Wal-Mart 101A

Bill Connolly found THIS article on Fast Company. If you still cannot decide whether or not Wal-Mart is the store where Satan shops, this will most assuredly convince you. If you still shop there after reading this article, then you have no soul and will be doomed to eternal damnation (which shouldn't matter since you have no soul, I guess). Snippet:

Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions."

Warning: It's a looooooong article.

UPDATE (11/18/03): This e-mail was sent in response:

Founded criticism of Wal-Mart (of which there is plenty) is certainly fair and deserves wide dissemination. Ham-handed criticism of those who shop there (as sarcastic or ironic as you intended your words to be) is *not* fair to most folks who shop there. I shop at Wal-Mart quite simply because I can't afford to shop anywhere else for many things Wal-Mart carries (yes, I live in a small town). I can't afford to shop anywhere else because I haven't got a raise in two years, and I haven't got a raise because my boss knows I can't quit. I can't quit simply because the only places hiring these days are Wal-Mart and nearby casino, both of which pay only slightly less than my current salary. The 'take-it-or-leave-it because we know you can't find better' attitude is shared among most employers near my home, because Wal-Mart has set the (low) standard for employee salaries and benefits. I agree, if I had choices about where to shop (for starters, by earning more than $18K a year for a family of three), I would be due some needling for choosing Wal-Mart. But as I pointed out, for many of us, Wal-Mart isn't a matter of choice. And we certainly don't deserve the derision you're too comfortable doling out. Furthermore, shame on you for reprinting the transparent blame-shifting quoted in Fast Company. "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions," says a corporate honcho. Well, when half of the country earns less than $30K a year, we simply can't afford things manufactured under those conditions. It's a circuitous chicken-and-egg argument that the majority of Americans simply don't have the means to rectify. Those who do have the means and choose to shift blame are the real culprits here, not poor people who barely earn enough to keep the power on and food on the table. Thanks for your time. Jeff Z. [last name edited out] Sylva, North Carolina