Nobrainer’s Think Tank

After working with teh feeble mided for 2 years I have come to understand qho and how the media is targeting. When they post numbers like that, it is targeting the folks I work with who continuously amaze me that they can go a day without shitting their pants. If the world was filled with educated people who actually looked into the numbers and the media stories then, well we wouldn’t be scared of the media as they would always look like the “Inquirer” with their lopsided stories. My theory on the targeted audience comes from individual conversations I had with many of the employees during the election in which many of them basically were echoing what the media of the day was spitting out about GW. Hence the saying “knowledge is power” comes out in proof. As for the hamburglar, the ledia would like you to think he is the CEO of Wal-Mart

I think people’s problem with walmart stems from the fact that Walmart has spread like a blight across the country and all but forces you to shop there. The “if you don’t like it, don’t shop there” argument is valid but only serves to exacerbate those who oppose Walmart’s (apparent) lack of ethics when it comes to employee treatment and general growth philosophy…because after a while you FIND YOURSELF SHOPPING THERE OUT OF NECCESSITY. I, for one, resent every trip I have to make into Walmart because in my opinion it’s a depressing place unless I am totally drunk.

The people…. Over the years the number of smiles I notice within the confines of a Walmart store has all but disappeared. It’s as if when you walk in they hijack your brain and you start wandering like a lobotomized cow.

The lighting…. I feel like I’m in a hospital. I know it’s all about being cheap, but would it raise the price of bananas too much to have some god damned ambiance.

The austere building…. Take a shoe box dip the bottom half in blue paint and the top half in gray paint. Slap a walmart logo on it and enlarge 1 million percent. What a fricken eye-sore. I can totally understand why a community would not want walmart moving in. It’s all about consistency and taste. If your town and its elected leaders have either, then walmart is the antithesis.

Let’s scale this down a bit. Imagine you go to buy some new tires for your car (maybe at Walmart) and you say to yourself, “I’m going to spring for the Michelins this time.” You are all proud of you new expensive tires and start thinking more about how to improve the quality of your components. Maybe you get some other upgrades–like grand tourismo style. You spring for the top brand oil and maybe even put in the high octane fuel. Don’t want to miss the periodic tune ups and maintenence. By all accounts you’re putting together one hellUVA ride. Then the next time you go back to get your tires replaced the service station says, “Hey buddy, we know you’re building this cool car and it’s like your pride and joy, but we’ve talked with your wife and offered her a financial package that will give us the power over one of your tires. Since half the title is in her name there’s not much you can say about it. Sorry. Anyway, you can get 3 michelins if you want, but we think that 4th tire should definitely be a durable and cheap tractor tire. Sure you’ll only be able to go 25 mph in this car, but that’s the tire we use on everything else and we’ll be damned if we are going to change that just for you.”

This analogy got a little long so here’s the explanation:
If “you” in the above story represent townspeople with some vision and foresight, and your wife represents the townspeople looking for a quick dollar. Then the car represents the town itself and the tractor tire represents Walmart.

When framed in this way I can understand exactly why a place like Clemson fought against Walmart. I can see why many other places do the same.

As for the treatment of employees and the full page ad in the NYT. I think my reasons above are a stronger argument against Walmart. I don’t give a rats ass what they pay their employees, that’s between Walmart and their workers. But I would definitely like to see some brighter faces, better lighting and more tasteful architecture… oh and maybe some sincere civic responsibility too.

For once, Wha made a fairly logical & coherent response that closely mirrors my own.

I agree with Evan. I don’t find shopping at Wal-Mart to be the brightest chore in my regular list. However for me, and countless others, the temporary unpleasantness is worth the amount remaining in my bank account at the end of the day. I concur that the architecture is arid, the lighting is lacking, and the people are pained.

As for the tire example… there is the possibility that a specific good may be cut out of the local market when Wal-Mart moves in. If you are dead-set on Michelins (you farking Frenchman), there is no one preventing you from ordering them from elsewhere. You may have to pay a bit more, but this can happen in a non-Wal-Mart atmosphere. A small town may have two main mechanics who are loyal to Pennzoil (because they’re DEI fans) or Valvoline (because they love Mark Martin). Now if you want Quaker State because you’re a Jeff Gordon fan, you may find yourself in an equally unsatisfactory situation.

In a brief summary, I think that if Wal-Mart is truly opposed in a town, it will fail and be gone almost as quickly as it came. Otherwise it is ultimately an act of the people.

And this is a difficult question to answer (particularly in the Napster/Morpheus/Bit Torrent days)… do we blame the enabler or the user?

From my experience, everywhere a Wal-Mart has spread its roots, a Target is nearby and equally thriving.

Oh yeah and as a former Wally World employee, they build every Wal Mart exactly the same so that when you enter one, anywahere in the US, it will not make you feel likea stranger in the store, but make you feel welcome as you would know where everything in the store was. Also I believe the common white collar american is starting to see Target as the upper class Wally World, hence the joke name Tar-jay. Sorry for the double post on that last one.

As for all the Wal-Marts being built the same…

Have you ever gotten used to one Wal-Mart where the main entrance is, for example, on the right side of the store only to one day visit a store where the entrance is on the left side and everything is backward. That has thrown me off on many occasions.

Enunciation. Pronounced “ee-nunn-see-ay-shun”.

*grin*

It is weird going in to mirrored Wal Marts, but it’s even stranger going in to Costco after making a Sam’s run - it’s like Bizzarro Sam’s. They just changed everything that was blue to red and raised the prices.

Thanks for the spelling Doug, I botched that one but at least I knew it was happening when I did it, as opposed to the thirty other errors I didn’t even bother to note. As for China, I don’t know anything about these protests but I do knwo that there are wage issues starting to pop up, similar to Mexico a few years ago. This was the reason some many companies bolted for the rim. I predict Vietnam and or Indonesia will be the next places that explode, then the Western Coast of Africa. SW Asia already takes lots of jobs (See Nike, Intel, others) but the area is primed to take off. Two fo the worlds top ten countries in population are there and the folks aren’t exactly loaded. I see Africa afterwards because of the energy. I have you ever paid any attention to the “world at Night” photos. Look at the mount of light produced by the gas burnoffs alone. Combine that with a rapidly growing population and very poor standard of living. Sounds like a hot spot to me.