As we venture into the 21st century wholeheartedly, Americans feel that they are obliged to one-stop shopping instead of having the option of choosing locally-owned stores.
The ‘mom and pop’ convenient stores of yesterday, which were once just a block away from your picket fence and red bicycle, have begun to fade into the past.
Now, from the deepest, darkest depths of the Earth – the very core of hell – comes the almighty Antichrist, the mother of all monopolies: Wal-Mart.
Almost all of us are familiar with Wal-Mart. In fact, most of the basic, routine shopping of America is done at the local Wal-Mart store. The image is not hard to envision: a plateau of burning cement, the enormous letters towering above, the electric doors sliding open, the animated voice playing over the intercom, beeps, shoppers, haircutting salon, nail salon, tire and lube, McDonalds, groceries, clothes, electronics, health care, pet care, entertainment and toys! It’s all there just waiting for us with low costs and smiley faces to keep on rollin’ them back.
So, what’s with all the hype and outrage over such a successful, beneficial industry? Good question, class! It’s obvious that such a business will do anything and everything to get ahead. Those are the politics of business: own or be owned. Wal-Mart simply chooses to own . everything.
In doing so, the impact on America is becoming more evident with every customer-cashier transaction – not to mention the new self-checkout lines when your anti-social streak is acting up. The least significant yet most sentimental problem with Wal-Mart is that through its domination it is mercilessly smothering other small businesses.
Due to Wal-Mart’s maddening success, the ‘Uncle Tommy’s Pizza’ and ‘Beets and Beans’ of America are facing ultimate extinction. Whatever uniqueness a community might have is immediately extricated as soon as the floor plans for Wal-Mart’s thousand-something-foot invasion are announced. Just as within every other town and city in a trillion mile radius, Wal-Mart rules supreme.
Even though it may seem as though such low prices are a gift sent directly from the consumer heaven, there is more here than just meets the eye.
The wonderful low prices that we pay for our groceries, the marked down DVDs as a ‘Deluxe Edition’-‘Special Anniversary’ – ‘Director’s Cut’ and the half-off racks in the clothing department . are so low for a reason. The benefits of working for the Wal-Mart industry are few, if not entirely nonexistent.
The most concerning aspect of the worker neglect is that even though consumers pay extremely low prices, they’re also paying for worker medical care.
That’s right, Wal-Mart offers such horrible benefits that most workers seek healthcare through state funding – i.e. money from our pockets. Wal-Mart Corp. allegedly encourages its workers to apply for public assistance programs.
While workers are suffering low wages and some lead poverty-like lifestyles, consumers are oblivious to the monster that’s responsible for sucking their income dry.
College students often turn to Wal-Mart for the school essentials and extra forms of entertainment because it’s the easiest and fastest means of acquiring what we desire. Should we, the consumers and supporters, of this monopoly really be complaining? We’re like a gardener, who has planted the seed of success for Sam Walton and who, now that it has grown in every direction imaginable, is terrified of what it has become.
The Wal-Mart monopoly may be a monster of great proportions but it is only so because of us. If we truly search to preserve the uniqueness of our community then trade in your gallon jar of pickles – $2.99 “Everyday Low Prices” – and take the time to look somewhere else. Or, if not, then continue to save yourself the time and gas by killing several birds with one stone while at Wal-Mart. Just remember that each time you ‘pass go’ you’re not collecting $200 dollars in this monopoly because what you save, you’ll pay back in taxes.
Either way, choose a side. Because when we decide that acting is more impressive than complaining, Wal-Mart will evaporate faster than you can say, “Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. Have a nice day,” while standing for 12-hour shifts, enduring crappy pay and a dislocated disk in your back.
Until then, I’ll blame the consumer and not Wal-Mart because, back to the politics, no monopoly is sympathetic and it’s certainly not the evil we make it out to be – although a smiley face sticker just might make for a trendy little signature as the mark of the beast.

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