*Chuckles*

"Excellent Service." :)

Seriously though, I've never fully understood the hate directed at WalMart. I can see the union angle, I can also see the "mean corporation" angle as well but I wouldn't think that would resound as much as the current attacks are. Heck the China connection means more to me than any of the others and that is fixed at the federal level more than the WalMart Level. (I.e. if we ended trade with China WalMart would just adjust to the next cheapest supplier.)

So my friends, what's your beef with WalMart? I know here in the High Desert they're looked upon as a great boon to the local economy and the only place to find certain items. We've been activily courting WalMart for one of their distribution centers to add even more jobs to the area. Every employee that I know at WalMart enjoys the pay (which is higher than other unskilled jobs in the area and with more benefits [i.e. some]) and work environment beyond the usual complaining about work.

So what's the deal?

Wal Mart isn't hated for what it is - it is hated for one reason only: it is not a unionised employer.

I think the real reason that Wal-Mart is attacked is becuase of its roots in the rural South. The mind of the Left in the US (such as it is) is a pastiche of cliche-symbols labeled "good things" and "bad things." The South is the home of many of the Left's "bad thing" cliche-symbols, so Wal-Mart at some juncture got a "bad thing" label, and that's the end of the debate.

For the left, the label is the reality; and reality itself is insignificant. You can thank our crummy liberal arts colleges for this sorry state of affairs.

Cosco is unionized in Illinois, or at least the store in Hanover Park is.

Scott,
I think it has more to do with the enormous economic paradigm Wal-Mart causes in small communities; mom-an’-pop shops unable to compete closing their doors. Target and Costco have not had that effect, nor has Sears or K-Mart in their day. Only Wal-Mart significantly changes the retail environment in nearly every village and berg in which they open stores.

The non-union issue is where most of the resistance to opening a Wal-Mart comes from here in California, once opened that issue seems to fade away from the collective mind.

I don't like Wal-Mart because the stuff they sell is of low quality and typically falls apart within a month of purchase. You get what you pay for.

So are a whole bunch of you guys getting together at the big GOP rally at Antietam National Battlefield in SHARPSBURG, Md? Or will you be incognito?

Meanwhile...in case you missed it today and you likely did...

The Dow ended today on a 6 year high today.

The DOW is less than 400 points from it's ALL-TIME high.

Main Stream Media Response: Nothing to see here folks, move along. Economy bad. Economy very bad. Gas stations and oil companies are gouging us...the housing bubble could burst any second...no WMDs...all those people defrauded by mortgage companies...all jobs outsourced...there are rapes and murders going on in the SuperDome...it's .4 degrees warmer than it was in 1948.....

If I missed any, feel free to add them

As for the stock market, are you really excited to break even after six years in a DOW fund? Whoopeee! If you are really happy with those results, then why don't you give me your entire investment portfolio and I'll give 100% of it back to you six years from now.

Walmart sends gazillions of American dollars to communist China. Sam Walton had an exchange student program that brought commie kids up from Central America in the 1980's so that they might learn they wisdom and benefits of American capitalism and take those lessons home with them to defeat the commies.

This Walmartian collusion with commies would have Sam himself rolling in his grave.

It's always been a peculiar state that Republicans all cheer on Walmart's support of commies, while supposedly socialist lefties cry foul at Walmart's folly. Doesn't this seem backwards to anyone else?

congressive,

"As for the stock market, are you really excited to break even after six years in a DOW fund?"

Well, it's higher than it was at the end of Clinton's term, since six years ago was in the middle of Clinton's last year. So Bush's economy is doing better than the last nine months of Clinton's at the moment when it comes to stocks. Although it may not be seen as so great an accomplishment in total, the fact that it got back up there despite 9/11, the war in Iraq, the deficit, and Katrina, shows that the foundation for economical growth may be very stable. It shows that Bush isn't the catalyst for another disastrous stock market crash.

I think it has more to do with the enormous economic paradigm Wal-Mart causes in small communities; mom-an’-pop shops unable to compete closing their doors. Target and Costco have not had that effect, nor has Sears or K-Mart in their day.

Small towns have been gradually dying for a hundred years in the United States, for lots of reasons unreleated to Wal-Mart's expansion during the last twenty years. Saying that Wal-Mart causes towns to die stinks to high heaven of a Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc fallacy. That ought to be obvious to a critical thinker who is the product of an American liberal arts college. Ought to be, but usually not, because American liberal education is more about creating intellectual conformists than people who can think.

If Sam Walton opened his first store in Roseville, Minnesota, nobody would be squawking about Wal-Mart today. But Wal-Mart is an Arkansas based company; and a product of a culture reviled by the American Left as presumably full of fecund semi-retarded racist inbred redneck gun owners who live in trailer houses and drive American vehicles with engines that have too many cylinders.

The American Left hates the South. Fighting Wal-Mart is this generation's March on Selma, Alabama -- sick puppies that they are.

Dav said: "I don't like Wal-Mart because the stuff they sell is of low quality and typically falls apart within a month of purchase. You get what you pay for."

I like their paper plates. And their dog chewies. And their iced oatmeal cookies -- a whole bag for 92 cents. Can't beat that, lol! And hey, they have someone at the front door that rolls a cart to you when you walk in. You don't get that kind of service at Nordstroms.

I can hear Gozer chuckling in the background.

Seriously though, being as I am a big fan of roadside attractions and everything else unusual, idiosynchratic, eccentric, and nostalgic, I lament the continuing corporatization and homogenization of main street America. But whattayagonnado? Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. But permit me to wax nostalgic for a moment...

There used to be a hardware store in Santa Ana -- Junior's I think was the name (though my memory may fail me, and the more I think about it, it probably is) -- where you could find just about anything. Well, YOU (meaning me really) couldn't find ANYTHING in the place, it was so thoroughly packed to the rafters. You had to ask. But if you did you could find, say, 34" heavy duty drawer slides (which is a very unusual item) for your weird file cabinet or desk project. Juniors (or whatever the name) is gone now. They closed their doors about 5 years ago. Very sad.

There was another place, an electronics components shop in Lake Forest called R-Vac. It was an unbelievable mess -- junk everywhere. Even the people who worked there didn't know where anything was. But boy, if you were willing to put in the time, you could eventually find everything you were looking for (and in the process you were almost sure to find all kinds of things you never even contemplated before) -- things like individual keys to an original IBM-PC keyboard. Try to find THOSE in Wal-Mart. Lol! But that's gone now, too. That one really broke my heart. I loved that place.

Scott said: "This statement [meaning Gozer's] is a perfect description of the liberal cliche-symbol for Wal-Mart. Sounds logical, divides issues into the angels vs. the devils -- and is completely unsupported by fact."

Woah Gozer! Welcome to the lefty fringe moonbat club, dude!

I don't want to put words in Gozer's mouth, but I don't think you get it, Scott. It is possible to lament the passing of things that were, yet at the same time accept the new reality. I think that's what Gozer was saying. You are right, Scott, in the sense that small town America has been dying for a long time -- powered far more by agribusiness than Wal-Mart. The fact remains that it is possible to miss things that were and still accept change. But to try to spin it into some kind of north/south issue is just ridiculous. Bill Clinton is the left's darling. Where do you think he was from for crying out loud? For that matter, what do you know about Gozer?

And finally, you trash other people's opinion without offering any shred of evidence to support your own. What's up with that? Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc indeed.

*Chuckles* (Yes I did chuckle in the background)

Thanks for the defense Ricorun, but actually the quote Scott is talking about is bane's not mine.

Though you are right on the money. Times change and so will main street America. Here in the deserts the small town shops like "Juniors" (In Needles it was Claypool's) have been dying for years. Not just because of WalMart though, in fact Claypool's closed down before Walmart entered the area. (30 Miles away even)

Ricorun,

I still see plenty of specialty shops out and about...Wal Mart is the prime shopping place, but then again I'll also head on over to TJ Maxx and Marshalls for certain things.

I never lament the passing of those things of no more utility - might as well mourn the passing of the age of sail on the oceans...its a matter of: do you want beautiful ships, or do you want you goods this year, rather than next?

"70% of Wal Mart shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, actually live in Queens - they drive all the way to Valley Stream in order to take advantage of Wal Mart's excellent prices"

Mark - Are you aware that "all the way to Valley Stream" from Queens is a trip of less than five miles? I think that people shop there as a simple matter of convenience as well as price. If the trip were 'way down yonder' as your statement implies I don't think the savings would justify the cost of gas to get there.

I think Scott F is kind of on the mark with the southern perception angle. I don't believe it goes as far as "hate", but there aren't many other retail stores found in the suburbs of New York where you find aisles with shotguns for sale. So there is a cultural difference that drives the attitude and steroetypes, just as there are unfair stereotypes of New Yorkers.

I don't think Scott was attacking Bane.

Bane made a statement trying to explain why he thinks THE LEFT hates Walmart, and Scott was pointing out why it was a bad argument. Looking back, it appears to me as if they are both building on one another's statements, not that they were at odds with each other.