Nothing says respect like your own Supercenter.
There was a wide selection of cereal; all the colors of the rainbow were represented. Wal-Mart doesn’t discriminate. If you want something manly like oatmeal you can find it, if you prefer something a little fruitier it’s there too. Both bagged and boxed cereal lined the shelves and free-range cereal was left to roam the aisle.
We soon happened upon the ‘Institutional Sizes’ aisle, for those who think 12oz. of anything just isn’t enough. I suppose they have a point. The last thing I need, or want, is to have my heart set on eating a salad only to find out – oh no! – I’m out of ranch dressing…again! With the 1-gallon tub of buttermilk ranch dressing, it would be many a season before I had to face that horrific day again.
The alcohol section – home of Quality Beer, or so it said – displayed what had to be my favorite sign: Get Drunk for Less!
Ok, I might have made that last one up. Or maybe not.
After trekking a couple of miles, we hit the firearms department. There was a wide selection of rifles, ammo, knives, bb guns, dart guns and paint-ball guns to choose from.
However, there were no handguns. But there was a sign, which read: “No firearm or ammunition sales after 10pm.” Wal-Mart knows it’s customers and it doesn’t want any trouble. At least not after 10pm.
Curiously, the bedding department was located right across the aisle, where one could buy sheets, shams, and feather or foam pillows – which is good, because nothing makes me sleepier than an afternoon spent killing God’s creatures.
I do have one question, though – What’s a sham?
Answer: Wal-Mart.
Haw haw haw! Sorry, just my little attempt at gentrification humor there.
As we headed to the checkout lines, we saw a 40-something woman with her preteen son. As we passed, she muttered, “It seems like we’ve been here forever.”
I stopped to strike up a conversation with the woman and found out that, in fact, she had been.
She first entered the store with her own mother, when she wasn’t much older than her son is now. She later met the man who became her husband at the jewelry counter. Their son was soon born in the Baby Care department. In fact, her mom recently died of a stroke in aisle seven and is now buried in the Garden Department. The family currently resides by fresh produce.
Article comments
1 - MT
I'm well aware of all the negatives that are associated with Wal-Mart
but I will still continue to shop there.
Why -- because they have the best
products at the best prices. It's as simple as that.
As a consumer, I have no bones to pick with W-M. What can be purchased for, let's say, $30
at W-M would cost something like $45 elsewhere. I'm not in the habit
of throwing my money away.
2 - boomcrashbaby
This is an excellent post. You are a talented writer.
In regards to comment 1, it's been proven statistically (although I didn't save the links) that with Wal-Mart paying their people such a low rate, many of them get their income subsidized by welfare, so when you save 15 dollars on your purchase, the tax in your area went up at least that much to compensate.
3 - Steve Rhodes
MT, watch Is Wal-Mart Good for America? tonight. It might raise some questions.
One thing is Wal-Mart uses low cost items to lure you in, but they don't always have the cheapest prices. And prices can go up when they destroy their competition.
4 - Cap'n Ken
Excellent post? Talented writer? HA!
Look, If Wal-Mart offends you ... if you look down upon canned food ... just don't shop there.
I'm proud that I've given exactly $0 to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this year, but I don't put down on people who shop there or the experience as a whole.
This is the same kind of problem the Democrats have with Bush voters (I'm neither a Democrat or a Bush voter). They look down on the Red Staters, call them Jesus freaks, mock their suburban or rural values. And they think Bush voters are stupid hicks just because they don't think the same way as Kerry voters.
Just because something seems strange, excessive, bland or boring to you, that doesn't mean it has no value for others - people who (believe it or not) aren't like you! And to not be like you isn't necessarily a bad thing!
5 - Victor Plenty
Yes, excellent post. Yes, talented writer. On this one I must concur with Boomcrashbaby.
It's quite possible for a post to be excellent and a writer to be talented, even with a point of view that doesn't guarantee 200% satisfaction for Cap'n Ken.
At least Mr. Petrisko merely offers genteel ridicule of people who are not like him, rather than saying such people deserve "a bullet in the head," as Cap'n Ken recently went on record to state.
Well done, Mr. Petrisko.
6 - MrPC
Along with frontline doc tonight, CNBC has been airing their own neutral 2 hour doc called "The Age of Wal-Mart." Very interesting.
My problem is what most people's beefs are: they always look to save costs. We get cheap products at the expense of their associates who get little pay and pay larger premiums for health insurance, and as someone said, many of these people need welfare, especially single moms raising 2 kids on their $15,000/year pre-tax salary (or less).
I would be happy if they just raised salaries and picked up all premiums on health insurance. Of course they won't because it works fine now (the associates don't strikem no organized labor) and the customers don't avoid shopping there, because we (incl. me) don't want to waste money going to another store and buying the same exact product for more money.
Most wal-mart associates' paychecks end up going right back to wal-mart because associates buy everything they need at wal-mart, they can't afford anything else.
I don't like unions for the most part, but Wal-Mart associates are probably the largest group of Americans that REALLY need to unionize and force Wal-Mart to change their strategy from "cut costs EVERYWHERE" to "cut costs EVERYWHERE but associate compensation."
Just imagine a strike by wal-mart associates in all US stores. That would make Wal-Mart cave in, and prices of products don't have to go up because they have a stranglehold on every vendor in america, including Coke, Pepsi, you name it and Wal-Mart owns it.
7 - boomcrashbaby
yes, it is good writing, because of the wit, the satire. It's good writing, period.
This is the same kind of problem the Democrats have with Bush voters
I didn't see it as belittling Wal-Mart shoppers, but satirizing the 'scope' of a wal-mart store. It was funny and it was good. We need a lot more writing like this.
Unfortunately in this day and age, to some people it always comes back to partisan issues.
8 - Cap'n Ken
Bullets to the heads of all of you!
I'll give you that the bit was amusing, and there's a lot about Wal-Mart to poke fun at.
But this is exactly the kind of attitude - "God, people who shop at Wal-Mart are bargain-crazed hick freaks!" - that speaks to the real problem faced by today's Blue-Staters (meaning the "elite" "immoral" Democrats that Christians are so afraid of).
Maybe Wal-Mart isn't for you. It's not for me, either. Like I said, I've not spent one cent with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this year.
So I'm not defending Wal-Mart. And I'm not a Republican or a conservative.
What I'm getting at is if the Democrats want to ever win back a Red State, they need to stop looking down on the people who live there.
9 - 23 year "Associate"
I am guessing this writers glass is half empty??