and dollar stores will still be functioning at their usual levels before, during, and after the department store wars.