[AlexdeLarge]

Charles Platt is a former senior writer for Wired magazine. In the New York Post column "Fly on the Wal," Platt emerges from deep undercover as a Wal-Mart employee to report on lessons learned.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ome people, usually community activists, loath Wal-Mart. Others, like the family of four struggling to make ends meet, are in love with the chain. I, meanwhile, am in awe of it.

[outcast]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t sounds like they are a good employer overall.......but to me it seems like a bleak place to work if you are on the front lines dealing with unending sea of humanity that comes in to shop everyday.

[TWilliam]

Is Wal~mart 'Good' for America?

[Jotapay]

If I were a societal engineer (aka Nazi eugenicist), I would sterilize or outright just euthanize any person who regularly shopped at Wal-Mart.

Whenever I enter the store, I feel like I'm going to catch the "stupid" or "retarded" disease that all the other shoppers and staff are infected with.

[UltraViciousBudgie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'I')f I were a societal engineer (aka Nazi eugenicist), I would sterilize or outright just euthanize any person who regularly shopped at Wal-Mart.

Whenever I enter the store, I feel like I'm going to catch the "stupid" or "retarded" disease that all the other shoppers and staff are infected with.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UltraViciousBudgie', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'I')f I were a societal engineer (aka Nazi eugenicist), I would sterilize or outright just euthanize any person who regularly shopped at Wal-Mart.

Whenever I enter the store, I feel like I'm going to catch the "stupid" or "retarded" disease that all the other shoppers and staff are infected with.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UltraViciousBudgie', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'I')f I were a societal engineer (aka Nazi eugenicist), I would sterilize or outright just euthanize any person who regularly shopped at Wal-Mart.

Whenever I enter the store, I feel like I'm going to catch the "stupid" or "retarded" disease that all the other shoppers and staff are infected with.

[Denny]

It is strange how we have evolved over a couple of generations regarding shopping.

I remember my Mom would dress up to go shopping each week, even for groceries. The neighbors too, though we were not affluent. Once in a while she'd go downtown to Eaton's or Simpson's, and they would really cater to you, even deliver the items you bought, next day at the latest, so you didn't have to carry them home. Important if you came by street car or subway.

But, Wal-Mart and the ilk look to me like the Soviet Russian era consumer goods "stores". Bare fluorescent tubes, clothing sprawled out on the kind of displays yo used to jsut see at the Goodwill, and painted steel shevling. No style in the sense the old department stores or specialty stores had. I realize its a free market economy, and, unlike the Russians of old, we can choose to go to nicer places, but the shopping experience is proletarian to say the least. But, peopole used to look at the Soviet era retailing pictures, in things like National Geographic, and say "ughhh".

Its odd, we used to buy a lot less, but enjoy it more.

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', 'W')hile my wife and I do try to keep a good percentage of our food and household shopping confined to the local grocery chain, there are some things that are simply difficult-to-impossible to find elsewhere in town than Wal~mart

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', 'W')e don't have a superstore walmart here so it's food selection is relatively limited. What is there however doesn't seem any different then the local grocery stores. All of the milk comes from one of the two semi local dairies, same with any cheese/other dairy products. At the grocery stores you get your choice of either but walmart only seems to carry one. All of the bread is the same brands as anywhere else unless you're getting the in store fresh baked breads at the grocery store. Canned goods are canned goods identical in everyway, the rest of the stuff is your standard junk food that you can buy anywhere that sells food. I think the problem with our walmarts food isn't where it comes from but what they carry. Things I would consider healthy but aren't staples like milk and eggs are non existent.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cbxer55', 'A')pparently Wally World is starting to feel the effects of this "downturn". errr depression! 700 folks to get axed at company head quarters.

Layoffs begin at Wally World

[AgentR]

The problem with comparing walmart to soviet era stores is that walmart is almost always stocked to overflowing with stuff everyone can afford to buy.

You harken back to the good old days; while conveniently forgetting having to sacrifice an entire hours worth of wages to buy a pair of socks.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', 'Y')ou harken back to the good old days; while conveniently forgetting having to sacrifice an entire hours worth of wages to buy a pair of socks.

[Blacksmith]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR', 'Y')ou harken back to the good old days; while conveniently forgetting having to sacrifice an entire hours worth of wages to buy a pair of socks.

[Denny]

[quote="Blacksmith
We used to darn socks, because they were so expensive. Nowdays who cares.[/quote]

I remember a quote in the paper as a kid, I think it was Jerry Lewis or antoher celebrtiy who revealed he never wore a pair of socks a second time, always threw them out each day.

My folks were livid, they had thought highly of him, but now saw him as a conceited brat of sorts.

Funny think today is, my daughter will think nothing of getting a mocha latte or whatever at Starbucks which is just ocnsumed and that costs more than a pair of socks.

As a kid I think a pair of socks was about 65 cents, and a coffee was just a dime at the restaurant. But, most working people brought their own coffee in a thermos.