Monkeys for Breakfast?

Its true, I have an abhorrence for everything walmart (the lack of capitalization is not a mistake, I hate it that much). I do, however, realize that I cannot escape the demise of capitalist America and have to support evil corporations almost everywhere I go. Regardless I have decided to pick on walmart despite the obvious size difference.

Just because I have not shopped at walmart for years does not mean that I have not bought Crystal Light at a store owned by Kroger, I need my raspberry ice. I probably spent an extra twenty cents for my raspberry ice, but I feel good because I believe I am making my personal stand against everything evil.

My perspective of evil has taken a few hard hits recently. After working for multiple locally owned grocery stores I have become accustomed to finding my own health insurance. I then found out that one of my classmates works for walmart because they offered him health insurance for him and his family (I am sure this was at a cost but probably not as much as my previous employer wanted, eighty dollars a month for a single twenty three year old with no dependants?). Corporate America 1, Independent America 0.

Benefits have given my conscience a hard hit, but I stand strong against walmart. A month ago I decided to acquire a few supplies for a road trip and went to the local camping supply store Out n Back. A bought a new sleeping bag and tent, but the tent was out of stock so they ordered one in for me (one inconvenience of locally owned stores is they don’t have the capital to support a large inventory, no big whoop). After two weeks I called and it was still not in. After two more weeks I got a call from the store apologizing that the warehouse was moving and wouldn’t have the tent for another two weeks and that I could come in and get my money back or another tent. The owner of the store came out to assist my in my choice, and eventually gave me a more expensive tent for the same price because he felt bad about the situation. Would I have received the same assistance at walmart? Hell no. If I could track down anyone at walmart the best they could do is make up a bunch of lies about what they thought was the better tent without any experience to back it up (uh, this tent is has thicker poles and is stronger). Would I have gotten as good of a deal at walmart? Possible. But REI had the same tent for a hundred dollars more than the original price that I got a discount on. So, corporate America 1, Independent America 1.

I am not an economist so I wont suggest any statistics about dramatic inflation or employment, but those I have heard do not speak well of walmart. I will suggest that walmart has another drastic iniquity hiding in its parking lot. As a kid, before I hated walmart, my family and I drove a huge camper across half of America. Because my family is notoriously cheep we spent many (all but one) nights in the parking lots of walmart (because walmart lets anyone in a camper use there parking lot for free, except in Branson). At the time I didn’t realize the impact of this convenience but I visited over a dozen cities including, St. Louis, Lincoln, Kansas City, and Denver yet they all looked the same. This may not be profound but globalization is a problem -epically when you need something specific like pectin but walmart, the only store in town, caries their own generic brand of gelatin, and trust me they are not the same. Corporate America 1, Independent America five million (hey, I make the rules in the game for a change, so suck it walmart).