The Big Box Dilemma

Yep, The Big Box. You know what I mean, Wal-Mart, the store that so many people love to hate. It has become the symbol of the homogenization of American culture. 25 years ago it was McDonald's, before that? I really can't say because I only really began paying attention somewhere in my late teens. Howard Johnson's maybe? It really doesn't matter, I guess, the point is that sometimes the things that make our lives easier or more convenient, are the same things that we resent for taking away the individuality of the landscape.

It seems that no matter where we go in America these days there is a Wal-Mart, and more and more of them are billed as "Supercenters." But let's be real, just because you can buy food and drugs and clothes in the same store doesn't really make it a supercenter, because you can do the same at most Walgreens, Kenny Drugs, Rite-Aids and even grocery stores. The Marketing department of the Wal-Mart Company knows that by billing the store as a supercenter, it gets them more community support,( if they have any to start with, there is a serious backlash going on with Walmart) so even though it may not be a full supercenter they will still call it such. I live where I can drive to three different Wal-Mart "supercenters" in less than an hour. The smallest one is in my own hometown. It has all the bells and whistles to get the label, but the bells are much smaller, and the whistles are more like tweeters. Each one offers all the same services, but the population that each caters to is different so the stock reflects this. So does the size. The one in the college town is the biggest store I have been in to date. It is the newest incarnation in the same town, they pretty much outgrew the first one that was built 15 years ago. Now the old building sits empty waiting for a new tenant or someone to doze it over and build something new. This also is a common occurance when it comes to this megalithic retailer.

The dilemma is this, do you go to Wal-mart with it's low prices and continued market dominance, or do you patronize the little stores where you know the owners and have been shopping for years? Wal-Mart has what you need, and in the style you want and at a low price. The little store knows exaclty what you want, but doesn't have the style in stock, ( but can have it in a day or two) and the price is a couple dollars more. What do you do? America is a country that has no use for anything less than instant gratification, Wal-Mart wins, today. What happens tomorrow? Do you even bother looking at the little store? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. The more times you choose Wal-Mart the more you hurt the little store, and the more likely it is that they will go out of business. When they go out of business, the irony is that they will be shopping at Wal-Mart, because the low prices will be all that they can afford!

Now don't get me wrong, I am not a Wal-Mart basher in general. I shop there, for the exact reasons that I have specified above. Low prices and selection. When you have a company that can buy an entire production run of a product, you know they will have the lowest price on a product. In fact, they can pretty much control the market price on most things. They can undercut any local competitor and drive them out of business. Then they hire at least a portion of that competitors labor force to staff their ever bigger stores. Meanwhile they buy cheaper products made in foriegn factories, meaning that Unemployed Americans will continue to shop for the lowest prices thereby making them the winners again. How's that for dominating the market?

I love to travel and road trips are one of my favorite things to do. Generally due to time constraints I usually travel by Interstate Highway. It's a great way to get from city to city and to cover ground fast. Contrary to the popular belief when they were built, they really do provide some wondeful views and vistas. They cut through some of the most beautiful places in the country, and some of the most desolate as well. Anyone who has ever followed I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas knows that. Who hasn't stopped at the Mad Greeks in Baker, CA just because it is the biggest piece of civilization between them? When you drive through most suburbs these days, you can pretty much count on seeing the same string of franchise eateries, motels, stores, muffler shops, and auto parts stores. Whether you drive through Atlantic City, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ohio, Wichita, Kansas, Durango, Colorado, Flagstaff, Arizona , or any other city you can think of, you will find the line up of strip malls somewhere along the road into town. Sooner or later you will spot a Ken-tac-hut, next door to a Monro Muffler, across the street from an Applebee's that is across the parking lot from the IHOP. Down near the exit will be the Super 8 motel, next door to the Motel 6, the Red Roof Inn and the Holiday Inn Express. Of all that I have mentioned above only one is a single location, one-of-a-kind place, The Mad Greek's in Baker, CA. If you have ever been there you know what I am talking about. If you haven't I highly recommend it. When you get to these parts of any city, you literally could be in any city in the USA. Sure, if you are west of the Mississippi river you are much more liklely to find a Carl's Jr. or a Jack in The Box than a Hardee's, or a Sonic, but still and all, it is a pretty homogenous thing.

There is the benefit of knowing that you will always get the same product by the same name wherever you go in the country, but at the same time where is the adventure of the journey? What is the use of leaving home if you will only continue to visit the same places expecting the same services and products wherever you go? Isn't the point of traveling to be able to try new things and to have new experiences? To me, it is useless to travel if I will have the same thing in Utah and Colorado, and Kansas and Memphis and I can have in Rochester and Buffalo. When I am in Kansas City I want KC Barbecue, I'm going to Jack Stacks, when I am in Chicago I want Deep Dish Pizza. When I am in New Orleans I want crawdads and Jambalaya, I'm gonna find the place where the locals go for them. When I am in Texas, I want some Texas Beef, slow cooked over a mesquite flame. If I am in Maine I am gonna have Lobster at every meal, and shrimp and maybe even clams! But sad to say, when I need a new pair of pants, in Billings, Montana?

Yeah I'm going to look for a Wal-Mart. I can't help it, I know they will have what I want and in the size I need. I promise I won't buy a new pair of cowboy boots there or a hat, but for the pants and shirt, yeah I'm going there.

Pluses and minuses of everything. There is a benefit to knowing what you are gonna get sometimes, but other times there is a need for the adventure, and when you have a chance to have an adventure, don't waste it on a Big Box, adventure-ize yourself and maybe learn something about your own tastes. You never know when you will find something new that you really like.

Save the taxpayer, save the world!!

Funny thing, I was watching "Heroes" this evening. ( last nights episode on DVR) and when I was too busy to get to the ad zapper button, I heard that line, in a Turbo Tax commercial. The play on the line from the first season of "Heroes", "Save the cheerleader, save the world." The "dumb" guy in the ad, Gets happy and says, "Save the taxpayer, save the world!" and the "smart" guy replies, "that doesn't even make sense." But it really does make sense.

I have been saying almost exactly that for the last few months about these bailout /stimulus packages that have been going around and through the Government like shit through a goose. While we the Taxpayers sit home worrying about paying our bills on what little money we get from unemployment, or praying like hell that we can hang onto our jobs, the Dopes that we put into office year after year, continue to forget about us and send our ( and our childrens', grandchildrens', and great-grandchildrens') money to corporations and banks that have squandered billions of dollars, and look well poised to squander billions more.

I think that the part of this whole thing that really drives me crazy is that even while all of these banks and credit issuers are going under and being bought and sold left and right, WE are still expected to continue paying our bills. The companies have changed hands three or more times and the letterhead on the statements changes each time, but we still have to write a check to the new company. It pisses me off to no end, that corporations can trade OUR debt like a commodity. It seems to me that when the original company that we made our original agreement with goes under for whatever reason, our debt is erased with the name on the letterhead. And they are not allowed to keep the name on the letterhead when the company is acquired by a bigger company just so they can continue to take our money. I have to believe that the trading of debt as an asset, is one of the reasons that we are in this mess in the first place.

One of the points that still gets my goat, but is being addresses by some new legislation, is that the credit companies can take your payments every month and apply them to the lowest interest rate first. This allows them to keep the highest interest balances collecting interest for the longest time, thereby keeping you in debt forever. Or until you win the lottery or die! Sometime in the next couple years it will become illegal for the companies to do this, they will be obliged to apply payments to the highest interest debt first. And believe it or not this legislation was passed before the changing of the regime!

Anyway, if we the taxpayer had this money we really would probably save the world. It is the consumer who brings about the growth. Giving us the money to pay our debts, will give the economic boost to the banks and credit industry, it will free up our cash to use for purchasing new cars and for other luxury items. Sadly, it will be much similar to giving the money to the corporations in that the largest amount of people will just dig the same hole that they were just pulled out of, but there may actually be enough of us who have learned something from this mess and once we get out of the hole, we will do our level best to live within our means. Sometimes it's nearly impossible, but we sure try. I was just thinking that it seems that the harder I try to save money, the more likely it is that something comes up that requires me to spend way more than I really can afford. Whether it is truck repairs, clothes or a hospital bill, somewhere I always end up with some extra bill at the exact worst time for it. Murphy really was an optimist!

SO, that's my rant for today. Not really hot, but I guess I have to continue beating this dead horse! Maybe someone will pick up the cry and take it to the steps of congress and make themselves heard.

Am I a Hypocrite?

It's not really reality TV, but it might actually be my 15 minutes. OK, so here's the story, this week there was a story all over the news about "The Best Job In The World", and for some people it really is exactly that, the best job in the world. I'm one of those people. It is a chance at a 6 month contract to live and work on an Island above the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The key here is this, the job requires that the person who gets the job be a decent photographer, film maker, and writer. Basically you need to be a communicator, who can sell your experiences to others and get them as excited as you about the stuff that you see and do. The job is public relations and marketing, with some ham and fluff thrown in to make it interesting.

There is provided living space where the candidate will live and "work" because there are certain set duties, two of which are to produce a weekly or bi-weekly blog about the experiences exploring the islands and the Reef. It requires some swimming and lots of outdoor savvy. There will be many public appearances and media relations are involved, but the main idea is to be a tourist for the length of the contract and write about it with pictures and videos. They will provide all the needed equipment and electronics, as well as a fairly open itinerary of activities.

Who is "they"? "They" are Tourism Queensland, and the job is a brand new created position the brainchild of their marketing department. They made a good move because the idea of this job has really caught fire, as of today there has been well over 2 million hits on their website since Wednesday when it first made national news here in the United States. It has actually been advertised in job listings world wide for almost 2 weeks, and most people thought that it was a hoax. But it is real.

So where is my hypocrisy , you ask? I have applied for this job! I didn't do it because it's a way to get famous, but rather because it may actually be a way into what I have long wanted to do, and that is to be some sort of travel writer. I have wanted for many years to be able to travel and to take pictures and videos and to share this with anyone who is interested. To get paid for it is the dream part. In the last 30 years of my life I have been a photographer, in the last 20 years of my life I have been a DJ and an MC, and in the last 10 years I have been working in video. I have been a writer is some way, shape, or form for at least 30 years if not more. It is as if my entire life experience has been guiding me towards this cusp in time. Just in the last 2 weeks I have actually said out loud that if given the chance I would love to be a travel writer. I have thought this for years, but only now have I actually given voice to this dream. It is almost like fate was waiting for me to say it out loud. I guess that the job requires a little measure of fame to get people interested in what I will be photographing and writing about, so this may be my hypocrisy.

The pay is not in the millions by any means, but it is sufficient to make me happy. It could be a doorway to a future, or it could end up being once in a lifetime chance to live out a dream, either way I look forward to doing this job. I just can't imagine that the universe would create this opportunity and put in in front of me , then yank it away like Lucy with the football. Every person that I know personally that I have talked to about this, agrees that there could be no better candidate for this position than me. So I will be keeping a positive thought, and when the time comes I will put the links up here so that anyone who is interested in supporting me will be able to give me some points and support. I hate to think of all the disappointed people when I get the job, but I think I will still be able to sleep at night! LOL