In A Wal-Mart Kind Of Hell

SF Chronicle ^ | Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | Mark Morford, confused liberal

[presidio9]

Stop. You've found it. This is the place. Americana HQ. Patriotism in a giant tin bucket. This is where souls recoil, children wail, dreams die.

This is Wal-Mart. The glorious consumer mecca, the epic wonderland/wasteland of prefab landfill merch, not only the world's largest and most powerful retailer and the most aggressive snarling frightening happy-place marketer and quite possibly the most hideously overlit soul-draining monster empire you will ever know in your entire lifetime, but also the very multibillion-dollar pseudo-Christian kingdom that censors their offerings and refuses to sell certain music CDs and bans "risqu

[presidio9]

And as for your whining that you can't see the covers of your favorite magazines, Elle, Cosmo, and Mademoiselle, well, Wal-Mart isn't a library.

I believe Mark's favorite magazine is something like "Man's man."

[Inspectorette]

I don't care much for Wal-Mart - too big and impersonal, I tend to Target instead.

However, after reading Morford's hysterical screed, I plan to shop Wal-Mart more often.

[Ditter]

I agree completely with you, I dislike WalMart too, but then this California creep has to go & bash Texas. I don't think about California very often one way or the other, until they bash us. That makes me wonder why they do it. Do they feel threatened in some way?

[wimpycat]

...this prosaic Bible-lickin' censorship...

Mine's peppermint flavored. How about yours?

[PhiKapMom]

Here in Norman, OK, we have two super Walmarts -- very clean, very friendly, and low prices on a lot of items I buy for the house. Not going to pay higher prices when I get the same item cheaper at Walmart.

I have noticed while traveling across the Country that in some areas Walmarts are taken over by kids whose parents leave them there so Walmart can babysit and their video section along with others are pretty much trashed if you go there first thing in the morning. Makes me proud of the area I live in even though flyover Country gets knocks from both coasts!

Not that way here in Norman -- shelves are stocked, nothing on the floor, and I don't see groups of teenagers and pre-teens roaming the aisles.

Maybe it is the mindset of the area and its people that makes crummy Walmarts! Noticed also in those same areas that their Mall stores have clothes on the floor where someone was going through the stack and knocked them off and they lay there as other people walk over them.

[wimpycat]

The Wal-Mart that I shop at is crowded at times, but generally well-kept.

Talk about censorship, Target doesn't carry any tobacco products, at least not the one in my area.

I like Target for certain things and Wal-Mart for certain other things. Wal-Mart usually has a bigger selection of mundane, everyday items.

[pabianice]

... as opposed to the Stinking Urine and Feces in the Streets and Parks, AIDS-infested, Drug Needle Liberal Paradise of San Francisco?

[Xenalyte]

I know how entertaining it is to bash the big bad consumer giant . . .

How is it "bashing" to note that a store is unclean and unkempt? Truth used to be an affirmative defense.

[Xenalyte]

To be honest, I didn't get that far . . . the article was kind of incoherent.

[Xenalyte]

They're jealous. :)

[88keys]

I like Wal*Mart too...I could shop at Saks if I wanted to, but I don't like them much, LOL!

Maybe there's more Wal*Marts in Texas because the chain started in the South, and Texas is a rather large state?! I wish Waffle House would migrate up here too...! ;)

[The Great RJ]

No one holds a gun to your head and makes you shop or for that matter work at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is successful because they provide what their customers want at a price they want to pay and in an atmoshere they feel comfortable in. Lenin said that people vote with their feet -- if they don't like it they go elsewhere.

[jpl]

Morford clearly doesn't understand what "censorship" actually is. A private enterprise has every decide what they will and won't carry.

Having said that however, hiding the covers of Elle and Cosmopolitan tells me that Wal-Mart may be getting just a little bit carried away.

[cashion]

How is it "bashing" to note that a store is unclean and unkempt? Truth used to be an affirmative defense.

It's bashing when you seemingly search out Wal-Mart threads to add comments that lend nothing of value to the thread. Then again, maybe I just like Wal-Mart because their stock tends to move upward.

[nyconse]

We have a Waffle House on every corner. I love their pecan waffles. The elitist sneer at Waffle House too.

[Ditter]

I think you are right! ;9}

[End Times Sentinel]

I know how entertaining it is to bash the big bad consumer giant . . .

How is it "bashing" to note that a store is unclean and unkempt? Truth used to be an affirmative defense.

I think the point is that there's probably some really nice, well stocked, well kept Wal-Marts, and there's some others that any right thinking person would take about ten steps into and then turn tail and run for the hills.

While the Wal-Mart in Peekskill might be a great place, I can authoritatively say that the one on Delaware Ave in Philadelphia (and apparently those in Houston too) are a nightmare.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[mhking]

Ah, just like BushCo. Just like America.

Of course.

This a$$-clown figures that he/she/it can jump up and down about how eeeeeeeevil Wal-Mart is (not unlike some would-be union bosses here on FR), then take an obligatory pot-shot at the President for good measure.

I suppose I should not have expected anything substantive from the Chronicle. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I'm sure Herb Caen is spinning in his grave. At least Caen had the balls to be open and up-front with his liberalism. I can appeciate that far more than the stealth hacks that pass for columnists that show up there now...

[MineralMan]

"Maybe Morford would feel better about it if Wal Mart would start selling dildos and eze-glide lube. "

They do, already. My local Wal Mart offers a variety of sexual lubricants and a pretty good range of vibrators in the Pharmacy section. Check it out.