Forgive me, Al Gore, for I have sinned. Last night, I shopped at Wal-Mart. I did so willfully. I figured it was a good place to look for an item I was needing for my Halloween costume. But I didn’t find it. Instead, I, and this is painful to admit, I bought groceries. Why, oh, why did I patronize the foremost expression of Satan on the planet (after Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Mary Hart)?
Because all the groceries are friggin cheap. Target’s got nothing on Wal-Mart for low-prices. A two-liter of Diet Pepsi Max is 98 cents at Wal-Mart. Always. I shop at Target maybe 15 times a year, and the one time a year I go to Wal-Mart, I realize that I could be saving about 25% on just about everything. Then, I suppose, Wal-Mart goes back on boycott status when I decide that the extra money I spend in a given year by choosing Target over Wal-Mart is essentially a charitable contribution to society.
I realize I’d be a far better liberal if I avoided big-box stores all together. But I don’t cook, nor do I knit my own socks, nor do I brew my own highly caffeinated low-calorie cola.
I’ve struggled with the same thing at times, but mostly I’ve decided that simply not having to set foot in Wal-Mart (crowded, noisy, chaotic) is worth the extra money, never mind the clearer conscience.
A few years ago, it was the only place in Durham or Chapel Hill where I could find a small GE microwave. In fact, they had a huge selection of small microwaves compared to all of the other stores I looked.