on Wal-Mart

I was having a conversation recently and the person i was talking to said something like...Sam Walton is the Devil. Now there are all sorts of arguments for this position...Wal-Mart doesn't allow unions...they don't provide health care for employees...they drive product quality down...it drives small businesses out of business and destroyes local economies...etc...

Now I personally am not a big fan of Wal-Mart. The products tend to be a little cheap, they don't last as long as i would like them to, the stores are busy and confusing, and its difficult to get anyone to help you. So i don't really shop there much.

But arguing against Wal-Mart on principle, and trying to outlaw "big-box" stores is a pretty arogant thing to do. Wal-Mart is popular...even though the rich, well-educated people I tend to hang with and who tend to read this blog won't admit to liking it, it is popular. You don't get to be the biggest retailer in the world with a company bigger than the entire economy of Germany, without doing something right. WM provides a service that a whole lot of people want.

And the important thing to note is that it is very popular with lower-income people. It is popular with people who don't often have a say in public policy or opinion. But it is popular. So in saying "Sam Walton is the devil" basically what you are saying is that all those people who shop there and who make WM into a successful retaIler are too stupid to make decisions for themselves, sop we should just tell them what to do.

The thing is, WM has never forced anyone to shop there, or forced anyone to work there. They have never held a gun to my head and mugged me the way the government does every day. In fact WM has been harrassed, bullied, pushed around, insulted...by local, state and federal agencies across the country. Sam Walton actually seems like he must have been a very nice man. All he did was recognize a need and fill it. He did far more than anyone I know to feed the hungry,, clothe the naked, give shelter(I'm speaking of providing affordable goods for sale and bringing all sorts of products within the price range of normal or poor people.)...etc...than most people I know. And all he gets for it is people with their noses in the air saying things like "Sam Walton is the Devil"