parody

I read about this in the paper, and had to visit the Wal-Mart parody website for myself. Great job to the college kid who did all this!

I read Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America in the spring of 2003. I rarely shopped at Wal-Mart anyway, but after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's book I made a more informed decision to not support their corporation every again. (Sadly, the great novel and movie Where the Heart Is ends up glorifying the business in a spoof-like way.)

I admit, however, that I've shopped there at least 2 times since reading the book: once because I received a $50 gift card for a Christmas present and I bought much-needed groceries there, and another time I bought the Friends DVD there for my fiance's birthday present (it was the cheapest price I could find, except Amazon but I didn't have time to buy it from them), Valentine's Day boxers, and a pint of raspberry sorbet. (Really, what other store would allow me to purchase all of these items in one trip? Okay, maybe Fred Meyer.) I felt sort of bad about this second purchase, but it was also a financial relief to my budget in a way. However, I'm happy to say I've been "Wal-Mart Free" for over three months now, and I don't plan to go back. That's right. Never, ever again.

I've been trying to get my mom to stop shopping at this mega-retail giant and read Ehrenreich's book because she's a big Wal-Mart fan, but so far I've been unsuccessful. The store was next to the "Super Mall" so what could I do? And now a new one opened up this winter that's even closer to her house! Wal-Mart is the new K-Mart. I didn't grow up with Wal-Mart like kids in the South did, or like my nieces have now. Washington state kids in the 1980's didn't like to admit their mothers shopped there, and we took our P.E. clothes to school in the best plastic bags we could find (The Bon or Nordstrom were the coolest, the specialized bags from their junior departments). I remember quickly grabbing a bag from the pantry and only finding out later when I was at school that it was a K-Mart one. I was mortified and made sure no one saw it!!