I feel a $50,000 donation to HRC or NGLCC from Wal-Mart coming really soon...

I've never liked Wal-Mart and refuse to go there for any reason as of about 5 years ago. I've never found any reason to make me want to go back but every day I'm given more reasons why not to.

And if anyone hasn't seen The High Cost of Low Prices you should definitely check it out.

Do I still shop at Walmart? I've never shopped at Walmart, on principle. They are emblematic of the trend toward suburban mega-stores that destroyed America's Main Streets, and led the trend toward low-wage, no-benefits, non-union, exploitative labor.

I don't understand why anyone shops there. And if someone argues, "Low prices," my response would be, "Not all costs can be measured in dollars."

Folks, This response to the ills of Corporate Big Box will be long I forewarn you. It covers my thoughts for this day and this place in my time line. Do as I climb up on my Soap Box once again to comment on the subject at hand here at BILERICO you can read on or just plain skip this as ranting. So I shout loudly that when it comes to Wal-Mart Inc. I have to say that I was personally aghast at how this bunch of corporate YAHOO's thought of nothing but themselves when it came to coming into and building on the West Coast here in the State of Oregon. This place of wonderful summers and rainy winters isn't total utopia; we have many things to work on it is more than true. The Wal-Mart motto mentality back then or still is, "Buy it suckers see how much money we saved on the labor"! Well I am here to tell you that I thought to myself....WITH WHAT? If they could unapologetically do this to America with little to no remorse how long would it be before everyone fell in line? It was then as I looked back to my all time and forever AMERICAN HERO Henry Ford. How he created the first car company on an assembly line. I am sure that his bargaining with the unions had him kicking and screaming that he would have gone broke but in the end he raised his workers wages to an unprecedented $5.00 a day. What this did for the American working class was to ensure that his workers were on time at their jobs everyday. You could then split your income in 4 directions (Daily living expense in basic housing, Savings, Other Services, and Taxes). It could have stayed that way but no we had to get greedy. It sounds so simple to say that this ushered in the middle class working heads of the household, momma stayed home with the kids in a home that they bought, a car that H.F. sold to the family (painted any color in Black), a garden, and a dog. US Manufacturing brought on a new prosperity in this country it actually was the catalyst for the creation of something that was not there previously. "NEW MONEY" within the community at large to be spent in support of nearly everything going around and around before it left that community up to 11 times for each dollar earned. What Wal-mart did was take all those new dollars which had been earned and spent at home wrote a check to some far off 3rd world nation that probably didn't even have electricity and didn't need it. Resulting in a simple mentality of what some sort of savings on the labor. Manufacturing began leaving in droves. The American Worker was left to devise other means of purchasing their "#$D D@#$%D CRAP". Today we find whole shiploads of so called cheap labor products now sitting in the Santa Barbara Bay six weeks out for unloading in bulk. Unseen commodities in trailers fanning out across America. In some sort of fashion resulted in leaving the American Worker to basically trade the remaining dollars by upping the use of easy financing on credit cards and any other means of paying for what was needed. I was witness to the level of education that Wal-Mart ushered in at low wages. If you could save on labor why not save on delivery too. Thus it is no wonder that they are so anti-union. It is no wonder that the Walton Sisters giddy with delight having their $5 Billion (each) gift from Daddy bought and built their country club mansions of 20 bedroom French Chateau homes in Columbia, Missouri. Yes I visited Columbia with a then boyfriend I picked up at ARPERCEN (Army Personnel Center St. Louis yes I am a military veteran retired). In the days previous to December 1994 I personally had been to Wal-Mart 4 times (Nebraska - Hayward California & 2 x's to Woodburn, Oregon). The super center location in NE I cannot remember but it was somewhere along I-80. Once in California I took that first purchase back for a refund. Turned out that it was a piece of crap. Had to deal with the store manager but in the end they gladly refunded my purchase after wrangling a bit. Third visit to buy an air mattress (my idea of camping was the Conrad Hilton ;

I know several people from our community who work for Wal-Mart. I have never heard anything but praise for their employer from them. I know several people who are inn my class (retired) who have part-time jobs at Wal-Mart. They, too, are supportive of their employer. I don't relate to them about this while they're on the job, but while I'm relating to them socially.

According to my sources, their wages are similar to those of similar employers in the area.

What's the big outrage? My first-hand information leads me to believe that Wal-Mart employees are treated quite fairly.

Could we be using the same tactics on Wal-Mart as we accuse the public, in general, of using against us? "I've heard that Wal-Mart does [such and so]."

Right.

And everyone knows, by the same source, "Everyone", that GLBT people are mentally ill, child-molesting abominations to whatever god they believe in.

Can we hear from some people with first-hand knowledge of the situation, please?