There was a time before Walmart. I remember that time, going through jerk water towns around the US and places not along the railroad and therefore never capable of being jerk water towns. Fairfield, Iowa was a jerk water town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_stop I am now pretty much guaranteed almost wherever I go that there will be groceries, batteries, coffee mugs, mats for the car, all sorts of goodies, all under one roof. One day I arrived in FF and my luggage did not. It had gone to Korea. So I was able to pick up crappy but acceptable toiletries, flying clothes, some shirts, pants, socks to tide me over until my luggage arrived a few days later. Having to go into the little shops on the square with "SALE" emblazoned painted on the windows was something I didn't relish. Choose from a dozen shirts, none of which was my size, from a dozen pair of trousers, no flying clothes except the stuff at the MIU bookstore, well it was one stop shopping.
I like that I can go to Walmart and stock up on certain things like big bottles of mouthwash, batteries, staples, get a prescription filled, even get my oil changed in my car, all at the same time. Is it Trader Joe's? Well, perhaps. I have a "freshly picked, organic, right off the vine" tomato from TJs sitting on my kitchen counter. Still pristine. And it's been there for 6 weeks. Heck, I grew up in the Garden State and tomatoes where something you bought or picked and ate pronto. I can buy the same "organic" tomato at Walmart. Morningstar Farms? Yes, most of the offerings are available at Walmart, even the no hormone, free range, organic eggs. And I don't have to run all over town. Now Walmart is not the World Market, which I shop at next or TJ's or some specialty shop. I feel sorry that Walmart employees slave labor. But just how well was my grandmother who worked in the sweatshop which made the trousers and shirts that went to that shop on the square in FF paid? Just how much and what kind of benefits were the employees of that shop on the square in FF paid? I find the grossest, most ill-mannered people at the Walmart I go to in South Carolina, a few miles south of where I am. But guess what? Some of them are oriental geeks who are walking like drunks through the isles checking their grocery list on their idiot phone. I've also met some of the nicest people in other Walmarts throughout the country. Yes, there are crackers. There are also the salt of the Earth. The people who build things. Who work with their hands. People here on FFL would consider the great unwashed. Little do they realize that if it weren't for the great unwashed who build the roads, the houses, drive the trucks, they'd starve. They do the World's work.
