by Marlin Bressi

Created on: January 06, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2011

Once upon a time, Wal-Mart proudly stood behind American-made products. How things have changed. It seems that the vast majority of products offered by the nation's largest retailer are no longer made in this country, but are made overseas by foreign workers in places like China, Singapore, and Thailand. The company famously based in Arkansas has drifted far from it's American roots on it's way to global market domination.

This cannot be good for America. While Wal-Mart employs millions of Americans, one can only wonder how many millions more have lost their good-paying manufacturing jobs after the factories have shut their doors and sent the jobs overseas. And let's not forget aboout the countless small businesses that have been forced to close because of the Scourge of Bentonville. Additionally, Wal-Mart has a long standing tradition of mistreating workers, especially female employees. Every few months, we pick up the newspaper to read stories about lawsuits and settlements as the horror stories about Wal-Mart abound.

However, the biggest threat presented by Wal-Mart is not economic, it is cultural. Wal-Mart has changed the culture of America, and not in a good way. America has historically been a diverse nation with room for equally diverse tastes. Our towns and cities were once full with wonderful ethnic grocers who offered all of us things that couldn't be purchased anywhere else. It was not uncommon for a culturally-diverse town to have Korean grocers, Italian markets, and Mexican bodegas, all living in peaceful harmony. This diversity flavored America. In the post-Wal-Mart world, a world that caters to an unrefined palate, we are no longer offered exotic spices and ethnic delicacies. Instead, we are force-fed a steady but bland diet of Heinz ketchup, Campbell's soup, and Smithfield porkchops.

Wal-mart has changed the very culture of shopping itself, as once-pleasant trips to the market have been replaced by standing in line for twenty minutes behind a welfare mom and her nine ritalin-addicted children. Not only is it bad enough that Wal-Mart has sucked all of the variety out of your life, but you are treated to a freakshow along the way, forced to endure an hour of your life jockeying for position in a checkout line behind the dregs of society. "Everyday low prices" is nothing more than an invitation for every unwed single mother, crackhead, and illiterate hillbilly in the county to dampen your day. As you make your way through the parking lot, only to discover that your car has been dented by a toothless redneck and his rusty pick-up truck, you yearn for the good old days, when you had the option of taking your business elsewhere.

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