Why do people feel the need to single out Wal Mart, AOL, Microsoft etc… as the bastions of evil corporate greed. Going to Best Buy isn’t a superior option to Wal Mart, regardless, they are both the same species. The monolithic superstores are barely different. Buying some consumerist crap at a different retailer just because you have a stick up your ass about Wal Mart is stupid. If you’re going to buy a DVD why does it matter? I’m so glad I live in New York City where it is possible for Small Business to keep on doing fine. There is no Wal Mart here. My offerings are not monolithic sameness. I go across the street to the Grocery Store with all the awesome yuppy snacks for my fooding needs.
I mean, how much does it really matter if you get your MIRAMAX DVD from Wal Mart, Best Buy or Amazon? What I hate is the tendency for people to think that people they know should do things for them for free, but have no qualms dropping money on corporate offerings. Why should I put lots of effort into crafting an event and let you in for free, when you have no problem dropping more money on a 2 hour movie than you would be willing to do at my 6-8 hour event simply because you know me personally?
I see a lot of tendency of people to have no problem funneling money straight out of their community to some big mega-corporation, rather than spending it in their own community, and then singling out one mega-corporation as particularly evil, and then ranting about it.
How about this, keep boycotting Wal Mart, but when you go home to relax, don’t hesitate to go fuck yourself with that empty frappucino/coke/poland spring bottle.
I find it very weird that people in our society would rather live and work with strangers than their friends. That’s what really disturbs me, and I think that’s the cause of such cognitive dissonance as Super-Mega-Ultra stores and fast food chains. Me personally I do business with my friends, and move in with my friends when I need roomates, and I am much better for it.
Boycotting some big chain while shopping at others is just fucking stupid.
Erek
(Context: I put on music and art events here in the city, generally I try to make it free or cheap if possible.)
Because they aren’t all the same. Different firms have different values - some of those values people agree with, some they don’t. Target makes a lot of charitible contributions - if Wal-Mart does the same, they don’t do a good job of letting people know. Wal-Mart has been singled out for sex discrimination, lack of overtime pay, hiring illegal immigrants, etc. Targets legal issues have been lower profile (I’m sure people sue Target all the time, they’ve just kept them lower profile).
Same with Microsoft. Some people believe their business practices are less than wholely ethical. Perhaps there are no companies that are wholy ethical, but some people believe other firms are at least more ethical tha Microsoft.
Maybe you should take it all the way and move into a commune. (Are there any of those left?) You could call yourself sunshine and everyone could weave baskets for each other.
Even if she (? I keyed on the ms) could get all of her friends together and work very hard at it, I doubt that they could create a DVD player.
My point is that she advocates turning away from big business and supports grassroots type lifestyle. It seems to me that mswas most definately is advocating a communal lifestyle.
I interpreted the OP to be supporting a community-based lifestyle, but I don’t think that means living in a commune. I think the OP was talking about supporting the local businesses and individuals in your community, as opposed to Wal-Mart, Target, etc.
How about you just take what she said at face value instead of trying to force her into some E-Z-to-malign stereotype you’ve got all drawn up in your head? All she said is that she prefers living and working with friends, she didn’t say anything about a commune.
The OP’s contention that all large corporations are the same is naive at best. Calling people “stupid” who see this is sadly intolerant. You can do better than this.
Yep, I did, too. And I agree with the OP. I don’t completely avoid megastores, but here’s what I do (or will do/can do, theoretically, when the need arises):
I need music: don’t go to BestBuy or Media Play. Go to Record Time (small indy store with a whopping two locations)
I need a washer and dryer (or any appliance): don’t go to Best Buy or ABC Warehouse. Go to Bruno’s Appliances or Pointe Electronics (small independent stores around my area)*.
I need food: don’t go to Kroger. Go to Oakland Markets or Village Markets (small area grocery stores), although I admit I go to Kroger or Meijer for food more often now, since I’m on an extremely tight budget.
I want to buy yarn to knit a sweater: don’t go to JoAnn’s or Michael’s. Go to the Wool and the Floss or one of the many other independently-owned crafts stores in the area.
Etc. It’s not to say “I want to live on a commune, with everyone hand-weaving baskets and without modern technology.” It’s “I want to support the little guy, the one who lives and buys in our own community.”
I love Pointe Electronics. We bought our first DVD player there, way back in 1997. They threw in a free DVD, out of a choice of about 10 (considering this was right when DVDs first came out, this was a really cool thing to do.
Exactly. Some large corporations value profit more then their workers and their customers, and others value profit more then their customers and their workers.
How about you shove a stereotypical stick up your ass, waddle like a duck, and consider for a while that you don’t know squat about what’s drawn up in my head?
For the rest of you
Ok, I probably read more into the OP than I needed. I failed to see that the large corporations were impersonal when everyday I see my friends in those same corporations.
That probably comes from my situation. I live in a town of about 50,000 which is part of another major city area. We have a local Walmart, BestBuy, Target, Starbuck’s etc. My kid works at Target. Everytime I vist Walmart, BestBuy, Starbuck’s I see my neighbors and the kids of my neighbors working in these stores. It doesn’t seem very impersonal to me so the first paragraph mswas provided just seemed silly.
The second paragraph was even sillier. The reason I buy a DVD is that I like that form of entertainment. I actually might prefer it to mswas events. If so, I’m willing to pay more for the hard efforts of hundreds of people (did you ever actually count the number of people listed in the credits? gaffers, bestboys and all) who produce a quality DVD than I am her live event.
So, do I. They work at Target.
No, its called having a preference. Kind of like having a preference to buy the same stuff from a smaller shop (usually at a higher price) because you feel all warm and fuzzy about the fact that they are friendly to you.
I admit that my commune statement was strong but I still maintain that there is a connection. Consider that mswas is rejecting mass-retailing but still buying mass-produced consumer goods. So, in effect, she is creating a “buffer of friends” between herself and an impersonal marketing industry. It might be a more pleasant lifestyle but that doesn’t mean others are stupid.
Americans love success, but they hate too much success, thus whoever is #1 is a target.
Most Corps are souless entities out to make maximum profit for the shareholders. Thus, the bigger they are, the more examples one can see of this. It is quite possible that the local coffee mini-chain is just as fiercely competitive and such as Starbucks is. But- Starbucks is more newsworthy, and they are so large they make news.
Some Corps do try to be “nicer” than others. Of course, when some Corps try, they are branded as “just doing it for the good press”. Sometimes you just can’t win. Walmart donates quite a bit to various cause, for example.
Some Corps (or more often their CEO or Founder) do support one side of a controversial issue. For example 'Curves" is owned by a man who is loudly and proudly Anti-abortion.
The day of the non-chain “independent” store is gone- or just about gone. Hating Starbucks won’t make “KornerKoffeeKup” (made up name) successful- that business model is dead, and if Starbucks doesn’t take it out, someone else will.
Considering that many of the movies and CDs sold at walmart had been edited for content with no notice on the packaging, means that you’re not getting the same thing from Wally World as Best Buy, though you might think you are.
For me, it all comes down to how businesses treat the workers. I boycott Walmart because, in my opinion, they treat their employees like shit. Conversely, I buy drinks at Starbucks because they are fair to their employees, starting entry-level workers out at $7/hr and offering health plans to part time workers. Maybe all big corporations are equal in that they’re all trying to edge out independent businesses, but in the area I care about above all else (treatment of workers), they are not the same. In fact, sometimes the big corps can be better toward their labor than indies–the local coffee place starts their employees out at minimum wage, and doesn’t offer health care for anyone.
Want to bet? Come over here to SC and see if Starbucks is anywhere near as hopping as Lulu Carpenters or Cafe Pergolosi. Borders hasn’t put Bookshop Santa Cruz out of business, and The Gap looks like a wasteland compared to all the other clothing stores lining Pacific Avenue. There are two thriving small businesses for every chain here, and nobody misses the Olive Garden one bit.
Independent stores can make it, and I’m hoping the age of the chain can be slowed or even reversed at some point. Things don’t have to be the way they are. Things can get better. It takes an informed populace, friendly city council, and good city planning, but it can work.
Being a planner, I’ve noticed that residents of white-collar middle-class and more affluent suburbs will be up in arms over a planned Wal-Mart, but stay silent if Target is coming to town. If a proposed Sam’s Club is on the agenda, the planning commission and city council chambers will be filled with residents complaining about rising crime, falling property values, bad corporate architecture, loading area noise and light pollution, “undesirables” that will patronize the store, and other externalities. Costco or BJ’s Wholesale Club, on the other hand, are just fine. Employee salaries, health care, benefits, unionization, and other personnel issues are almost never raised as issues by residents, whether it’s Wal-Mart or Target, Sam’s or Costco.
There’s a similar lack of logic with resident reaction to big box home improvement stores; Home Depot is eeeeeeevil, but put the plans for a Lowe’s before the planning commission and the lynch mobs stay at home. Power centers where there will be several big box retailers – Petsmart, Michael’s, Barnes and Noble, Circuit CIty, Kohl’s, etc – will be met with silence from all but the most vocal members of the anti-sprawl crowd, even if they will have more GLA and generate more externalities than a Wal-Mart or Sam’s.
On the other hand, to an equally middle-class but more blue-collar suburb, or an exurban community where you’ll find a disproportionately large number of residents employed in construction and the building trades, and you’ll see Wal-Mart welcomed with open arms, and sometimes economic development incentives. It’s as if Wal-Mart, in those cases, puts those places on the map in the mind of their residents; they’ve got the Wal now, so their communities have finally arrived.
Even if Wal-Mart wasn’t unethical, I’d still boycott them-because I HATE their store. The merchandise sucks, the layouts are terrible, and every time I go there I’m surrounded by smelly mullet-headed mouthbreathers.
On the other hand, shopping at Target has always been a pleasant experience, so I will give them my business. Simple as that.
