¡Living La Vida Wal-Mart! - when everything you own and consume is from Wal-Mart!
When I started this blog, we shopped in "upscale" grocery stores and clothing stores and optometrists and so on and so forth. Wal-Mart had just started opening "Supercenters" with grocery stores. Wal-Mart selling groceries? What's next? McDonald's selling breakfast? Get out of here!
Well, we decided after the recession of 2008 to give Wal-Mart a try and realized they had more than dented cans of peas for sale. In fact, they are the largest purveyor of organic foods on the planet - by dint of being the largest purveyor of just about everything.
Over time, the quality of goods at Wal-Mart has steadily increased, with some slipping on occasion. Wal-Mart became famous for ridiculously low prices on certain things. One day, we went in and they had a stack of microwave ovens for under $20 each! How crazy was that? Before long, we found bargains in almost every department, perhaps excepting home improvement (plumbing, electrical, paint, etc.) where Lowes and Home Depot have them to rights.
The other day we went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies. We stopped for gas first and got a propane refill tank for the trailer. We went inside and got other supplies. I realized that every stitch of clothing I was wearing was from Wal-Mart or Sam's Club (same thing, really). I also realized I got my eyes examined here, my oil changed, and bought a host of various things over time. No doubt half the crap in our house was from Wal-Mart. Even the computer I am typing this on was originally from Wally World (a decade ago or more).
We are living La Vida Wal-Mart! And it ain't so bad, really.
And it is not such a bad thing, either. By the time a product or piece of technology trickles down to the Wal-Mart level, it is pretty bullet-proof. Wal-Mart has no time to deal with bleeding-edge technology and the associated customer returns. But it is amazing what trends Wal-Mart follows and how quickly they get them into the stores - everything from Wal-Mart furries to Wal-Mart fixies. If the kids are doing it, Wal-Mart jumps on the bandwagon.
Of course, what Wal-Mart sells is often a simulcrum of the real thing. Tick-Tockers have made videos where they try to take a Wal-Mart "mountain bike" down a serious mountain-bike run, only to have the frame come apart halfway down the hill. No, Wal-Mart doesn't sell much "serious" gear, but then again, few of us are experts and don't really need expert gear. And if you need expert gear, you ain't shopping at Wal-Mart. But if you want a bicycle to ride to the local liquor store, Wal-Mart has got you covered with the Jimmy Buffet Special.
Granted, not every service offered at Wal-Mart is from Wal-Mart. They rent out space to fast-food restaurants and tax services and whatnot. You can do your banking at Wal-Mart, sign up for Obamacare, get your prescriptions filled, file your taxes, get new eyeglasses and have your hair done. It has become the de facto shopping mall for a lot of people. And it is sort of charming to see a young family in the country coming to Wal-Mart on a Saturday for a day of shopping. It is a big event for some folks. Sort of like old-timey pioneer families loading up the wagon and riding into town to get some dry goods and do a little swapping and selling.
Living the Wal-Mart lifestyle isn't all that bad, but it does concern me that we are so dependent on one retailer for so many of our needs in life. There are alternatives, of course, but most are more expensive. Dollar Tree used to have good deals on things like condiments. Gulden's Mustard for $1.00 for example - but then it went to $1.25 and Wal-Mart lowered their price to 99 cents - or at least they did. Now they don't have to, it seems.
But then again, we don't have much of a choice, really. You can go to the fancy grocery store and pay $2.38 for the same jar of mustard - the exact same product and size - but is that an answer to anything? I guess you are showing Wal-Mart what for, but at the expense of your own pocketbook.
Of course, Wal-Mart only will dominate until something else comes along. What that might be is anyone's guess. I'm guessing it's not going to be Whole Foods.
