There was a time I was never fortunate to be a part of; one could walk down the street and pop in the bakery for fresh bread, and then head a couple of stores down to the butcher for their weekly protein, maybe to a small lot where local farmers had all of their fresh, chemical free produce and eggs on display for the choosing. If you needed clothes, you went to a clothes store. If you needed furniture, you went to a furniture store. If you needed drugs, a drug store and if you needed just some general items, well, you can probably think of the store’s name by now. Don’t get me wrong, you can still do that now, although it’s harder to find a proper butcher and most farmers markets run once a week, and usually don’t appear in the winter (the ones that do are often quite a drive for somebody). There are still plenty of stores around that specialize in the sales of a simple selection of merchandise. Years ago, everyone had this routine of shopping selectively. They shopped for what they needed, and they had a place to go that simply had those things in which were needed.
It did end up, of course, more efficient to localize certain markets into a central location. So we created department stores with many household items and clothes, and supermarkets with all different types of food in the same place. This was a good idea, I suppose, because we were going to buy all that stuff in the same shopping day anyway, and now we had more time to grab a drink at the local speakeasy and maybe plan a fancy dinner party. Over the years we grew accustomed to this highly efficient lifestyle in which our leisure time increased proportionately to the decrease in shopping time. Efficiency bore its enticing talons into the flesh of our wants and needs until we craved it so much it became that which it is not. We combined, and combined, all of the shopping we could ever want into fewer and fewer places. The quality of our goods and services suffered but we didn’t care. It was efficiency we were after, no matter the cost. It could be morality; it could be economical, even personal finances it didn’t matter. Efficiency is what we were after. ‘There must be an easier, faster, cheaper way’, this became our motto. Behind the scenes the American Dream is unfolding yet is unnoticed by the crowd so fixated on the glorious revolution known as efficiency. All of the consumer goods, in one easy to reach location. Fifteen minutes down the road and we are there, the physical manifestation of insatiable desire to have all things quickly and cheaply.
But Alas! What have we become?! I am here, in my supermarket utopia. I needed groceries for the week and underpants for the year. Gone were the days where I needed only to purchase vegetables once a week instead of two times a week, because of all the efficient chemicals used to render unto them immortality. I navigate through the seemingly infinite jungle of capitalism and procure all of my desires. But… wait. Here are some parlor games. Surely I need none, as I already have plenty. But they are on sale! I would be a fool not to purchase one! And this candy? Certainly no nutritional value but if I buy one box I get another for free? Why that’s a free good! Never mind paying the initial cost for the first box, I couldn’t find this deal anywhere else in a fortnight! I continue my journey onward, diving into the thicket of wondrous product I would never dream of seeing in the general stores of yore. Wielding only my shiny wobbly wheeled cart as a weapon I advance on my enemy of consumerism. I need not these things, but I want them. I don’t even want them, but I have to have them. Only a fool would pass up 49 cents off a pint of bubble solution. Why that provides hours of fun for the little ones, or several minutes of cleanup if inevitably dropped on the floor. What’s this? Some new shoes… and they are only a half’s worth of an Andrew Jackson?! A mere Alexander Hamilton?! Simply two paper Lincoln’s?! Surely they won’t disintegrate upon just a few weeks of infrequent use? It’s no matter if they do, I can just buy another pair! At this price I can buy a years’ worth of shoes! I certainly don’t need anything else, do I? Why not peruse the fancy electronics area of this amazing cornucopia of modern desire? After all, who could escape the trance of glowing lights and inviting musical wonderment? I could use another picturetube so I can watch a talky while I work on my gas powered people carriage in the garage. Besides, I couldn’t use any of my other five picture tubes as they are currently in sparse use in my several bedrooms, and over frequent use in the living rooms. As I finally make my way to purchase all of these fine products, and I stop to throw a few fish into the cart for my aquatic jungle (the others had perished a mere 3 days of existence out of their natural habitat) and a couple of old talkies that were on sale for a two bit coin, I start to wonder why the employees of this fine establishment aren’t as bewildered with excitement as I am, nor are they beaming with pride to be a part of this fabulous establishment. Incredulous was I as I departed this amazing land of savings and abundance. I can’t wait to return next week to replenish my food stores. Or… perhaps I will return tomorrow to pick up that shiny picture frame I saw in the third aisle from the back left quadrant. I don’t yet have a picture to put it in, but luckily this amazing source of all wants and needs has a photography department, so that I may finally have that portrait of me and Lionel, my Siamese cat, taken to place over the fireplace.
Walmart blows.
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