Bless Winnipeg, the discount capital of Canada. There's no better fit to this city than a mondo-huge Wal-Mart food store stacking produce and slashing prices. Wal-Mart is rumored to be negotiating a buyout of Lowblaw. Bring it on.

Red-tag retailers like Wal-Mart, Winners and the Red Apple Clearance Centre do well here because Winnipeggers are bred-in-the-bone bargain-hunters. How else do you explain the success of Winnipeg prodigy Monty Hall Let's Make a Deal was in his genes.

Our thrift is half cultural. We've inherited a penny-pincher mentality from our wartime grandparents. The other half is economical. Bloodthirsty governments leave us strapped for cash. Low disposable incomes have a funny way of deciding where you're likely to shop.

In many ways, Winnipeggers are trendsetters, way ahead of the retail curve. We dumped the up-scale department/fashion store concept years ago.

Holt Renfrew, once an anchor tenant at Portage Place Mall has gone discount and Polo Park's high-end Eatons is now kaput The trend is catching up in other cities where the Wal-Marts and Targets of the world expand their suburban empires leaving high-end fashion to the hautes boutiques.

Thrifty Winnipeg is a condition to be proud of. Go to Toronto and you'll hear a lot of bragging about how much so and so paid for their latest purchase. But in Winnipeg you wouldn't be caught dead paying full price for anything, never mind boasting about it.

Don't confuse thrifty for tight-fisted. In fact, Manitobans were recently rated as the most generous donators to charities in the country. But in a business transaction, Winnipeggers expect the best bang for a buck. That keeps prices low and retailers honest.

So why object to a Wal-Mart food store going head-to-head with IGA, Safeway and the Superstore for a slice of the market pizza Wal-Mart may be American and as rich as blazes but it's modus operandi has Winnipeg written all over it.

Endless free parking, low prices and one-stop suburban shopping make Wal-Mart a sure-fire success story. Throw in the fact that you don't have to go downtown and no one complains. Except for the American bashers and profit-haters.

They hate Wal-Mart. Even though the company employs over a million people, offers medical and dental benefits to employees, makes regular donations to local communities and forces its competitors to lower prices.

A far more reliable jury of Wall-Mart's record is its shoppers. The fix may be in at the Winter Olympics but there's no judge more impartial than the Winnipeg consumer.

Despite some selective brand loyalty, consumer dollars are awarded to the least expensive product. And if you're not sure who's putting in the best performance, there's always the price-check on Aisle Twenty.

Striving for excellence in business is as much a Canadian tradition as competing for Olympic gold. If it boils down to a sudden death shoot out among the dominant food stores, let the best grocer win.

Skiing legend now turned CBC Sports commentator Ken Read said it best. At the Olympics, "Canadians play to win, not to participate."

The same rules of "sink or swim" that determine the Olympic food chain equally apply to the grocery business. If you're not shark, you're tuna.

And depending how grocers price their tuna, their fate will be sealed, not in a tin can but in the dustbin of the Winnipeg food market.

Long live "Every Day Low Prices!"