Interesting story! Not sure I buy it, though.

Some of the correlations seem to be a bit of a stretch. Sure, shopping at discount stores might leave a person with a little more money in their pockets if you compare directly to what they would pay elsewhere, and more money might lead people to eat healthier, but that's just one (very small) factor in the picture of individual and community health.

The article says nothing about the other effects of big box stores, for example, the effect they have on the ability of people to walk rather than drive to shopping destinations. Or the way that they tend to draw other fast food chains to their perimeters. Or the impact that big box retailers have on smaller family-owned businesses, average wages or health care benefits.

I'd say that while this article makes an interesting argument for the benefits of Wal-mart, I'm still not ready to roll-back my suspicions.