Posted on 11/22/2004 6:16:37 AM PST by aynrandy
After a recent column praising the individuality and importance of local businesses, I was bombarded by questions about gentrification and admonished for my lack of conservative reliability.
What do I have against chain stores, anyway? Nothing, actually. Please, shop wherever you please.
The talk did, however, spur an impulse to investigate reality on the ground.
In this case, it was the central mystery of the mega-store: Why on earth is anyone in one?
The first thought I have when arriving in the Stapleton Sam's Club parking lot wasn't "does this crazy woman really need 250 rolls of Bounty paper towels?" but rather "where is this crazy woman going to put 250 rolls of kitchen towels?"
At the local Mom and Pop shop, the counterperson occasionally remembers your name; not at Sam's Club.
It's a guarantee.
You flash a membership card (mine is 101 42100 293863338) and catch a distrustful glance from the woman at the door, as if you're walking into a high-security compound.
The fact is, inside, you'll find a scene more reminiscent of a staging area for a U.N. relief effort than a retail outlet.
A typical Sam's Club is 130,000 square feet - almost three acres of real estate. That's three acres of tires, cameras, computers, jeans, frozen foods, giant vats of salsa for giant bags of Mexican corn chips, 8-pound boxes of animal crackers, jugs of wine and chocolate.
Did you know you can buy glasses, pharmaceuticals and cartons of low-grade smokes? They also have a travel club, auto purchase program, software training, Internet access and long-distance services.
To ensure all this merchandise remains dirt cheap, Sam's Club keeps its operation no-frills - basically a warehouse with a cement floor.
Then there is the uber-shopper.
You promptly learn that you can't saunter along with a hand basket reading labels. Sam's Club is where you shop if you only want to buy pet food once in your pet's life. Customers walk around with calculators and pads, not dinky shopping lists.
They're thinking long term. They're thinking big.
I soon witness this while stalking an elderly couple stocking up on massive bags of buffalo wings and frozen tater tots. They pile it on a shopping cart that looks like a forklift and then head over and pick out approximately 30 hours' worth of DVDs.
They do this is 20 minutes flat.
Sam's Club is just a macho version of Wal-Mart. (Conveniently, you can purchase Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's spellbinding autobiography, "Made in America," at Sam's.)
Wal-Mart owns Sam's Club, the nation's largest members-only warehouse club, claiming to have more than 46 million members.
Ostensibly, it's a "business for small businesses," but most of the customers I spoke with at the Stapleton and South Broadway locations were from working-class families.
When I met Maria, who lives in Thornton, she was trying to corral three young children and load two 50-pound bags of rice into her cart. She's here because it's "cheap."
That was the talk from most: cheap.
For all the appreciation I have for the Mom and Pop shops, it's obvious that working class people can do far better for their families here.
For some, Wal-Mart might be the SUV, oil company and assault weapon all rolled into one - the colossus of heartless capitalism. The company is, after all, the largest employer in the nation, other than the government.
I hate going to Wal-Mart, too. That doesn't mean I think it's evil. In fact, its success has made life easier for millions.
So if the Mom and Pop shop makes you appreciate the importance of local culture, Sam's Club should make you appreciate the value of our having so much - so cheap.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com .
That said, every argument used against WalMart was used against Kroger fifty years ago when I was a kid---my grandparents wouldn't "trade" there because it was "putting the little guy out of business",etc.---
I use to think along the same lines - not that I thought the person crazy but why they have so much. Then, pondering on it I figured that some of these people must have a small business. The guy I use to buy sodas and red hots from on the corner bought a lot of his stuff in bulk at Sam's. What most of these stupid liberals fail to realize is that at one time Sam Walton was just a small one-store, mom and pop. However, unlike most M&P's, he dreamed big!
And liberals want anonymity, right? Limousine Liberals have no idea how intrusive living in a small town world can be. Buy some condoms in the small town grocer, and Shirley will start the rumor mill for you. The news will beat you back to the house!
Compare prices on prescription drugs. Wal Mart is consistently half price or better on most popular drugs. Yet in all the talk of importing from Canada, RX drug benefit, etc, etc, you never hear about the wal mart option. News shows oldsters overwhelmed by high drug prices. DOESN'T ANYBODY SHOP AROUND? Wal Mart often sells at or below their cost. This is their evil plan to lure you into the store. But if you can't figure out how to get your Rx without falling into this trap, you are too stupid to shop at Wal Mart. The last bit was sarcasm, BTW, I love Wal Mart.
This is a rather indiscreet post, but I have always shocked women by the fact that I buy the 48+ roll pack of toilet paper. They invariably buy a 4-roll pak at a time, period.
50+ rolls easily fit under the counter, no big deal.
I have yet to run out at an "inopportune" moment at my house, and I have yet to be with a woman that has not run out of her 4-pak and sent me to the corner store to rectify her supply-management issues!
It's not like I plan to go on the wagon next week and stop needing toilet paper! Buy bulk!
While that crisis has receeded, I still shop at Wal-Mart... where else can I find groceries, hardware items, car parts, and get glasses and prescriptions filled? The last time I needed an Ethernet card and a hard drive, I checked the internet- and found them at Wal-Mart for a few dollars more.
Contrary to what this writer asserts, the counter people remember us quite well.
Struck me as funny!!
Small business owners are from working families as well.
One thing I've found interesting Sam's Club is that often items at Walmart are cheeper. I went with a friend to buy a vacuum, and the price at Sam's Club was $25 more.
I buy my meat from a local Mom & Pop store. Not only can I get me steaks cut to order and size, I've also gotten "upgrades," a porterhouse instead of a t-bone," without any additional expense.
>Small business owners are from working families as well.
or maybe more accurately, Small business owners are working families.
I have noticed the Wal-Mart next to the Sam's Club we belong to has cheaper prices on some items, too. This is how sick I am-planning on joining Costco when they open here in a couple of weeks--and it is just me and my husband. We need to belong to 2 discount clubs like we need holes in our heads.
Do the people that write these articles have families? When you have a 2 year old you go through Bounty like there's no tomorrow.
Sam's Club appears to charge a standard markup on all items which makes some things very cheap while making other items more expensive.
Sam's Club is great for newly released items and for things that are rarely on sale. Their tire deals can't be beat.
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