Wal-Mart Not Only Undermines Small Towns…
… it undermines small-town documentaries too. New York Times columnist John Tierney’s investigative reporting on the new anti-Wal-Mart film “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices” turns up some interesting contradictions between the documentary-world Wal-Mart and the world the rest of us live in. (Unfortunately, John Tierney’s great article is not free (unless you get your NYT free from your mother, as I do). You have to pay to see it or sign-up for temporary access (and cancel later).
Tierney investigates some of the sad stories in “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Wages.” One such story was H & H Hardware, driven out of business by low Wal-Mart prices, according to the documentary. Except that today a thriving Middlefield Hardware store operates successfully where the mismanaged H & H used to be (mismanaged according to an interviewed customer and the former H & H owner).
And the Amish, shown in the documentary as deeply fearful of the new Wal-Mart descending upon them, are reported by Tierney as quite happy shopping at their new local Wal-Mart, as their horses and carriages are hitched comfortably outside.
Tierney interviews one Amish customer, “I wasn’t too happy about Wal-Mart coming… I didn’t know what it would do to the community.–would it make it more citylike? But I was surprised. It’s kind of nice now. I like shopping here.”
The column ends with another Amish Wal-Mart shopper commenting “Wal-Mart isn’t really a big issue with our people… At first some were upset because they were scared by something new. But now they like being able to get everything here…”
Imagine… the Amish fearful of something new. It’s an interesting post to hitch your documentary to.
(My own rather wordy two-cents on the influence of Wal-Mart is here: Wal-Mart: Seen and Unseen) — Greg Rehmke
Yeah, Wal*Mart isn’t all that scary. I work at Wal*Mart myself, started last August, and they pay me more than I’ve EVER made at ANY other low wage type job (which seems to be about the only thing a guy with an AA degree can get). I’m still looking for a better job of course, but Wal*Mart provides a nice intermediary that pays better than all the other easy options, plus they have different classes of “full time”, so even if you only work 30 hours a week you’re often still in the “full time” bracket and you qualify for benefits, which is quite nice. There’s also a REALLY awesome stock matching program, which is basically free money and a good way to start a retirement fund. 401k plans, 10% off merchandise card, paid vacations, I’m tellin ya, sure the hell beats working at DQ or Shopko or any other low-wage service store.
We have a lot of Amish come to our store too. We don’t have horse and buggy stalls (although they could use the side lot if they wanted to), most come by bus or have someone drive them (apparently this is an okay practice).
They mostly buy simple grocery stuff, fabric and what not. It’s not like they’re buying computers or anything. Most people don’t even really take notice of them, it’s all just very…usual, nothing out of the ordinary.
I am convinced though that anyone who says anything bad about Wal*Mart must have REALLY good medical coverage as far as prescriptions. Cause I gotta tell ya, if you don’t have medical insurance and you’re faced with the option of eating or buying medicine…well Wal*Mart’s the only place you can go that’ll let you have both. We’ve got the $4 prescription plan for anyone who doesn’t have insurance (and even for people who have insurance who say they don’t). I take Tramadol for back pain and before Wal*Mart started their $4 plan I was paying around $100 a month in prescriptions…now I only pay about $8 total a month.
Wal*Mart also provides itself as a means for the “little guy” to compete. Basically ANYONE can come to any Wal*Mart, present themselves as a vendor and ask for retail space…and so long as they can keep their shelf(s) stocked we’ll rent space to ’em. This is nice because even a local person who makes a product can have a store to sell it in and they get the HUGE benefit of the daily Wal*Mart traffic.