Evil, thy name is Wal-Mart

In fact, my brother calls them the Whore of all the Earth, and I don't think he's too far off.

My sister Blemily (who is nowhere to be found in the "blogosphere," so I can't link you to her...although, I would LOVE it if she were) sent me an article today called Global Insight Releases New Study on the Impact of Wal-Mart on the U.S. Economy. Now, being the TOTALLY right brained artistic loser that I am, most of what I read sounded a lot like "Blah blah blah blah, Wal-Mart blah blah." But the 5% that I actually use of the left lobe of my brain understood this article to mean, that Wal-Mart hired Global Insight to do a study and then sponsored a conference in order to pat themselves on the back and say "we are single-handedly saving the U.S. Economy." In the words of my sister "It’s amazing what they’ll do to make it look like it’s all OK."

Let me tell you how I see Wal-Mart. First of all, where I live, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Wal-Mart store (including the Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club). I did a little search on walmart.com and found that there are 20 stores within 50 miles of me, and 11 with 30 miles, and that's not including the 3 Sam's Clubs that I know of, and the new store they are building in Centerville. To me, that's a little excessive. I also see that while the Wal-Mart Super Stores parking lots are constantly buzzing, other similar shopping centers are nearly empty. But I get it, Wal-Mart's prices are low. That is the plain and simple truth. And I completely understand that some people simply can't afford to shop other places.

But...

The real reason I cannot bring myself to shop at the above mentioned Super Store has to do with something that happened nearly 9 ago. My best friend was killed in a crash when a Truck Driver fell asleep at the wheel and hit her head on. What does that have to do with Wal-Mart you ask? Well, recently Wal-Mart lobbied congress to extend the workday for truckers to 16 hours as long as truckers took an unpaid two-hour break. Currently, their workday is limited to 14 hours with only 11 consecutive hours of driving allowed...math may not be my strongest suit, but that sounds like not only a shorter day, but a longer break. And longer breaks mean more rest, and more rest means safer drivers. I personally think that is enough.

I miss my friend, and boycotting Wal-Mart isn't going to bring her back. In fact, I'm lucky, in that I know I will see her again. But a tired trucker broke the hearts of my friend's family, and mine. And I can't support a company that would allow that to happen again, no matter how low their prices are.

Holy cow! That's my second soap box in a row. At least it's a new week.

;-)