Wal-Mart boycott update II

The following is a progress report on the Wal-Mart boycott that I basically began in June 2005. (For more details, see my blog entries dated 6/7/05 and 9/16/05.)

I am happy to report that even though I am living on a fairly tight budget, I have neither gone hungry nor broke since I have decided to stop patronizing the Wal-Martopoly.

To recap, this isn't a complete boycott of the Wal-Mart Corporation. I still have a Sam's card, even though I'm not able to visit Sam's Club as often as I used to. And recently I went online to walmart.com to download music (but they didn't have the song I was looking for, so I downloaded it from iTunes instead).

I realize that many people depend on Wal-Mart stores to meet their limited budgets -- visiting the noisy, smelly Supercenters, risking their lives in the overcrowded parking lots, trekking on these grand shopping excursions, saving the few cents per item that they need to save on every grocery bill. But this fact only fuels my indignation towards these slum stores. Wal-Mart knows they're usually the cheapest, so they expect to have the lowest common denominator customer base shopping at their stores, which Wal-Mart staff keeps apathetically scuzzy, with atrocious customer service. In other words, they take advantage of poor people -- this is the gist of my theory.

But there is no need for the cheapskate Wal-Martopoly to put anybody out of business. During my boycott, the resulting bargain-hunting has caused me to find the shopping gene that I thought was missing from my DNA as a female. Using Target, Dollar Tree, and Tom Thumb, God has made a way for me to buy most of my grocery and health items and home decor (and also eBay for entertainment and misc. items) and still live within my means. (Alas, there are no HEBs around here!) It is fun to hunt for bargains, and refreshing whenever I find something on sale. To me, this is intellectually stimulating and rewarding. (Except I still hate shopping for clothes. Blech.)

I have also found that not every community in America is economically dependent on Wal-Mart for its survival. For example, according to one website (http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/10/25/story4.html), Duncanville, a Dallas suburb, doesn't even have a Wal-Mart anymore. And Duncanville is hardly a ghost town.

So not everybody needs a Wal-Mart, and Lord willing, I certainly don't, either.

(Note: Most of my past Wal-Mart experiences were in Waco and Odessa. Since I just moved to the Dallas area recently, of course I have not visited the Wal-Marts in my area. I am only operating on the assumption that all Wal-Marts are the same.)

Prove me wrong, Wal-Martopoly -- show me sparking clean stores, stellar customer service, and an efficient shopping experience that will make me rush to your door every time I collect my paycheck -- and this boycott will be over. But until then, this chick is keeping her money where her mouth is.

P.S. Happy Easter, everyone! :)