WalMart. Also: two hour naps make me grumpy.

Does it make me a horrible person to admit that I secretly laugh at the people who talk about WalMart as if it's responsible for the decline of civilization as we know it? Sure, I'm not saying that it's not a little evil, but it doesn't escape my notice that a good many of the people who bitch about it destroying the economies of small towns and evangelize about buying things that cost more from other establishments... are people who aren't struggling to make ends meet and they sure aren't the ones that live in those small towns. I've lived in small towns and I've lived in big cities and medium-sized places, and my big point here is that shopping elsewhere is really not always as easy as they would like to pretend, so it seems to me that it's much easier to have these philosophical objections when it really doesn't affect your life, and can therefore just pass judgment on other people* for being other people.

Here's the thing. Do you buy toilet paper? Say you live in the town that I lived in for most of my life. There are 10,000 people officially living in those parts, though those numbers are really screwed up because most people don't live in city limits and then there's a college campus full of non-residents. You need toilet paper. You have your choice of grocery stores, a couple of dollar stores, or WalMart. You can't go to WalMart because you are too good boycotting it for "ethical reasons." I have honestly never heard anyone say "I hate WalMart, so I will never shop there, but I just love going to the dollar store." A large part of the anti-WalMart experience is the stigma of shopping there, and the unwashed masses that you see.. and the people in the dollar stores are probably even less socially acceptable to people like that. So let's assume that the dollar stores are also out. You really need TP, so you go to Kroger and pay a couple of dollars more. Fine. Now multiply toilet paper by paper towels by diapers by ziplock bags by dishes by light bulbs, and remember that the average living wage in said small town is going to be smaller than in a larger city. After all, I am not living there right now entirely because of the lack of jobs. So where am I supposed to find all this extra money to voluntarily pay more money for everything I buy? And what of things that aren't toilet paper, like say, craft supplies, or a new television, or mixing bowls, or a blender? If WalMart doesn't have it, you cannot buy it in town. What about Christmas decorations, or Halloween costumes, or toys?

Of course, you do have other options. I mean, if you feel that Target's business practices are superior, you could shop there. Of course, you'll have to drive 130 miles to get there and back. Or Meijer. (Speaking of Meijer... no one has a problem saying the silent-type J in Meijer. Why not in... the same word but with a G at the beginning? I mean, they would still be mis-pronouncing it but it would at least be closer.) The problem is that then it takes at least three hours to do your shopping and you are now also spending a lot of money in gas ($15) to go to a place where you can pay more, and doesn't that sort of exploit the environment? And then, these places are also nationwide chains, and therefore you can't really use the "support local merchants" argument anymore?

And speaking of Target. I enjoy browsing at Target now and then when we're in an actual city (which is a 60 mile round trip from here) but I just do not get the Target love that I see in the blogosphere. What is it? What am I missing? I love the design of some of the Michael Graves stuff but have learned from experience that it totally falls apart due to crappy quality. Other than that, it seems to me that you pay more for the same stuff. But then again, you don't find Targets in small town (that I've seen) so perhaps there's the disparity between one's finances and one's inclination to get on one's high horse about where people who are pretty much just trying to get by with what they have.

But hey, I guess you could just buy your toilet paper at the little Mom-and-Pop gas station down the road in your small town. Of course, they buy it at WalMart, but who's counting?

*This post brought to you by the reading of a random blog posting that seriously suggested that shopping at WalMart is at least borderline treason.