There is no question that Wal-Mart is a commercial empire that has rendered even its most robust predecessors puny. In terms of growth, market share and revenue, Wal-Mart stands alone in human history. If Wal-Mart were a country, its economy would be the fifteenth largest in the world, outpacing even highly developed countries like Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. All the empire is missing is a Death Star, and with a quarter of a trillion dollars in annual revenues, I wouldn't put it past them.
Of course, no one ever walks into a Wal-Mart with empire in mind. Certainly I never did. I used to adore my Wal-Mart, for where else could I be welcomed and farewelled by a chorus of smiling seniors? Where else could I get my transmission repaired, buy more dog food and pick up my favorite 12-gauge shells while munching on a chili cheese dog and a bag of Doritos? It was a return to Eden, each trip a saunter in paradise and, above all else, a celebration of the American way.
To be sure, my view of the retail leviathan has gone from a source of inspiration to one of aversion. I have come down with a campus case of liberal angst, and not surprisingly, Wal-Mart has become a familiar target. The fact that Wal-Mart treats labor with utter disdain is commonly known and documented. Wal-Mart has an indefensible record of union busting, and its deliberate policy of providing the least amount of health insurance to the fewest amount of workers is disconcerting, to say the least. So, for these reasons, whenever it can be helped, I try to avoid Wal-Mart and patronize local stores instead.
But I find myself in Wal-Mart nonetheless and-blasphemous as it might sound-I am not alone. Despite their disreputable treatment of their employees, last year more than 82 percent of American families purchased at least one item from one of those squared temples of the free market.
Americans harbor no particular affection for Wal-Mart. We don't shop there because we find the 'W' easier on the ear than its counterpart K-mart. Nor do we line up at 5:30 in the morning the day after Thanksgiving because Wal-Mart offers a unique atmosphere and shopping experience. Rather, we go to gorge ourselves to our budget's content, purchasing the cheapest goods available in the never-ending quest to stretch our paychecks to the furthest limits of imagination. We go because Wal-Mart is the patron saint of race-to-the-bottom retail capitalism to which we are so faithful.
Wal-Mart is simply the best at it. Their ability to give us 50 rolls of toilet paper for three dollars renders its collective ills irrelevant. As Daniel Gross writes, \At Wal-Mart, the customer is king, everyone else be damned: competitors, employees and the domestic manufacturing base."" As long as we are able to get 18-inch TVs for $35, do we care how or where it was made? Do we care if the employees helping us lug our TVs out to our cars live below the poverty line? Don't be absurd.
Suppose Wal-Mart never made it out of Arkansas. Do you think cashiers and stock boys would be paid a living wage? What if, instead of Wal-Mart, we all descended upon the nearest Piggly-Wiggly for all our daily goods? I can assure you that even if the name might suggest the contrary, Piggly-Wiggly would be just as diabolical and just as often scorned by the liberal community as Wal-Mart.
Lament to your heart's desire, but Wal-Mart is our creation and we have grown dependent on it. If all the Wal-Marts were to suddenly disappear, we would mistake it for the rapture. We would not be able to cope with the loss. Could you imagine paying the full market price for a product that was not produced by a person making 30 cents an hour, or buying a bike from a company that actually gave its employees health insurance? Never in our most vivid nightmares would we wish this upon ourselves. The effect of Wal-Mart's absence would be, as William Butler Yeats wrote, ""Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.""
Wal-Mart should respect the right of their workers to organize, and they should buy American, but they won't as long as we yield to the siren song of low prices. We vote with our wallets and, in doing so, we have resoundingly accepted the business practices of Wal-Mart. So don't target Wal-Mart if you're looking for the bad guy. Rather, just stand up and take a bow, because it's the consumers who are responsible for Wal-Mart's retail reality.
opinion@dailycardinal.com.
