 |
|
Friday, April 08, 2005
The Marvel of Wally World
Ever been to Wal-Mart?
It's a shady entity of brightly-lit warehouses that feature the cheapest products in town. The nebulous "they" run the consumer operation behind the scenes, enticing Californians from all over LA County to browse the glossy, tiled aisleways. Just try and resist the impossible deals, the communist, yellow happy-face floating above the signs advertising Van Halen's 2-CD Greatest Hits for 22.99. No way!
I, along with Undisclosed Blogger tm have quickly realized that if Wal-Mart doesn't carry it, it probably doesn't exist. Camping supplies, pet food, human food, electronics, clothes, crafts, a garden center, kid's section, home improvement, furniture--you name it. How do they do it?
Another thing about Wal-Mart that I love is the minute you walk into the door, I feel my two front teeth seperating to form a gap, and I can almost see a mullet on UB's head growing to help him blend in with the back country folk. Indeed, the oddest of LA residents pop out of the woodwork at the local Wal-Mart. At least folks with too few chromosomes know where to get good deals. Either that or they're just attracted to the lights.
I love Wal-Mart, but I am forever distrustful of the too-good-to-be-true supercenters. I feels as if someone is always watching me.
Posted at 08:43 am by DeoDuce
 | | | Greta Perry
April 8, 2005 11:04 AM PDT
Ever notice how many small kids are there at all hours of the night? The saying is "nobody really likes going to wally world - they just like the prices!" | |
| | | Chris
April 8, 2005 06:37 PM PDT
That's not true. I love going to WM. I like going through the electronics area. When I can't get to Best Buy, I can get a quick fix at WM's electronics. | |
| | | namimami
April 8, 2005 07:16 PM PDT
“if Wal-Mart doesn't carry it, it probably doesn't exist”
So, I assume that quality products made by American workers just don’t exist.
Sorry, I’m not a big Wal-Mart fan. I have seen the downtown area of several small towns slowly die from new Wal-Marts coming in down the street. Actually, I am wearing a shirt that says “Keep Austin Weird; support your local small businesses”. Small businesses add the vibrancy to the town I live in. Besides, I don’t know what I’d do if BOOK PEOPLE went under.
| |
| | | DeoDuce
April 8, 2005 09:39 PM PDT
As you've seen towns die from Wal-Mart, I've seen them thrive. The thousands of jobs the company offers to otherwise semi-skilled laborers is commendable.
We live in a capitalist society. If American businesses can't keep up with foreign competition on the local level, then they apparently aren't doing their homework.
FYI, Wal-Mart offers tons of American-made products, manufactured right in Bentonville, Arkansas (WM HQ). | |
| | | Michael Williams
April 8, 2005 10:13 PM PDT
Wal-Mart is awesome, and Chinese products are pretty decent. Wal-Mart does get some stuff domestically, but it's hard to resist the lure of cheap imported stuff. If it's your preference to spend more for domestic stuff, then great, do it, but it's unreasonable and unfair to expect poor families to live at a lower standard by refusing them access to a Wal-Mart. | |
| | | EdWonk
April 9, 2005 12:00 AM PDT
I believe in freedom of choice. Wal-Mart is capitalism in its purist form.
When competition is allowed to thrive, the consumer wins.
I'm not at all concerned about Wal-Mart selling products made in Authoritarian China.
What I AM concerned about is the fact that no one in Washington seems willing to enforce the laws that are already on the books when it comes to our trade with China.
China continues to exclude our products, levies large tariffs, allows mass violations of our copyrights and permits the counterfeiting of American products.
Then they manipulate their currency in order to increase their already staggering advantages in labor costs.
The Chinese aren't our friends. Remember when the forced-down our military aircraft a few years ago?
They imprisoned the crew, stripped the plane of its electronics, took it apart, and then made the U.S. crate everything up and ship it home via ship.
And then they sent the federal government a bill.
I realize that China represents a huge economic force. (And an increasing military threat. They now have nuclear weapons pointed at our country.) So I'm not saying that we should ignore China.
But do we really have to continue kissing their collective behinds only to get gas blown in our faces? | |
| | | Michael Williams
April 9, 2005 08:53 AM PDT
Ed: I basically agree with everything you wrote. Wealth flows downhill, and we empower our enemies through trade (Arabs with oil, China with cheap plastic crap). The theory is that as they get richer they won't be as eager to be our enemies... that didn't work with the Arabs, but it might with the Chinese, because their culture is different. | |
| | | namimami
April 9, 2005 11:49 AM PDT
Plus China and other Asian countries do not have the same workforce laws we do. So, that really cheap CD player from an unknown brand could easily have been assembled by a twelve year old whose fingers have been rubbed raw by the handling of small, sharp components. Just like those Nikes they sell at the mall. (I’m a fan of New Balances. Many of them are still made in the US of A)
| |
| | | Ghostie
April 10, 2005 08:44 AM PDT
"Another thing about Wal-Mart that I love is the minute you walk into the door, I feel my two front teeth seperating to form a gap, and I can almost see a mullet on UB's head growing to help him blend in with the back country folk."
I gotta say thanks, that made me spray chocolate milk all over my keyboard. Yes, I have a mess to clean up now, but it was a great laugh and worth it. I can never find anyone who believes me when I tell them if you pick 10 random shoppers in our local Walmart, you can probably tell which families they belong to with almost no effort. We moved here because it's a nice little town, but I think the gene pool is only about ankle deep. EVERYone is related in some way. | |
| | | namimami
April 10, 2005 07:09 PM PDT
wal-mart is disgusting. no two ways about it. You're comment about the Wal-Mart gene pool may not be far from wrong. The company is based out of arkansas | |
| | | DeoDuce
April 11, 2005 08:29 AM PDT
Thinking that Wal-Mart is disgusting is your opinion. There are others that disagree with you on that one. So, there are "two ways" about it, I suppose. ;) | |
| | | namimami
April 11, 2005 07:05 PM PDT
"Thinking that Wal-Mart is disgusting is your opinion. There are others that disagree with you on that one. So, there are "two ways" about it, I suppose. ;)"
True dat, true dat.
Well, no two ways IN MY OPINION. Lol. I think the world should be run by my opinion. But i guess we all wished we ruled the world. At least in some small part i guess. | |
| | | DeoDuce
April 11, 2005 08:27 PM PDT
I do rule the world. Governments are just my pawns.
I still think Wal-Mart is run by the government as some type of lab experiment on the human populus. | |
| | | John K
April 12, 2005 08:16 AM PDT
Hillary Clinton served on WalMarts Board of Directors for many years when in Arkansas. FYI. | |
|
|
 |
