Big-box Shenanigans

     It's been really hard lately for me to reconcile my principles with my finances. Everyone has been looking for savings lately, as reflected in the defiant profits of Walmart, but it's times like these when we hyper-socially-conscious people must decide if we can afford to buy the recycled paper towels or the organic cotton shirt made by local workers. But even if I have to buy the bargain brand, made-from-the-tears-of-sweatshop-children hand soap or whatever, I will definitely not be buying this guilt-inducing product from Walmart.

     Yes, maybe I'm a yuppie, and maybe my non-car-owning ass rides around on a bike powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction. I'm sure all of those stereotypical traits about the Walmart boycotter are true about me. But that still doesn't make Walmart ideologically redeemable in any scenario. So it's really a kick in the teeth when my hometown--Austin, with its famous mantra of weirdness--welcomes Walmart with open arms.

     I suppose the Walmart controversy is old news, but it's really hitting home now that the bulldozers have eradicated the last traces of good ol' Northcross. And now Forrest Wilder, speaking to The Observer's mainly liberal audience, reports on a recent study by Texans for Public Justice that reveals how the communities welcoming Walmart with subsidies and goodies rarely follow up on promises and compliances made by the mega-corporation in contracts with the local governments. It seems that these governments fought for the benefits (i.e. new jobs, community investments) of a new Walmart upfront, but when asked to provide proof that the benefits came through, the governments side-stepped the issue.

     Mr. Wilder and I are of the same mind on the subject, though he's not quite so rabid in the delivery of his opinion. He doesn't come to a conclusion so much as throw his hands up at the slash-and-burn business model of Walmart, but he does seem to allude to the impending doom on its way to neighborhoods like Allandale. He and I do agree on the implications of Walmart's mischief--the destruction of local business and healthy neighborhoods, which is maybe more devastating in small towns than in Austin where local business can fight back. But I would like to take the conclusion to the next level and fight against the negative effects that Walmart, the quintessential big box, brings to our communities. I believe the continued subsidies of outsider, irresponsible and unethical corporations like Walmart and Simon Mall's Domain will have consequences greater than we can imagine at the moment, and we should join the movement to overhaul our consumerist society, starting with Walmart.