Progressive Wednesday

Downsizing Wal-Mart: Stop

February 7th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Stop:

We ain’t never claimed to be perfect, people (read all about it in our FAQ), and we’ll never do so. And we’ll admit it: we’ve shopped at Wal-Mart; we’ve shopped at Sam’s Club.

There are few powers our general citizenry possess to fight major conglomerations, at least not many that don’t involve our arrests. But there’s always the b-word, and we don’t mean bulldogs or bananas or bills; we mean boycott, baby, boy-cott.

So we’ll also admit this: barring a fluke of nature or tequila-induced drunkenness, we’ll never shop at any Wal-Mart owned company again. If you haven’t already, join us. There will be very few times where we beg at Progressive Wednesday. But we do beg of you: stop going there. Wal-Mart isn’t saving you money, both in the short term or the long term.

So quit cold turkey, yo, because shopping in bulk does seem like some kind of addiction. And how many three-gallon tubs of mayo do we really need? (The answer rhymes with “hero.”)

But here’s the deal–today, this Wednesday or whenever you’re reading this, try to convince one other person to stop. We’ll provide you with additional resources to educate yourself or the educate this other person. Explain to them gently what you’ve learned and how disgusted you are with the company. Or click the “Share This” button at the bottom of any of these posts, and email the sucker.

And now comes the big question: where should we shop instead? Well, we don’t exactly have the answer to that because we don’t know where you live. But here are three suggestions:

1. Whenever possible, buy American products.
2. Shop locally at privately owned businesses. You can always try the Yellow Pages online.
3. Only buy items of significance or necessity; stuff doesn’t make us happy. (If you’ve got to read it to believe it, check out this University of Colorado study or this CNN article.) Of course, Progressive Wednesday swag will bring ebullient joy to your life whether you’re 9 or 90.