While Wal-Mart takes over, communities slowly dying

[SoCalDem]

http://www.mtsusidelines.com/news/454081.html?mkey=474913

While Wal-Mart takes over, communities slowly dying

Thursdays


By Wesley Jackson

A few weeks ago my dear mother and I, after a fabulous Chinese dinner, took a stroll through Murfreesboro's new and improved Wal-Mart, located on South Rutherford Boulevard just down the street from Greek Row.We walked all through that gargantuan, brand-spanking-new concrete compound with dazzled eyes. "Well, I never. Look at thay-at," my mom and I exclaimed to ourselves as we passed one sales exhibit after another in this capitalistic carnival. Wal-Mart dominates any town it enters. It is the great church, the temple of the modern world.

Everyone goes to Wal-Mart.

Whether you float along the upper echelons of the social strata or crawl in the dust of poverty like me and so many other college students, you've sacrificed your hard-earned money to the god of cheapness at some point or another. You've been to Wal-Mart. Some "church members" are more regular in their attendance than others. Devotees benefit from Wal-Mart newspaper ads for sales. Irregular shoppers receive lackadaisical, blah looks from bubblegum chewing, high school checkout girls.

...snip

These people are the local, small business owners.They still fight the Wal-Marts of the world that undercut community businesses at the cost of slave labor in China and Mexico.Rather than sell out and serve Wal-Mart, the small business owners work hard to keep commerce between other local businesses. This shoots life into the veins of the town.A Wal-Mart, with their exploitation of third world countries to get goods so cheap, only retards that vitality. The religious followers of Wal-Mart hold to a creed of cheap. They buy stuff there because it's so inexpensive.Local businesses are a bit pricier. But they hold to a creed of community.The small businesses, on the whole, seek to invest in the town they're in. They want to make it unique and give it character. They believe there's more to life than serving a corporation.

Companies like Wal-Mart, on the other hand, see little value in the community, and they suck the life right out of it like a giant parasite.I went to Scotland a couple years ago and was jolted by the experience. In St. Andrews, they don't have Wal-Marts. In fact, they don't have a lot of chain stores.

The shops closed at 5 p.m. and were closed on Sundays.

I've heard that Europeans place greater importance on "family time" than do Americans. Perhaps that's why they don't prostitute their employees by working them 24/7 each week for the sake of building the corporation.Europeans know there's more to life than Wal-Mart. They don't let the corporation dictate to their families or the life of their community.



...snip...


Wesley Jackson is a junior English major and can be reached via e-mail at [e-mail].

[Sweetpea]

1. I used to be a Wal Mart shopper

As much as it hurts to not get those deals....I am boycotting them

[liberalnurse]

2. Me too!

And it doesn't hurt one bit! I'd rather buy quality anyhow.

[FireHeart]

3. I've been boycotting them since that t-shirt event.

That was quite awhile ago...and haven't been back since.

I hate that chain with a passion.

[Dover]

4. Yes, I witnessed the death of one community due to WalMart, Home Depot

moving in. First went the local hardware stores, the clothing stores and small grocery. There was a local drugstore/five and dime that even had the old fountain drinks......all gone.

WalMart always argues that they bring jobs to the areas they go into, but the negative results always outweigh the positive by a long shot. All these local stores would close down by 5 or 6 pm each day and all day Sunday.

So maybe people (those locals who were not directly affected) liked being free to buy a wrench or sporting goods late into the night...
or liked the cheaper prices and the variety...or the one stop shopping. But I wonder if they even were aware of its short and long term affect on their communities.
There are all kinds of ways to grow a community but few seem to understand they have a choice and a voice in how it comes about. How many small towns have a growth plan?