More on Wal-Mart doing good things ....

Of course, Wal-Mart, like most businesses, is a mix of good and bad. But, the company is beginning to understand that maybe the critics have a point and, as noted in earlier posts, is exploring the ways in which its business can address those criticisms. 
And, when it makes money sense, well, why not use its market-muscle-power, right?  Which is what it is up to now with check-cashing/payday loan.  What is payday lending, you ask?

Cheque-cashing and payday lending businesses are very common in poor neighbourhoods around the country. They provide the most basic financial services to unbanked customers, at what are typically described as usurious rates of interest—often 400% APR or more.

For years now politicians have been blowing hot air about this and, true to their nature, prefer not to do any damn thing.  Wal-Mart is smelling money in this, in ways that could actually clean up the system and make it less onerous for the poor:

WHAT is retail behemoth Wal-Mart up to these days?

Wal-Mart already has “MoneyCenters” in 1,000 of its U.S. stores, and the company said yesterday it plans to to add 400 more by the end of the year. The centers offer services like check cashing and bill pay that are often considered part of the broader “fringe banking” system. [...] Lots of those people go to local check-cashing outfits that often charge high fees. So Wal-Mart, which charges $3 to $6 cash a check, can be a good alternative, said Alejandra Lopez-Fernandini, who works for a New America Foundation program that aims to help low- and middle-income people build wealth.

Pretty neat, eh! 

This just continues to illustrate how interesting Wal-Mart is as a phenomenon and a mirror of American society and culture. Wal-Mart clearly has market power, which it occasionally uses abusively, if not necessarily illegally. But sometimes, it uses its market power to accomplish things government entities are unwilling or unable to accomplish—pressing environmental standards on its suppliers, for instance, or reining in abusive lenders. I just appreciate Wal-Mart's ability to demonstrate the strangely ad hoc way in which American institutions manage to muddle through. Americans should maybe be taking Wal-Mart's market power a little more seriously, but hey, so long as its ability to shift the economics in local markets accomplishes goals a dysfunctional federal government is unable to address, well, it may be better to leave well enough alone.