Always ulterior motives…always
Building the meme here at Salon means we are doing something very American – taking action at a grassroots level. It becomes more apparent each passing day that the current administration is both unwilling and unable to address the issues that concern the vast majority of the people. Health care, the economy, the environment and a plethora of other concerns will only get worse until we take back the power and show our “leaders” where to go. Actually, I’d like to tell them where to go, but they never listen to me.
We reclaim our power by taking responsibility for our own actions. That includes being more conscious of our actions as consumers and how they affect our society. Far too many of us have been sucked in to the “Big Box” retailers thinking that we are saving money. But do we ever stop to think why their prices are so low?
Take Wal-Mart. Please. Since the death of Sam Walton, this corporate juggernaut has become retailing’s answer to Darth Vader. Over and over again, Wal-Mart has forced its way into communities that emphatically stated they didn’t want to be Wal’d in. When the stores do come in, three jobs in locally owned businesses are lost for every two created.
Wal-Mart doesn’t even have the grace to be ashamed of its employment practices. It boasts about low its personnel costs are. This is achieved by hiring primarily part-time employees that don’t have to be paid any benefits. Guess who ends up paying those benefits.
There is a health plan for the few full-time employees. It is so expensive that few of them can afford it. When they get sick and have to go to the emergency room for treatment, guess who pays the bill. When hospitals and clinics have to increase prices to pay for the care they give uninsured, guess whose wallet gets more anemic.
Most Wal-Mart employees are paid minimum wage. This has resulted in a majority of them being eligible for Food Stamps. Even some full time workers qualify for welfare assistance. Guess whose pocket that comes out of.
Since 9/11, the company has wrapped itself in the American flag, but 80 percent of its merchandise comes from overseas. That, too, means fewer jobs for Americans. Wal-Mart employees had to sue when they wanted to put American flag stickers on their name tags.
Unionizing? Don’t even say the word. Wal-Mart has been slapped with so many NLRB actions and court orders that nobody except company lawyers can keep track of them all. The company has engaged in some of the most blatant union busting activities since the days of the Pinkertons. When the government has to take Wal-Mart to court to enforce the law, guess who gets stuck with court costs.
Craig Cole is the CEO of Brown & Cole, a locally owned grocery company that has many stores throughout the Northwest. They are fully unionized and provide complete benefits.
“Wal-Mart doesn’t even give lip service to healthy competition,” Cole said. “Their stated goal is to drive everyone else out of the market. How can we compete with that?”
That’s just the monetary costs. The social costs of the big boxes are incalculable. How many communities have lost their souls, their downtowns, their family-owned businesses due to the intrusion of these megaliths? Do you honestly enjoy shopping in the frantic, sterile atmosphere of a Wal-Mart rather than Mom ‘N Pop’s Five & Dime?
I have declared a personal war against big boxes in general and Wal-Mart in particular. I will buy nothing from them under any circumstances. Will it cost me more to patronize small local businesses? Not if you count the real costs. I urge other memesters to join me in flexing our consumer muscles.
If you’d like to learn more, go to www.walmartwatch.com.
Think before you shop!
2:09:59 PM 
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