Thursday, April 15, 2004
MEGA MARTS
I have a problem with Wal-Mart and franchises in general. But mostly Wal-Mart. I have this argument with a lot of people and it all boils down to saving money. Whether it’s Wal-Mart or Home Depot or even McDonalds, the bottom line seems to be the bottom line. I think Wal-Mart has taken it to an extreme. They move into some small rural town and before you know it all the other local stores have been driven out of business. Folks figure saving 10 or 15% is where it’s at. From here on out I’ll use MegaMart as a kind of generic cuss word.
No one seems to think about what saving that 15% is going to cost them. First look at the jobs that a MegaMart offers. Low paying, part-time and minimal bennies. Hardly anything to write home about. The downtown, if it was still in business, and for many small towns it was, will dry up. A lot of your neighbors are going to lose their jobs. Not just the owners of drug stores, clothing stores and hardware stores are involved either. Where do you think most of the cheap junk that MegaMart sells comes from? It’s not from your local factory – that probably closed years ago – the factory was offering too many people a living wage.
Nope, that junk is probably going to come from China or some other third-world place where a worker is going to get a month what the US worker probably got a week – if they’re lucky. In China the worker is just as likely to be some convict (and you think we are loose with the term convict) who’s working for the state. They were probably involved in some heinous crime like writing a non-governmental approved blog or newspaper.
And franchise restaurants. There’s a thing called regional cooking. It was what you used to be able to get when you went to the local diner. Try some of that good ol’ tex-mex chili at Wendys or a tasty German brat at 7-11. Why is it people are so in love with conformity. What is good about a sandwich tasting the same in every part of the world.
To my shame, I’ll admit to eating in franchise places now and then. Mostly my lunches are bought in a little Chinese restaurant called Jade Garden, a local greasy spoon called Tony’s and occasionally a Mexican restaurant that just opened called Los Quatros Amigos (sorry if I butchered the spelling). Some Saturdays I’ll hit the local drive-in called Old Town Drive-in and I usually purchase my coffee beans, not at Starbucks, but at the Red Eye Caffe. Unfortunately the Red Eye is too smoke filled to drink a cup of coffee, but at least they have good (if only slightly tobacco flavored) coffee beans. I try to buy my bakery goods at Spatz or Country Grains and do my hobby shopping at Roger’s Hobby Center.
Do something good today – ignore Arbys and eat at Joes!
2fers: Search Locally and
