Ken Stone, an Iowa State emeritus economics professor; and Georgeanne Artz, a visiting assistant professor of economics in ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have authored a new study comparing retail sales in Iowa communities 15 years before and after Wal-Mart's entry into a community. While host towns showed moderate increases in total retail sales in the 15 years following the stores' opening, the study found that neighboring communities without Wal-Mart stores have also seen their sales largely stabilized during the same 15-year period. However, Stone points out that, "One has to keep in mind that most of that gain was by Wal-Mart stores, and they did have negative impacts on a lot of other businesses in town -- mainly any store that was selling essentially the same thing they were selling." Read the full story here by Mike Ferlazzo, ISU News Service: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2012/may/WalMart