The people previously providing clothing and household goods in many towns were likely mom & pop type stores. Walmart tends to put those kind of shops out of business. The only folks profiting off of high check cashing fees are banks and check cashing/payday loan stores that are as bad or worse than Walmart.
That is possible, or the goods may have been provided by mail order, or more distant retail outlets, or people may have made their own goods or gotten by without them. When the alternate retailers were less efficient than Walmart, and unable to provide as good a value as Walmart, customers naturally chose to bring them less business. Bad news for mom, pop, and Sears, good news for all the price-sensitive shoppers that are the subject of this conversation.The people previously providing clothing and household goods in many towns were likely mom & pop type stores.