Look Kids! A Wal-Mart!
The T&G broke the news today that Wal-Mart is coming to town. This is bad. I consider myself to be the single biggest proponent of hard core, blood thirsty capitalism this side of Iowa, but Wal-Mart still manages to make me ill. Here’s my take.
You have this company that manages to sell cheap stuff for next to nothing. But they can only sell all that crap at low, low prices due to a distribution system which relies on inexpensive transportation costs. We’re all familiar with the notion of fuel prices rising, we see it at the gas pumps every day. Well if you have a company smashing local business and then you take away their inexpensive distribution system. You’re stuck with no local business and a big box store that no longer provides an inexpensive service. On a long enough time-line Wal-Mart stops making any sense at all. The company doesn’t care about those details because, well, it’s a company and they make money either way. But I do, because a local economy with no future makes my investment in said community rather pointless. Like I said, this is bad.
Now you don’t have to agree with my take regarding fuel prices, peak oil and rising costs of overseas labor. Like I said, I’m a capitalist; but I don’t expect you to share my ideals. If you don’t, feel free to examine their anti-labor stance, poor health insurance record, low wages, disregard for the environment, reliance on sweat shops and back room deal making with local government. Normally I’m not going to pick a fight based on those issues, but in this case I’ll make an exception. If those are things you care about, consider us on the same team today. But I’m just one guy with a six pound sledge hammer. Not much I can do, alone, to take out a retailer of that size. As a team though, we might be able to put a dent in this here juggernaut.
If anyone shares my concern, or has concerns of your own regarding Wal-Mart we only have so much time to get the ball rolling to make this foolishness stop. I’d like to make my copy of WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price available to any group who wants to host a screening and I would also like to offer my assistance to any group that wants to take up a serious fight against Wal-Mart before they break ground. That includes the use of my sledge hammer.
Dear Tim
I hope you’re enjoying your new job, I heard you got the shaft when it came to a company car. Hopefully Kerry threw out all those half empty, Starbucks Carmel Macchiato’s piled up like a miniature Mt Everest on the back seat before handing over the keys. I wanted to let you know how things were going back here in Worcester since you’ve been gone. Everyone has lost their fucking minds.
Our buddy Rick Rushton want’s your old job, someone told him pushing for higher taxes was the way to get it. Yea, I know. I hear Mayor Lukes was admitted to Worcester Med not long after the announcment, seems she ruptured her aorta from laughing so hard. Maybe you could free up Joe O’Brien for a few hours to explain to him, traditionally, we don’t push for higher taxes until after the election is won. Because as it stands now, everyone is sort of confused.
Mike O’Brien gave everyone raises, that was nice. But now the fine folks running for City Council this year have nothing to talk about. We all love Bobby Moylan, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hard to make a case about the condition of streets and sidewalks when you give the guy in charge of them a $20,000 (American) raise. I hear Councilor Smith has been working day and night to come up with new talking points for his website to replace the once golden ’streets and sidewalks’. All those house-wives in his district found it real easy to relate with the want for better sidewalks as they took their morning walks up and down Barry Rd, in the street. Poor guy.
Oh, this is a good one. Wal-Mart is coming to Worcester. Real classy, huh! I wonder if they’ll sell Tapas? Most American cities at least feign disgust when Wal-Mart lawyers come knocking. What, with it’s broken business model, destructive power over local economies and general douchebaggery. But in our case, Preservation Worcester showed up to offer their support. P-r-e-s-e-r-v-a-t-i-o-n Worcester. Apparently Preservation Worcester LOVES three dollar mini-blinds and a great deal on potting soil. Your pal Bob Spellane has my copy of WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price, maybe you can pick it up some night on the way back in from Boston? In the meantime, could you think about stopping in some Tuesday on one of those after meeting, meetings? I think your former colleagues could use a hand.
See you March 1st,
-b
Osama Team Hunger Force
the day after
Wow. Just, wow.
I was real excited yesterday afternoon, watching Boston come to screeching halt. Not because I enjoy hysteria; no, I just kept telling myself ‘any minute now, they’ll figure it out and we’ll all have a good laugh’. Not so much, it seems. As Boston Mayor Tom Menino and AG Martha Coakley ramp up the state legal machine, it appears that nobody in the Boston or State Administrations, or even a fair number in the media have yet to realize THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS LAUGHING AT US.
Even Mississippi.
What needs to happen and happen today, is for Governor Patrick to knuckle up, admit that podcasting aside his administration is really not that hip and start reeling in the Attorney General and Menino. With the possible exception of littering, no crime was committed in Boston when these signs were hung over two weeks ago. There was no “hoax”, there wasn’t even a “stunt”, just a real slick light-brite advertising campaign. Calling for Ted Turners head will not make the fact the city of Boston overreacted to the tune of half a million dollars go away. Neither will locking up a couple of local artists. The only thing that can fix this is a simple apology coming from the corner office and City Hall.
Being from Worcester, I’m supposed to be jealous of Boston; I believe it’s in Mass General Law that I be forever jealous of Boston, actually. Not today. Frankly I’m embarrassed to share the Commonwealth with the city. We’ve just watched the birthplace of the American revolution go from Orwellian, to Orson Wellsian, to straight up Cromwellian all within normal business hours and it’s not fun for this observer any more. A Mayor whining about not receiving a sympathy note hand delivered by Ted Turner himself, a Governor who doesn’t know the definition of “hoax” and local media outlets censoring a cartoon middle finger made of four LEDs. If ‘fire’ was indeed yelled in this crowded theater, it was yelled by city, state and federal employees. The only hoax, revolves around the Commonwealth trying it’s damnedest to convince me it’s capable of dealing with a real emergency. Clearly, it’s not. Hopefully, when the dust settles, all of us in-state will find that truth, much more disturbing than a poorly drawn cartoon alien recreated in LEDs.
With that, please take a minute to read the recently posted editorial at Bostons Weekly Dig. We’re moving into editor Joe Keohanes last week at the paper and more than a few of us consider yesterday to be the perfect parting gift to a guy who obviously loves Boston and has an uncanny ability to help us outsiders understand its short comings.
link
