To WalMart, or not to WalMart . . .
…that is the question. And a sticky question it is, too. Mucky. And when you poke around in muck, you get mucky. And in my experience, you often find interesting things in the muck about yourself.
One interesting bit of muck about myself that I’ll admit right here and now, concerned Earth citizen that I am, is that I shop at WalMart.
Why do I shop at WalMart? Convenience. I can get lots of different stuff there—protective goggles, dog treats, embroidery floss, dental floss, socks, a gold chain for my Mom’s locket, Valentines—your basic one stop shopping. And for someone who takes about forty-two minutes to shop ‘til she drops, that’s important. Cost is a side benefit, granted, but that’s not why I go there. Shopping is fairly low on the list of things I love to do. See, stores have all this stuff and they usually have lots of people (more than one is a lot to me) and they have lights and smells and sounds and Muzak and my sensory overload device is set on hair-trigger. I’m starting to see that I’m introverted more or less to the point of disability. We wouldn’t expect a person in a wheel chair to go to a bunch of different stores if she could get all she needed in one place, would we?
So that’s my reason for going there. But why do other people shop there? I’m not taking any surveys (see above) but I would guess some people, like me, go for the convenience, but more people go for the low prices. Many more people in our world have little money than have lots of money. So, price matters. And location. Lots of folks can’t get to the next town and need some place that’s close enough to walk to or get a ride with a neighbor or a cousin or on a bus. And because WalMart stocks the stuff they need.
WalMart exists. We know that. Well, maybe we don’t—maybe it’s mass hallucination or some such, but let’s assume for this argument that a horse is a perfect sphere and WalMart exists. Now, is WalMart the only business that exploits people? I don’t think so. Why is it okay to have a Lowes super-duper grocery store supplying delicacies to the upper middle classes but not okay for a WalMart Super Store to supply necessities (and some goodies) to the lower (and some of the middle) classes? Is Lowes really significantly better? Are there never any humans or animals or plants harmed in the making of a Lowes store? Or a Target? Or a Home Depot?
I don’t know everything there is to know about all these places. I use the Wall Street Journal to start fires not to read over my morning coffee. I admit it, I don’t know everything. I am just suspecting that if WalMart has some less than desirable business practices then so do some other stores.
So who gets to decides which stores get built? He who is without sin? That might take a while. I know it wouldn’t be me.
I also know I have no right to take away something from someone else who needs it, who has needs I know nothing about, who has needs I cannot fill or find replacement fillers for.
Someone, or rather, many someones, made WalMart happen. Really, Sam Walton started WalMart with good intentions—to supply smaller towns with a place to buy US-made goods of many kinds at a reasonable price. That was some years ago, before it became so obvious that big business is running the world. Now WalMart is probably owned by stockholders whose mission is to make money. A little different slant than Sam’s original one. And not different from many other businesses.
Not all businesses, granted. Some are shifting to doing what they do in a way that is conscious of the Earth and her inhabitants. But we have a long way to go before we all get there. And, in my humble opinion choosing scapegoats is not part of that way.
So, to WalMart or not to WalMart? That is a question but what is the answer? I don’t know. I do shop there and I know that’s not a perfect thing to do, but it’s not a perfect world. I don’t buy much. I shop locally when I can, online sometimes, in a nearby town when I have to. I believe less is more and I strive to remember that when I’m attracted to all those cool things that the voices tell me would make my life so much better.
WalMarts and other stores exist and thrive because we support them. One answer to the WalMart question, to the whole over-development question, is to stop buying things.
© copyright Maggie Wilson, 2/13/2006
