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Shopping Wal-Mart because I have to
Published November 8, 2009
Despite assurances from government officials and optimistic economists, despite the increasing activity on Wall Street and despite all our hopes and expectations to the contrary, the economy is still struggling.
Everybody has stories of how it has touched them. People have lost jobs, have failed to get expected raises, have seen hours cut or perks dropped. College graduates scramble to find any job in a world much different from the one for which they had prepared. No one, young or old, has escaped the chilling hand of the recession.
Although I’ve had my own issues in this economic climate, I’d thought the worst was over. I still have a job, still making payments on all my bills and occasionally was able to scrape up money for the luxuries that make slaving away for The Man worth all the effort.
The only problem? It’s getting harder to find somewhere to buy those luxuries.
Here in Monroe, where buying anything to feed pop culture addictions is difficult, both of the book stores dotting downtown closed. Broad Street Books supplied me with more than a few used books at cheap prices, while the Man in the Moon Bookstore was an excellent place to get a few kids books.
Yet, all too often, when I walked in to browse or just shoot the breeze with the owners, I was the only customer in the store. And while I buy more books than is probably healthy, I can’t support any business all on my own.
So, once again, despite all the pleas to buy local and support downtown businesses, I’m forced to shop at Wal-Mart if I want to buy a book, Blu-ray or CD because, guess what? No one downtown sells those things.
I wish I could say it was just Monroe. But I heard bad news abroad as well. On one of my regular trips to Athens for actual culture and the ability to buy things that aren’t useless knick-knacks, I stopped at my default comic book store, Classic City Comics, to pick up a few issues of my regular titles.
On my way out with the adventures of Batman, however, the owner told me he was closing the store at the end of the month. Apparently, when people look to redistribute their shrinking store of disposable income, Superman and Spider-Man get the ax first.
So now not only am I stuck in Monroe looking for somewhere to buy the new Stephen King book, I also have to find a new comic book store to frequent.
I know these are petty complaints, especially when there are people losing jobs and going out of business. But it’s hard to see the economy pulling itself up by its bootstraps when anything you want to buy can’t be bought.
So, as I look to the Internet for my shopping needs, I question those who complain of our dependence on the big box stores and super-retailers like Amazon (where I pre-ordered the King book for $9). There’s an easy answer there.
Like John Dillinger, who robbed banks because that’s where the money was, we shop at these corporate titans because that’s where all the products have gone.
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