In towns across America, windows are boarded up. These little hamlets, many of which are in the Midwest, look like ghost towns. The mom-and-pop grocery stores which once embodied America’s heartland are now dark and empty.

“For Rent” signs are taped to the insides of windows, replacing food prices and friendly greetings.

Where are the shoppers? There are still residences in these towns, though they now seem more dilapidated. People are surely still buying groceries. So what keeps shoppers out of these quaint, historical stores? The answer lies a few blocks down the road, at the local Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has started a campaign to improve its image. This comes shortly after a Zogby poll found 59 percent of Americans consider Wal-Mart “bad for America.” In response to this sentiment and to such investigative films as “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices,” the corporation has hired a team of new public relations executives to improve its public persona.

As part of this campaign, Wal-Mart flooded the media with its plan to open stores in urban neighborhoods. It claims these new stores will bring jobs to struggling areas. Since such plans have barely made a difference in the past, the new proposition might exist only to sway public opinion.

Since Wal-Mart’s inception in 1962, it has slowly driven its competition out of the market. It holds a near-monopoly over the retail industry. No competitor comes close to its revenue and influence. Until recently, it was the richest corporation in the world, only surpassed this year by ExxonMobil.

As students, we can’t ignore the positive aspects of Wal-Mart. The company offers cheap goods, often the only sort we can afford. But this was not always the case. Not so long ago, students did their shopping at local businesses.

At least they did until the stores had to close, bested by Wal-Mart’s incontestably low prices. Professor Kenneth Stone of Iowa State University found small towns — not unlike DeKalb — “lose up to 47 percent of their retail trade after 10 years of Wal-Marts opening nearby.”

Ten years may sound like a while to us, but in the life of a town, it’s nothing. That huge of a revue loss can devastate a little economy. Local businesses are forced to close, so the town loses much of its character and often some of its population. Business owners leave in search of new work. The community dissolves. You don’t have to look too far to see this. Often times, it seems DeKalb is little more than Sycamore Avenue with a tail.

In a 2004 study at University of California, Berkley, it was concluded Wal-Mart’s low wages and poor benefits put a heavy strain on the economy, costing California taxpayers an extra $86 million.

This suggests the potential impact on Illinois’ economy. As immigrant workers continue to come here, our economy will more and more resemble California’s. Many of these workers are poor and may very well seek employment at stores like Wal-Mart.

Since Wal-Mart’s workers often live below the poverty line and cannot afford company insurance, government subsidies are created to provide necessary health care. Those subsidies are financed by taxes — money from your pocket.

When we feel extra poor, it’s difficult to avoid buying the cheapest goods possible.

But soon enough, we will be graduates, working at jobs that pay much better than our present ones.

With a little extra money in our pockets — it doesn’t have to be much — we can invest in our community by avoiding such companies as Wal-Mart.

Buy local. It can only help.