I identify as a consumer now that I'm retired, but was always a working person till then and always on a tight budget. Giving up WalMart was not so hard for me..but NOW I have to give up Target too..which was where I fled after Wal Mart..(due to the EC/pharmacist thing.) It's not easy for me to pay higher prices for the things I need, in order to be loyal to my values. Plus having mobility limitations doesn't help at all: I have to shop where there are working electric carts, and carry out help, which rules out smaller stores. Basically, I am having to weigh the financial/physical cost to myself, against my strong desire to do what I can by not supporting bad business. I have to admit..after saying I was done with Target, I ended up there yesterday because I haven't found an accessible, acceptable substitite yet, and yeah..I felt crummy about it. I have to find a was to reseolve this for myself, because I'm sick of being conflicted about this.

scribe

1.) I hate shopping. Loathe it. I have enormous anxiety about money, and shopping sends me into a panic state.

2.) My father works for Wal-Mart. My nephew's Grandmother works for Wal-Mart. So, while I don't shop there, and I know why I shouldn't shop there, I've got family that depends on Wal-Mart for an income.

www.aldahlia.net

i do most of my shopping online. but even with all the choices on the net, i sometimes find myself buying things from businesses i find morally / politically objectionable. and yes (big confession here) that sometimes includes walmart and even amazon.com.

i try not to. but i am imperfect. sometimes its a matter of convenience , like when i can get everything i need at amazon or walmart instead of going through the ordering process at 3 or 4 different sites. sometimes its unique item, like the time walmart had the perfect set of curtains to match the color scheme in my dining room. as far as my source for cheap plastic crap and goods made by chinese children, online i try to use kmart. i also have used target a lot, but now, like scribe, i have to stop shopping there because of their e/c thing.

i struggle a lot with shopping. not just about where i buy, but what i buy. for instance, i feel guilty if i don't buy 100% organic cotton towels. i don't buy them, because i can't afford to, but i feel terrible about it. i feel strongly that i should, whenever possible, by things that are environmentally friendly. organics. things made from recycled materials. renewables. and shopping online gives me greater opportunities to find those things. but i am imperfect.

so i look at the small fair trade undyed rug made of organic hemp... and then find myself going to the kmart site checking out the colorful rugs made of petroleum products with some kind of a non skid manufactured rubber backing...at half the price.

and somewhere deep inside me, the catholicism of my childhood rears its head, and i find myself thinking "i'm going to hell for this."

I hate that word, "consumer". It is just so horribly apt--we humans are devouring the resources of this planet like locusts.

I also try not to shop at Wal-Mart, though I have occasional guilt-inducing lapses. The overly Christian atmosphere and the person at the front passing out smiley stickers just really push my anarchistic outsider artist anti-sheep buttons and make me simultaneously want to throw up and punch something (preferably the person with the smiley stickers). Not to mention the fact that most of the employees have these deep south accents and Jesus-eating grins. They must import people from the red states--I mean my god I'm in Massachusetts!--and that just feels threatening to me, not because southern people can't be progressive of course, but because "importing" them or whatever represents to me an attempted philosophical/religious takeover on Wal-Mart's part. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to these kinds of things (I am Wiccan), but it just really squicks me out.

Add to that the nastiness that is Wal-Mart's employee policy and its equally nasty cost-cutting measures, like bullying companies to lower their wholesale prices to the point where the company can no longer compete manufacturing things in this country, and I feel really icky if I have to set foot in one.

I want to make it clear though that I don't particularly get all het up at the idea of jobs going overseas--to me the family in China is just as important as the family in America--it's the fact that that family is paid nearly nothing working in a sweatshop.

There are some low cost alternatives in my area, so I can do a pretty good job avoiding Wal-Mart. Usually if I'm in there it's because I'm with someone else. I certainly am not rich (I'm a self-employed artist living with my elderly parents) but I'm getting by.

I also won't set foot in an Old Navy, but that's because all their products have their logo on them and I WILL NOT be someone's billboard.

I see myself primarily as a working girl, also. I was raised pretty solidly lower-middle class - even now, as long as I'm careful with my money, I have enough to go around.

BUT I work in an industry that had the chance to unionize in the late-80s/early 90s when everything was good, and failed to do so. We're paying for it now with support, programming, testing, etc, going overseas. Even my company has a small staff in India, whom I talk to regularly as they pass calls back to our team.

I refuse to shop at WalMart if I can honestly help it. I've picked up a couple of things there; most recently, a deck chair in a pattern that can only be found there. I've been shopping at Target, which still isn't wonderful, as they have to keep prices down to compete, but at least they make a big deal about giving back to the community.

OTOH, as a working girl, my time is precious. I wind up shopping at box stores more often than I "should" as a progressive - I don't buy my fruit and veggies from the farm, although I live in an area where I could. I don't buy all of my books at the locally owned used bookstores. I'd love to, frankly; I love the locally owned bookstores we have - but they don't inventory their books. There's literally no way to know if they have something and it's been shelved wrong unless one of the employees just happened to see it recently. So I save my time and go to Borders, where I can check the computer to see if they have my book in. Or if it's something that has to be ordered from the bookstore, I'll go to powells.com to get it instead.

Ok people I know walmart has bad things but it is not a bad place. people complain that things are to expensive and that its getting harder and harder to aford to live. Well walmart has come up with a solution for that by helping us afford the everyday things we need to live. Then what do we do? We turn around and complain about them. If you dont like shopping there than dont but don't take it away from all the poor hard working people that would not be able to aford the basic stuff they need to live if it wasn't for walmart. I know I shop their for everything. Walmart helps me and if it wasn't for them my car would not have tires and i would eat mcdonalds everynight because I can't afford to ear anywhere else. i personally know people who work their and love it. They give raise's every year and for the people who have been their a long time they make up to 16 dollars an hour and they are living good. they get discounts on walmart products and walmart has helped my friends get through college. They are very flexible and they treat their employee's well. I know my friend has many friends their and loves working there. So if people dont like it fine they dont have to shop their but why ruin it for all the people who need and love it. just let it go not everything has to be perfect for everyone. It will never happen!!!! For people like me their is no target or anything around here so walmart is the best thing we have. we rely on it up here. Maybe in the bigger cities they dont need it but in small towns where the nearist store to us other than walmart is two hours away. so I know walmart puts people out of business but it also helps people who can't afford much to live in happiness. My mom does not have alot of money we pinch every penny but we don't look poor we have decorations and food all the time and lots of clothes and treats and everything we need and why? Because of WALMART!