Wal-Mart Wonderland
Take me out to the Wal-Mart, take me out to the store. Buy me some candy and applejacks…I don’t care if my kid’s eating that. And let’s root root root for the Chinese. If they don’t make it — a shame– and it’s 1-2-Visa you’re out at the cashier stand!
Yesterday, my kids and I got in the car and scouted out a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Antelope. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been in a Wal-Mart in more than a year, and most people who know me know why. That would be under politics instead of shopping.
Why did we go? Well, my family size increased this year, and will be increasing again by the end of the year. There are a lot of mouths to feed. One of my coworkers told me this Supercenter was cheaper than Costco and even Winco (if you’ve been to Winco, and there are several on the outskirts of the city, you’re probably raising your eyebrows at this).
So after a 20 minute drive on the Business Loop over to I-80 and Antelope Road, there we were. First off, it was huge (as expected). Second, believe it or not, we got a parking spot easily. If you’ve been to Arden Fair lately, you will be amazed at this. Of course, it was hot. And finally, the prices weren’t bad but–let me tell you what I do. I carry a “price book” with me where I jot down the prices and location of various foodstuffs that we purchase routinely. (It’s not my great idea–I read it somewhere.)
We went in, and…I was amazed. Wal-Mart was clean, and the aisles were wide (but then, have you seen the usual clientele?), and of course the prices were cheap–but I digress–I will get back to my price book in a minute. We saw an ethnic mix, including someone wearing a blue turban. My daughter insisted he was a Turk, but I think he was from India. Nice clean turban, no matter who he was and where he was from.
About the price book. It is very useful because you might get wowed at the sight of 70-page notebooks for a mere 10 cents each near the entrance. In fact, my eyes hurt for the first five minutes of price shopping until we acclimated to the blare of commercialism. Most prices were low. In fact, an interesting pattern emerged. Just about everything in the goods aisles was approximately 5 cents cheaper than Target. I think perhaps Wal-Mart sends a scout into Tarzhay and then sells whatever for 5 cents less. Makes you think it’s a deal.
Turns out some things are not cheaper than Costco…sour cream, and cheese. However, if you buy generic, you can get a cheaper sour cream. Also, you can save if you buy a 5 lb block of no-name cheese–anyone remember Reagan-cheese? They gave it out to people who stood in line at food banks during his tenure in office–this cheese looks a lot like it.
The bakery section was frightening. You can buy baked goods for pennies on the dollar. In fact, why buy veggies when you can buy yourself a whole pie for $2.50? Who cares if it has hydrogenated corn crack in it and was baked in a warehouse in Kalamazoo–you can get your fix.
We ended up Super-sizing ourselves in the mini-Mickey-Dees and my girls were enjoying a soft serve cone a Wal-Mart person bought for them. No wonder the aisles are so big.
In retrospect, I think I was impressed by Wal-Mart’s Supercenter, and I’m still trying to make sense of it. One thing’s for sure. It is a true piece of Americana. You can get your apple pie and cheese there, and walk out saving money for the gas you will use on the freeway drive home.
Talk about hypocrisy… complaining about how you hate Wal-Mart, complete with some smartass song lyrics, then you go on to talk about how you’re going to shop there because, hey, “There are a lot of mouths to feed”.
So… you have political beliefs and convictions, but only if they’re convenient and affordable to you?
I don’t recall saying I was going to shop there?
After thinking about it….I don’t think hypocrisy is the right word here. We purchased burgers at the McDonald’s (note–only self deprecation at that) but skipped any purchases at Wal-Mart. It was more like a museum.
Ah ok… I misread, I thought you were there shopping/buying. If you just went there to gawk, I guess there’s no conflict between your values and actions. I misunderstood.
Wow Aaron, pretty angry words when commenting about a post. I take WalMart and its various evils pretty seriously, but at the end of the day, if I had a few kids, I’d probably end up shopping there too. Maybe it is just an evil-empire thing - they’ve driven out the alternatives, but, well, they have driven out a lot of alternatives, so why should a lot of working families killing themselves to scratch out a living spend a few extra dollars per box of cherios to assuage general liberal guilt?
I’m a liberal and a catholic, so I’m basically guilty all the time about something. But I can completely empathize with someone who said they didn’t want to do it, but had little choice BUT to shop at WalMart. Those of us fortunate enough to be able to charitably give more to our local overpriced market can do so and hope that helps change the political and economic tide that has allowed Walmart to accumulate so much wealth it’d be like the country with the 31st largest economy if it were a country.
The economy sucks. Inflation is swiftly, uh, inflating, and it’s not easy. I’m not going to slam others for doing what they have to do to preserve their own chances at achieving the American dream.
And the more I think about it - what how on earth do you justify mocking someone for saying they’ve got a lot of mouths to feed?
For shit sake - I’m assuming these are her kids, but even if they were puppies - do you really feel justified in calling someone out for putting her kids needs ahead of everything else?
“So… you have political beliefs and convictions, but only if they’re convenient and affordable to you?”
Who doesn’t? Duh!
It’s called flexibility and adaptation…
Pretty natural thing that promotes survival…
Do you know of any non-fictional characters who continuously held beliefs and convictions (political, religious, etc.) that were undesirable and not beneficial to them in some major way?…No? Then I guess the whole point is moot, wouldn’t you say?