I have noticed all the anti-Wal Mart redderick comming out these days and have decided to put my two cents in. Readers should note that I have poor spelling and many grammatical errors. Thank You.
As most of my fellow readers know I hat large chain stores in any shape or size. Whether you be Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond etc..I hate the way they obstruct your view of the nice subdevelopments popping up everywhere across America. I hate Those massive 200,000 square foot stores, dumping their polutants into the local water system, clogging up the left turn lane with its parking for 1000, and providing convenience at the cost of shuttered stores in urban areas all over. The big box store is an eye sore and it hurts me to see them as I try and take flight to places that feature trees and grand old architectural design.
I love Wal Mart, I guess its a love hate relationship. I guess I am a prick because I would rather cheap goods, and dont care whether the workers in China are being under paid- as do 99% of us. Most of our clothing besides you hippes who wear local goods are made in places like Bangledash or Nepal or Singapore, and frankly I am sure most of you dont care to think about the poor sweat shop souls that poured hours of labor into a pair of your shoes or underwear. Another thing, Wal Mart may treat its workers poorly, ban unions and try and keep only parttimers on hand, BUT does anyone actually care? Not me- First off, if Wal Mart treats its workers so poorly, why do thousands of applicants show up when a Wal Mart is built? You smart anti capitalist types may answer-because Wal Mart has stolen all the local jobs and there is nowhere else to go. The answer is correct- that small deli down the block employing three people has been replaced by its ugly behemoth Wal Mart who is providing the most likely downtrodden community with hundreds of jobs. Low paying- how much do gas station attendants, waitresses at truck stops and grocery store baggers make?
Wal Mart is ugly, they dont play by the rules and politicians are most likely bought by Wal Mart and its promissing property, sales, and other tax revenue. I hate Wal Mart and its “promisses” to retain occupancy at a site-only to leave too soon to pay Property Taxes. Yes I saw the movie “the high cost of low prices”. But here in America we have become a lazy society, full of fat people who eat big macs and sit in front of the TV for 5 hours a day. In NYC you can even order your ready made meals to your home from the net, forgoing the need to actually leave your house, buy the food and cook it. Beautiful, more time to do all the things we love, such as sit in front of the TV and read self help books.
I admit it I am a hypocrit. An environmentalist, tree hugger who buys his tofu, ammunition, underwear, fruits, starbucks double shots, veggie burgers, film, and furniture at the store that will probably eat up small business alive it ever comes to a local subarban strip mall near you. I too like most folks want cheap goods NOW I dont want to pay $2.50 for a black of tofu at my local co-op just because there are some hot unshaven hippes behind the counter, I am willing to endure screaming kids, dirty trashy people, that zombie greeter at the front all so I can pay $1.50 for tofu, $2.00 for Tropicanna, and the lowest possible prices for film anywhere. In the midst of all this massive consumerism that I rarely do, because I hate shopping- I fail to recognize the inherrant dangers of forcing kids in china to build toys for Wal Mart, their polluting of the local water system, their choking out of mom and pops, and their faulure to pay their workers a living wage. Does Target pay a living wage?
Why does Wal Mart get all the heat? Is it because of their success? Is it because people simply like to rag on success? Jelousy maybe? Maybe the anti-Wal Mart people as I suspect are welathy-Volvo drivers who sip $4 coffee in the mornings while reading Better Homes and Gardens? Do these people have to take the bus to do their shopping, do they even kn ow what shopping by unit price means? is it conveneint for someone who has no car to shop at local stores instead of going to the one stop shop type of place.
Or maybe the folks who dislike Wal Mart so much are the birkenstock, VW bus driving trust fund kids- who call themselves hippes because they want to save the environment by not flushing the toilet after a piss? Or maybe its the unemployed idealistic, modern day beatnicks? I am sure there are some valid anti-Wal Mart folks- like the small business owners who fail to garner tax breaks when Wal Mart does, or the local forest that must be cut down for a parking lot, or the residents who live on a street where Wal Mart proposes its store, or doze3ns of other folks who are crushed by this giant of American enterprise and consumerism.
Yes indeed I did contradict myself numerous times, and probably had a bunch of spelling an d grammatical errors. But I am just telling my story.