3.14.2010

WalMart is in No Hurry

Super Walmarts flood the Rochester region and there is a certain inevitability to their presence. They will slowly but surely squeeze other businesses to either adapt to them or go out of business.

WalMart is a retail anaconda. They get ahold of you (you being your locality) and then apply a steady pressure to slowly kill you with low prices, ugly stores, bad customer service and under-benefited employees making almost enough to get by.

It has been a formula for success but there are more and more people who refuse to patronize the big box hell holes. I am obviously one of them but there are more out there and there are more joining our ranks every day.

Will there ever be enough to stop the behemoth? Well ever is a damned long time. Do I think Walmart will exist forever into the future? No but then nothing will. Do I think WalMart is going anywhere in my lifetime? No, no I don't. I think they will continue to grow and expand and homogenize areas so that everyone can get the same crap at low prices.

And no, I don't think that's a good thing at all. I embrace diversity, I love locally produced goods, I love locally grown produce, I love knowing that the money I spend at my local store stays in the area rather than being shipped off to China where those monies are used to subjugate more workers to produce schlock for our over-consumptive and under-aware country.

Until the pervasive more is always better mentality is changed to one of quality trumps quantity, WalMart will continue to grow and consume our towns, our money and our souls.

I prefer to hold on to my soul and will never spend a dime of my money at WalMart. If you are in a position to make your purchases elsewhere then I would encourage you to do the same.
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