Wal*Mart

Wal*Mart

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of communities." - Sam Walton

Do Americans still shop to fill that void within them or did that phase of our culture pass? Who knows. What I do know is that I once dated a girl who liked Wal*Mart. Not that she actually ever shopped there. At least I don't think she did. I mean she was from Santa Cruz so I'm sure she's never actually been into one, but she liked Wal*Mart a great deal. Like the business model. How could you not on the stand point of making money.



Everything inside Wal*Mart is made somewhere else. Not in a good way, like a Swiss coffee maker or a Japanese kitchen knife or a French Press, but in a bad, everything here is cheap and disposable and made in China or worse way. So feel free to throw it out when it stops working in 6 months because it sure isn't worth repairing, and we have to keep those landfill people in business, just come buy another one to replace it, because hey it's cheap.

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal*Mart's original plan was to support the whole "Buy American" mentality. Ha, how'd that work out for you, Sam? Once he died his family abandoned the buy American policy and it led directly to their massive expansion in the 90's. Wal*Mart is where America's peasantry goes to shop for American flag-themed clothing and food. I mean, where else can you get your kids styling new clothes from?



Be herself? Yeah and have a bitching new wardrobe from Wal*mart.

What a lie. Like there has been any group of females that would accept someone wearing something bought from Wal*mart. They know that target or generic department store crap a mile away. We all know the cool girls only allow others who shop at Forever 21, American Apparel and maybe.. just maybe the GAP.

Maybe I got this whole view point wrong here. Maybe the girl I was dating had a point. Darn that evil corporation for stimulating the local economy by creating jobs in construction first, then later within the store itself for the retail workers! How dare people with low incomes and poor mobility be able to shop locally for things normally found in the bigger cities for cheaper prices, increasing their shopping power and allowing them to maybe save a bit of money somehow!

I cannot believe those scumsuckers would open "stores" in smalltown REAL AMERICA!

How dare they tap a market!

God, it's not like the communities themselves invite Wal*Mart in because they understand that poor people not having to SOMEHOW get to the nearest city to go shopping for a fucking book or new clothes is actually a good thing. I mean come now, I've lived in small town Florida when a Wal*Mart opened in my town; without them, I would have starved to death, because the "local community grocers" all charged twice what Wal*Mart was charging for food.

Yeah, they're a huge corporation, and I'm well aware that if a corporation were a person, it would be a psychopath. SO WHAT? Maybe Wal*Mart genuinely does good things for people in the communities in which it arises... but you know what, I can't say any of that because in the end of things, Wal*Mart is a shitty company. Even if you're able to get all your shopping done in one place.



You have to factor in other things. Maybe things like worker's rights. It wasn't Unions who killed the American dream. No sir, I'm in one.. so clearly I can't talk shit about them.. but god damn those union fees really add up.

I think you can see where I would like to cut my fingers off for typing all that above pro-Wal*Mart bullshit. While most people toss the claim that Wal*Mart is killing small main street style stores and destroying the unique America that we're all so used to saying they actually kill in small town U.S.A., I do think it's far worse. Those stores were never really safe to begin with anyway.

And anyone who says that with a Wal*Mart coming in, all that now open storefront space that is dirt cheap will gather the potential of getting totally rad antiques stores, ethnic gimmick food and neat-o bars in there. Stuff that Wal*Mart can't really give to you, I have this to point out about those;

totally rad antiques stores



ethnic gimmick food



neat-o bars



Even "quirky" downtown's with cheap rents are sanitized and white as hell. When I was in Florida and in Georgia I would go days without seeing another Mexican. Let alone a Mexican restaurant that wasn't completely gross. Don't get me started on Chinese food. It was only when I got back to L.A. and went down to Monterey Park did I get that itch of Chinese food out of the way.

I think we do need to welcome in the fact that there is absolutely nothing special about where most of you people live because chances are everywhere you are, it's only a matter of time before the same carbon copy strip mall pops up with the same best buy, the same hip clothing store and the same upscale, but still shitty restaurant pops up. And believe me, Cheesecake Factory is not anything special or unique.

All those quirky local businesses are neat, until you figure out that they turn over and fail all the time and the same landlord owns the entire block.



But what's even more troubling about Wal*Mart is how much of a cult it really is like. You may have heard this if you're ever in a Wal*Mart early enough;

Give me a W!
Give me an A!
Give me an L!
Give me a squiggly!
Give me an M!
Give me an A!
Give me an R!
Give me a T!

What's that spell?
Walmart!

Whose Walmart is it?
It's my Walmart!

Who's number one?
The customer! Always!

That’s the Walmart cheer!

You shouldn't be surprised if you hear your local Wal*Mart associate shouting that enthusiastically. One would expect a blood sacrifice after all that but it's just that the employees like to take it seriously - it's the one way they show pride in their company and how much they value their customers.

Either that or I bet the Kool-aid is just really dee-lish!



I also find it stupid that Wal*Mart still pays its American workers (unlike its Mexican workers) in real dollars rather than in Wal*Mart gift cards. The motto should be

Save Money. Live Better. Unless You Work For Us, Then Fuck You

People who work at Wal*Mart are paid terrible wages and have shit benefits and have to deal with Wal*Mart claiming that their anti-union polices are okay because "Associates don't need unions to represent them" and Wal-Mart has an "Open door policy" Not to mention that their employee discount doesn't apply to most of the food. That cherry FUCK YOU on top of that sundae is that they purposefully schedule employees to just under 40 hours in order to avoid giving them full time benefits.

But hey, why limit it to just poor people who can't get jobs anywhere else? It's not a common practice for Wal*Mart to treat high schools as training centers as you can see from the fine folks of Detroit trying to recruit some greeters.

The Detroit Public Schools have teamed up with Walmart Stores to provide job training and entry-level, afterschool jobs to students at four high schools.

The training program was kicked off today at assemblies held at Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men and at Western International High.

Detroit International Academy for Women and Henry Ford High will also participate.

Students will get 11 weeks of job-readiness training during the school day and 10 high school credits for the class and work experience.

Sean Vann, principal at Douglass, said 30 students at that school will get jobs at Walmart. He said the program will allow students an opportunity to earn money and to be exposed to people from different cultures - since all of the stores are in the suburbs.

Donna Stern, a national coordinator for the activist group known as BAMN, attended the assembly at Douglass and objected to the program.

“They’re going to train students to be subservient workers,” she said. “This is not why parents send them to school, to learn how to work for Walmart.”

The scary thing here is that not one Wal*Mart is in the city limits of Detroit. The closest one being in Warren, which is a fair distance away. But you see, Detroit is currently living through 50% unemployment.. due to other companies outsourcing their manufacturer jobs overseas. So people desperate for any kind of job, even minimum wage slave labor, are more than willing to make a deal with Satan.



I don't think this is what they meant by career pathways in the curriculum development department. But hey, at least conservatives are enjoying the idea of using high school as a way to train children to enter the unskilled workforce. I once heard a radio host mention that he expects a return on his investment in public schools. That's right kids, Aim low. Really, really low.

Here's a protifp if you're not making enough at your job. Wal*Mart is such a huge company, if you steal something worth less than $25, they wont bother calling the cops in and prosecuting you, they'll just ban you from their stores forever. Hint Hint.



It's not like you're not owed this. Want some justification for such behavior? Wal*Mart is actually costing Taxpayers millions in the form of Medicare and Medicaid benefits paid to employees since they don't pay their workers enough, or cover health care costs.

Back to the subject of quality of goods. Most goods in Wal*Mart that are available elsewhere are manufactured in two grades, one cheaper and Wal*Mart bound, one more expensive and everywhere else bound.

Take two black and decker power drills of the exact same model number. One from a home improvement store and one from Wal*Mart. The Wal*Mart one will be about 20% cheaper and will be a physically different unit from the other one, more cheaply made with lower profit margin.



This is the only way that many manufacturers can stay alive, by complying with Wal*Mart's demand for tons of shitty products while still somewhat keeping a shred of their own build integrity intact for some of their products so their reputation and mindshare doesn't go down the drain.

I mean, why buy a $90 ratchet that will continue to work long after you die when you can buy a $10 one that will break in a year. Do you see how this short sightedness comes into play when it comes to Wal*Mart in general?



But hey, at least Wal*Mart respects the history to a place, right? It's not like they tried to build over a priceless archaeological treasure that can never be replaced if damaged, right? Oh wait, they did.. and they succeeded.

Wal*Mart built a store on the site of Teotihuacan, an ancient classic Meosamerican city, and basically the inspiration for every civilization that followed it. Easily the 1st or 2nd most important site in central & north America. The city is literally miles across so it's not like the whole thing is now a parking lot, but there's pretty much a 100% chance they built over some temples or house or graves or something.



You know what happens when a Wal*Mart does close? And believe me, many of them have because of the economy or they just expanded too fast in one area that couldn't maintain it. Those shells of a building are hard to rent out or use for anything else because they are too big. Most of them just turn into a church or a community center. Many of which just sit there to be urban exploration down the line.

Finally the last piece of Wal*Mart news that just scares the hell out of me is that Wal*Mart has been trying to set up a consumer banking division for years and they were just about to launch one when the financial crisis hit. Not to mention that they had some problems with the FDIC and state licensing. But still it's only a matter of time though, as soon as the right legislators are in office they'll try again and the people will rejoice.

We Don't Need No Pinche Walmart Supermarket.

We Don't Need No Pinche Walmart Supermarket.

I have to say, I'm not sure if I'm against or for Wal-mart. On one hand it offers a lot of food and other clothing options at a cheap price for those on a limited income. On the other hand it tears apart towns, puts mom and pop stores out of business and seems a little tacky. They do have a great selection of toys and gifts to choose from when buying crap for my friends during Christmas at a slightly lower price, so why not. I'll be for Wal-mart for the purpose of this blog.

It's already known that Los Angeles doesn't like them. In every attempt they have had to open one in the greater Los Angeles area, they've meet a lot of resistance. Perhaps with this new step they'll win the battle of Los Angeles...

Wal-Mart to open new Hispanic-focused chains

Wal-Mart plans to open its first Hispanic-focused supermarkets this summer in Arizona and Texas as the largest US retailer continues its drive to expand its dominance of the US grocery business.

The pilot stores, named Supermercado de Walmart, will open in Phoenix and Houston in remodelled 39,000 sq ft locations occupied previously by two of Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market stores.

The retailer said that the stores were in “strongly Hispanic neighbourhoods” and would feature a “new lay-out, signing and product assortment designed to make them even more relevant to local Hispanic customers”. The staff will also be bilingual.

Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club warehouse store also plans to open a 143,000 sq ft Hispanic-focused store called Más Club in Houston this year.

Several leading regional US supermarket chains already operate Hispanic store brands, including Publix in Florida, which operates three Publix Sabor markets, and HEB in Texas, which opened a Mi Tienda store in Houston in 2006.

The markets include elements such as cafés serving Latino pastries and coffee, and full service meat and fish counters.

Leading retailers are also pursuing Hispanic consumers online, with Best Buy and Home Depot having launched Spanish-language versions of their e-commerce sites in recent months.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, the head of Wal-Mart’s US stores since 2005, has also been an advocate of testing new smaller, more focused formats, and raised the idea of turning the Neighbourhood Market into a Hispanic-style bodega concept several years ago.

He has also developed Wal-Mart’s efforts to customise its larger Supercenter stores, which have been grouped according to differing community profiles, such as urban, suburban, Hispanic and African-American, with customised merchandise.

A 195,000 sq ft Supercenter that opened in Texas last year included a tortilleria bakery, Hispanic foods and a larger selection of Spanish-language music and DVDs.

Mr Castro-Wright was previously head of Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary, whose store network ranges from large US-style Supercenters to small local bodegas, an upmarket supermarket chain and two restaurant chains.

Last year, Wal-Mart also began testing four new 10,000 sq ft Marketside convenience grocery stores in the Phoenix area – its first new format in a decade. Tesco, the UK retailer, also has more than 25 of its small Fresh & Easy markets in the Phoenix area

Sweet, a place that I can buy Mexican groceries for my hipster dinner parties without going to some scary looking hole in the wall! Why is anyone surprised about this? Hispanics are the largest minority group in America and spend billions annually. What ever will happen to the Madre and Padre shops when Wal-mart moves in? Now all the mom and pop hispanic owned stores can be put out of business too.



Thankfully I'm from L.A. so nothing is going to change. Believe it or not, Wal-marts are really different in different areas of the US. Sure you have your DVD and iPods, but in Utah and other Mormon areas they have larger, I want to say arts and crafts, but that's just not politically friendly. There's sushi made fresh and daily in some areas and in most ones near Spanish communities have plenty of Mexican products. So yeah, Wal-Mart is just making public what has been going on for a while.

Even with saying that, these new stores will probably be as authentically Hispanic as Wal-mart opening an Italian version of itself by selling six variations of Sargento cheese (look! REAL Italian cheese!) instead of the four varieties sold in the regular Wal-marts. I have to say, unless you're in a small town, there's really no reason why you can't find the ethnic markets that will provide you with what you need.



There's a bunch of giant ass Korean supermarkets in the US too. Hell, I love shopping at Korean, Japanese and Chinese markets. You'll catch me on Wednesdays at El Super weekly picking up very low priced and delicious fruits and veggies. But naturally no one cares because it's not a Pavilions or Ralph's. People seem to go all up in arms, especially in that part of the states. OH NO HISPANIC SUPERMARKETS!!!

Ethnic markets are awesome, I love the weird and wonderful stuff you can get at Asian ones. I'm sure whenever I end up taking my speshul lady to a Mexican mercados we'll find something neat and not often found at American markets that would be apart of a fresh and tasty meal. What are some of the differences? I guess the bakery and the whole fact that there's an in house Tortilla factory pumping out fresh Tortillas daily. Tortilla bakery may seem a bit different and strange but it's really a blessing as you have not lived till you had a freshly made tortilla.


Oh the delicious REAL sodas to be found here.

I'm not sure if Wal-mart is going to be anything more than a regular Wal-mart with a Tejano face to it. Is there a risk of driving out a lot of the genuine independent Mexican mercados? Maybe. But I doubt it as customers to that type are very loyal. Add in that you simply can't beat the prices at some of these places. They already have their regular Carnicerias to go for their meats. Hell, I have plenty in my neighborhood.

Hopefully the entire music section is dedicated to those cheesy generic bands that all wear the same outfit for some reason:





Oh, I guess they already do that...

I really hope their phone systems say 'for English, press 2' so people flip out even more. This is going to be in Texas after all. They bastardize Mexican food with Tex Mex, they deserve to get annoyed by having Spanish be the first language there.

Perhaps the fact that I'm sure many people will get outraged by this culture clash is a sign of how young our country really is. This shouldn't be news. I like living in a city that makes it less covenant for me to be complacent with knowing just one language. The United States needs to be more worldly and open to cultures and foods that aren't what your average white American grew up on.

Take a trip down to whatever ethnic area is near you and go into a store that does not look like they speak English if they could avoid it and look around. You'll be surprised on what new things you may see and eventually enjoy if you just give it a chance.