Friday, May 07, 2004
Going to Walmart
The stars converged on me the other day and they got me thinking about Walmart in a cruel, cruel way. Here’s what happened: I opened up my morning paper and I began reading an article about this year’s Pulitzer Prizes. I saw that one of the winners was The Los Angeles Times for its long exposé on Walmart. Ever curious about the world of Walmart and what it is doing to us, I went to my computer and proceeded to download the articles.
I can now report that the articles are quite good and explore how that $8.63 polo shirt on the rack actually costs us far more, and in ways most of us could never begin to fathom. To get to the bottom of this story, a reporter traveled to Honduras and interviewed a woman who spends her days making that shirt. Her job involves sewing sleeves onto shirts at the rate of 1,200 garments a day. The work is so physically demanding and the hours are so long that this 37 year women is now constantly taking anti-inflammatory pills because of the arthritis she has developed in her hands. After detailing her life this woman then asks “why would a company in the richest country in the world care about a few pennies.” The reporter answers that question by simply noting that Wal-Mat built its empire on bargains. While the upshot of the series is that this cheap shirt and a million other things sold at this store are coming back to haunt us “big time,” as our Vice President would have it, the articles also show how Walmart is changing the buying patterns of people around the world. Walmart is that big, that important these days. I was particularly struck, though, by the multimedia maps in the series that showed the growth of Walmart stores from 1962 to the present. They look like a uncontrolled virus, ala the Andromeda Strain.
Anyway, an hour or so later I went out to do some errands and I realized that I had to buy some wiper blades, and buy them pronto, because it looked like it was going to rain and I knew that the ones on my car were old and tattered. I then recalled the last time I had replaced them and what a beast it has been in getting the right blades and then putting them on my car. Mind you, I had generally considered this to be a relatively simple car project, but somehow I had managed to cut myself when doing this and I had no desire of repeating this sorry episode in car maintenance. This reminder led me to eventually buy the wiper blade and have them put on my car at...drum roll please....yes, Walmart.
Walmart not only had them and at a very reasonable price, but when I sheepishly asked the sales person if there was someone who could put them on my car, she said, “no problem sir, I’ll have one of our workers help you.” Everyone was beyond nice to me, so much so that I thought I was being secretly filmed as part of some demented training session on how to make customers who are guilty about shopping at Walmart want to come back to the store. With my new wiper blades on, I went home and finished reading the articles on how Walmart is destroying our world. I’m not sure if this is a example of cognitive dissonance or cosmic synergy, but it was a weird morning for me nonetheless.
I am now at a loss as to what to make out of all of this and I want your feedback here. Do you have an opinion on Walmart? Did I go wrong in going into the store of the largest corporation in the world? Should I have opted instead to buy them at one of the other national stores on Grape Road? Should I only frequent mom and pop stores that sell wiper blades? Or is this is all much ado over nothing and is my little angst just navel gazing of the worst sort? Most importantly, check out the LA Times articles that you can with a bit of difficulty find on their web site, http://www.latimes.com. And yes, you can spare me the cutting remark by informing me that putting on windshield wiper blades is not brain surgery. But e-mail me at and let me know what you would do if you were in my situation. And for those of you who think that Walmart is the devil itself, let me know if you’ve ever shopped there. I’m all ears.
A random selection from more than 300 Michiana Chronicles -- refresh the browser to see another set:
Joe Chaney -- More essays by Joe
Louise Collins -- More essays by Louise
April Lidinsky -- More essays by April
Jonathan Nashel -- Going to Walmart / More essays by Jonathan
Jeff Nixa -- More essays by Jeff
Ken Smith -- More essays by Ken
Jeanette Saddler Taylor -- More essays by Jeanette
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About the series
Michiana Chronicles is a series of radio essays by Jonathan Nashel, Louise Collins, Joe Chaney, Jeanette Saddler Taylor, Jeff Nixa, April Lidinsky, and Ken Smith.
Michiana is the region of north-central Indiana and southern Michigan roughly centered on South Bend, Indiana.
Michiana Chronicles airs on Fridays at 7:35 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on WVPE (88.1 FM), the home of public radio in Elkhart / South Bend, Indiana.
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