Shopping Locally

It is easy to accumulate a lot of stuff in our society. Far too easy, really.

You could make the argument that what we call progress these days amounts to making it even easier to acquire more stuff, for that matter. What does the term "globalization" mean, if not for the economic benefits associated with it. Would such a concept seem still somehow foreign to us?

Of course, globalization is not just a theory. it is a reality these days. Go to your local Walmart or Target, and see where so many of the products are made, and that will serve as a perfect example of what "globalization" means.

I stopped shopping at Walmart some years ago. Actually, I stopped a couple of times. The first time was probably around 2005, and it lasted maybe a couple of years at most. Then, someone told me to get a very affordable exercise set there, and I gave in. While there, I noticed some really cool shirts, and decided to get those, as well. Before long, it became a habit, and Walmart became my main shopping place - more than it had ever been before!

Yet, something about it bothered me, truth be told. Every time I went to the registers, there was a sense of guilt that I tried to suppress. So, I stopped shopping there once again, in 2009. This time, it is more serious than the first time, since it has lasted a lot longer. Last time lasted a year, maybe two, tops. But I have not shopped in Walmart since fall of 2009, and have no real interest in going there again. Yes, I know the prices are indeed cheaper there, for clothes, for music (although I never really shopped there for music anyway, since they censor "offensive" music), and for just about everything else. Tempting as it may be, I have successfully resisted for several years, and have no intention of going back.

I'd like to say at this point that I have plenty enough as is, and am thankful for it. But this is a bit disingenuous of me. I may not shop at Walmart anymore, yet I admit to still shopping at Target, which is marginally better. Yes, I also get that familiar sense of guilt in going to the registers there. But I am not rich, and so it is hard not to live life without compromising some things like that.

Still, that said, I am trying to be more cognizant of the importance of shopping locally, even if it costs more money. Also, I recognize that I tend to still buy too much, particularly things that I don't need. That is a problem, and I recongize it for what it is: a flaw. That is why I am attempting to make more purchases from local businesses, rather than the big chains. It is more expensive, but that is precisely the point. This is an argument where I think a lot of people get lost.

Yes, you can generally purchase things for cheaper, even far cheaper often times, at those superstores. For example, I recently purchased cd's at a local music store. Now, admittedly, it has been a while since my last in-store purchase of cd's. After all, they are a dying breed, right? But I am willing to buy albums for musicians that I care about the most, and that was why I went and bought some there.

The options for buying such things are numerous, of course. You can go to one of those superstores and get it cheaper. Go to Walmart, Target, or perhaps a more specialized superstore like Best Buy. They buy these things by the truck load, obviously at a special discounted rate, and then ship them out for mass distribution. Local stores simply cannot compete.

I cannot help but wonder if there is not some good to come out of the idea of buying less, and obtaining less. Even paying more for what you buy, if there is meaning behind it. If you are supporting a good cause, why not?

The corporate mentality is what has made a seemingly dreamy concept like "globalization" into a nightmare. What does "globalization" mean to many? Well, it varies, but the worst connotations may be at least as accurate, if not more so, than the best projections of it. It has meant outsourcing, and that has helped to reduce benefits and salaries here at home, and to promote corporations (like Walmart) that regularly bust unions and hire more part-timers without benefits. Convenient for them, but it hurts our standard of living. "Globalization" also means sweatshops. Again, go to your local superstore and check the tags to find out where the product is made. Most likely, clothing will have been made in some sweatshop in Asia, or perhaps Latin America, where child protection laws are less restrictive than here.

The practices of these superstores essentially are what make these unfair things persist in this world. When we buy from the stores, we are supporting them, whether or not we like it (or like to admit it), or even think about it or not. We are also inadvertently supporting lower wages, shorter working hours, and reduced benefits, as well as the choking off of local businesses on Main Street.

America's biggest problem today really boils down to one thing, and I think Jimmy Carter was right about this. Decades ahead of his time, in fact, although he was roundly, and predictably, criticized for trying to address it. Indeed, there really is a "crisis in confidence" in America today. Although he did not use this term specifically, this speech came to be known as the "malaise" speech. What it really comes down to, as he mentioned decades ago, was excessive, and unchecked, greed. That was not a popular message, and it cost him the election - big time! But that certainly does not mean that he was wrong about it. The majority of voters were wrong when they chose to go a different direction. But choose a different direction they did, and we are now paying for it, and with interest.

All of the problems that we are facing now are, directly or indirectly, a result of this excess greed, or perhaps, the greed of excess. You would think that having more and more and more would eventually satisfy. That was the gamble that we collectively took, in the West in general, and in America in particular. What we found out, predictably, was that it does not. It just makes you long for what you do not already have, and that makes you not appreciate what you do have.

For a while, everything seemed just swell. The price of everything went down, and the economy, so we were told, was booming. There was an economic boom in the eighties, and then once again, in the nineties. Technology was astonishing us all throughout, even though we now look at some of those technological wonders of the eighties and nineties and laugh at how primitive these look to us now, just like a few decades from now, they will be laughing at what we consider technological wonders. Maybe they won't be laughing quite as hard, however, since we have grown accustomed to acting astonished when new technology comes out, only to dismiss it as yesterday's news when the newest "big thing" comes out. How quickly we scrapped our cell phones with cameras (and I remember when this was considered exclusive - a real sign that you were splurging), our Ipods, our Iphones, our Blackberries, for the latest and greatest technological wonder that captured our increasingly limited imagination and attention spans. Usually, that meant putting it on plastic (often getting a store credit card in the process) and thus, increasing our debts. But hey! We have that new home theater system, and that awesome car stereo! The cell (it goes without saying that these come with cameras these days) that has internet access, and plays music for us to boot.

I don't mean to get preachy. It is just that this is an issue that truly does affect you and me, and all of us, really. It might not seem all that serious, when you go in there to pick up some paper towels or the latest album from your favorite band or, perhaps, some exercise stuff that your friend recommended, or those shirts that you saw in passing and decided to go ahead with.

Walmart has it's slogan, which you can see on the countless eighteen wheelers on the highways. It reads: "Walmart: Always Low Prices. Always." Indeed, they tend to have the lowest prices, and few can compete with that. Maybe Target, or some other superstore that specializes in specifics. But the local store on Main Street cannot compete with that, and that is the reason that they have begun to die out, and become a dying breed. But after decades with this trend, we are beginning to see the pitfalls of such economic strategies. After all, Walmart not only is a corporation, but it perhaps is the most fitting embodiment of the whole corporate culture. If you think that going to Walmart to pick up what you need for the cheapest price has no wider ramifications than your own convenience, you really need to wake up! Walmart is highly political, and everything about it, and the actions of this enormous corporation, has far-reaching ramifications. It is not simply about convenience in price and location. Increasingly, it is more about our quality of life itself, and Walmart has consistently been on the wrong side of that argument.

Yet, we have seen the corporate culture almost completely destroy the economy, and we see them still practicing the same things that led to that trouble in the first place. The only real difference is that we know more about it. It is more transparent these days. That means that, when you go shopping, you really are making a choice. This might seem a little bit heavy when all you want to do is pick up a pack of underwear for yourself, or perhaps a cheap pair of jeans for your son, who seems to make a point of getting holes in every new pair of pants that you provide for him. However, the decision you are making truly does have much wider ramifications than you may think at the time.

I mentioned corporate culture and, indirectly, the housing and banking catastrophe of 2008. The public trust can hardly be said to have fully recuperated from these, and many of those same foul practices continue. When you buy more, generally speaking, that means you put yourself in more debt. That has been the trend here in America in recent decades, and that probably is undeniable. Given the questionable ethics of these banks that issue credit cards with far too high, even oppressive, annual percentage rates (APR's), and unfair fees (often hidden), and harsh punishments for any tardiness or overdraft penalties and fees, and you can begin to gain a true appreciation of the larger picture, and just how corporate culture is hurting us. It is not merely restricted to their outsourcing jobs, or even to endorsing and actively profiting from oppression overseas. It is also hurting the common person, and the percentage of people affected is growing steadily in recent decades.

Hardly a stretch, then, to suggest that all of this, all of it, is a product of our collective greed. Each one of us can hold ourselves accountable for our personal greed. But that means we have to wake up, first.

It is not easy to pry yourself away from it all. I know, because I am still trying. I can hardly hold myself up as some kind of model, because much of what I have said is still highly hypocritical since I do shop at Target still (although I am trying to stop). All I can say is that I am trying. I think, also, that we all need to try a little harder to break our addictions. George W. Bush, the ultimate oil man to become President, claimed that America had an oil addiction, although he stopped short of saying that he helped this addiction along in his own right (made a career of it, in fact). But America has a lot of addictions. You see it everywhere. Only when you recognize it as a problem, can you even begin to deal with it. That is as much as I have done so far, and I have not gone nearly as far as I should. At least the first step is done - recognizing the problem. Hopefully, you may join me. My personal boycott of Walmart (and eventually Target, as well as fast food chains that I have avoided, such as McDonald's, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Subway) only goes so far. But I am not the only one, and if more people were to do it, then it begins to hit them financially. The protest begins to be spoken in the only language that they know: dollars and cents.
Several times, Walmart has closed stores once their employees have managed to obtain Union membership. I mean, literally, as soon as they managed to get them. They obviously intended this as some kind of a statement.

But you know, we the consumers can make statements, as well. We can make our voices heard loud and clear by hitting them where it obviously hurts the most-  in their wallet. And yes, that means not shopping there, not giving them our money, and showing that we do not support such practices or behavior. That we believe them to be wrong and unacceptable. The only way that this message will be heard and understood is if we ourselves begin to realize the error of our ways, and do something about it. Stop shopping at Walmart, and other such places that are choking the life out of what truly is traditional American values - the values that used to exist on Main Street. Only when we turn away from corporate culture in our own lives, can the country begin to recognize the problem of addictions, which our present corporate culture thrives upon, and begin the long (and admittedly painful) process of healing.