by Jerry Burke
But at very least, we had our Wal-Mart. Ah, yes, the Mecca of Merchandise. A hundred bucks at Wal-Mart went further than 10 cartons of smokes in prison (not that I'd know anything about that). Sure, we were all told that the stores that sprang up faster than frat boys at a dollar beer night broke the backs of local merchants, but as long as I was getting my Count Chocula for $1.50 a box, who cared?
Well now we know why those prices were so insane, and it had nothing to do with that darn smiley face floating around the store with a Zorro mask and a sword. In the wee hours of Oct. 23, agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, arresting more than 250 undocumented immigrant cleaning workers as they ended their night shifts.
To further complicate matters, it was disclosed that some of these workers were being paid $2 -- not per hour, but per day. Two bucks doesn't even cover my parking for a day. How did they manage this feat of frugality, especially working on a 364-days-a-year schedule?
The mystery remains to be solved, but there is one thing we know for certain: Wal-Mart didn't do it. Well, OK, a company they hired to provide these low-cost janitors did it, but Wal-Mart didn't know. Well, OK, they knew about maybe 10 of them. But hey, that's business, right?
No wonder those shower curtains and Alan Jackson CD's were so cheap! Their overhead was practical transparent. And to think that five of the 10 richest Americans have the last name Walton. What is this country coming to?
Well, let's start at the beginning. Trying to find products still made in this country is like trying to choose the All-Star representative for the Detroit Tigers: pointless. The stuff you find in these stores, even the stuff carrying such profitable labels as Nike and Disney, is made rather cheaply (libel laws prevent me from further comment) in faraway lands. The goods come here and are distributed to stores like Wal-Mart, where the prices are kept down in order to "compete" with other outlets.
We, the consumers, desire these products and don't want to spend a lot of money on them, mainly because we are earning less then the generations before us. That's because the jobs that were here 50 years ago are now in, you guessed it, faraway lands. And the endless cycle that made the Waltons billionaires continues.
Well, enough. Wal-Mart could sell televisions at $5 a pop tomorrow, but I won't be there. The shame of it all is that our economy has become addicted to these mega-stores and little old me won't make all that much difference. But, hey, you're invited to come along for the ride.
