Red, white and Wal-Mart

Less than a week after arriving in Bloomington, I was advised to stock up early on items for my apartment because this town becomes reminiscent of the Soviet Union as 30,000 students move in and head to various stores, particularly Wal-Mart, to furnish their new homes.\nI find it both amusing and disconcerting that every time I, or anyone else, need anything from comestibles to toilet paper, the first thought that occurs is Wal-Mart. A CD or DVD? Wal-Mart. As an undergraduate in northwest Missouri, I often referred, only half-jokingly, to Wal-Mart as "the Great Mall of Maryville," a bitter reflection of how dependent -- nay, addicted -- we Americans have become to this growing monopoly. About the only thing this corporation doesn't put on its shelves is a decent selection of books (although the online collection is, admittedly, better). \nSeveral different groups have made attempts to examine how this corporation has penetrated the American psyche. Trey Parker and Matt Stone put forth a "South Park" episode ("Wall-Mart") satirizing Americans' infatuation with rock-bottom prices. "The United States of Wal-Mart," a new book by John Dicker, delves into the effects of the Wal-Mart conglomerate on society and the economy, citing annual sales of approximately $288 billion. Wal-Mart's own Web site boasts it employs 1.2 million American workers, and, around the world, stores serve more than 138 million customers a week.\nOn average, Wal-Mart employees are paid $9.68 an hour, which, according to the Federal Register of February 2005, puts a family of four at just $300 above the poverty line.\nIn a capitalistic society, these statistics alone are astonishing. In any given American town, if there isn't already a Wal-Mart within driving distance, chances are it's in the process of being built. And this means trouble for local businesses, which simply cannot compete with the cheap merchandise and abundant employment opportunities this economic empire promises. As more people shop at Wal-Mart, smaller businesses find it more difficult to continue paying their employees (who are usually paid more than Wal-Mart employees to begin with, according to a November 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times,) and therefore more difficult to stay in business. Furthermore, Wal-Mart bullies its suppliers into finding lower-priced, wholesale products, thus leading to outsourcing and manufacturing plants running round the clock.\nI, for one, make a conscious effort to do my grocery shopping elsewhere, if only to deny the Walton family that portion of my income.\nStill, I know my individual effort will not be enough to make a significant impact on Wal-Mart or the economy. Unfortunately, many people find the unbelievably good deals and the convenience of Wal-Mart to be too good to resist, and I won't deny that sometimes I'm one of those people. I do hope, however, to one day shed myself of this dubious mark on my conscience, and I ask as many people as can afford it to make the same effort.\nSo long as this business continues to offer such outlandishly low prices, as Dicker so eloquently puts it, "we're all Wal-Mart's bitches"