Wal-Mart is at it again… yesterday, they closed the Super Wal-Mart in my town and moved four miles away into a new Wal-Mart SuperCenter.

Why? The old Wal-Mart was perfectly good, the building can’t be more than 10 years old, yeah traffic is a pain in the ass during the Christmas season, but it is everywhere. It’s a perfectly good Wal-Mart any other time of year. Heck, they even repainted the building last year!

I have a love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart. I hate going to Wal-Mart, I hate the crowds, I hate the dumb rednecks that go there. I hate the self-service checkout lanes. But I like the prices. Why should I spend more for an item I can get cheaper at Wal-Mart? It’s not that I can’t afford to shop in more expensive places, it’s just that I have this strong desire to actually save money for my eventual retirement to Hawaii.

Now, there’s a couple of things I would never buy at Wal-Mart: gas and groceries. When I think of Wal-Mart, those two things never pop up in my mind. For groceries, I go to my local grocery store (in my case, Publix); for gas, I stop at a gas station (likely BP or QuikTrip). People say you can save money on your groceries by buying at Wal-Mart. That may be so, but Wal-Mart is annoying. It’s loud, it’s full of obnoxious out-of-control kids, dumbass rednecks, and incompetent employees. I’d much rather head to my local grocery store where it’s almost relaxing to shop!

One good thing that came of Wal-Mart selling food was that my Publix couldn’t compete with the Wal-Mart traffic and actually moved closer to my house, and now thrives.

Some folks, like Utopia, believe that Wal-Mart is the downfall of our economy. I agree with the result: the Wal-Mart is bad for the economy, but I don’t agree with how she gets there. The argument is that the more money Wal-Mart makes, the less people have to spend. That’s simply not true. People would spend the same amount of money on stuff if they shopped at Wal-Mart, or at conventional stores. However, they buy more at Wal-Mart, because it stretches their dollar further. The more folks buy, the more Wal-Mart relies on it’s overseas partners to produce stuff, which causes job loss.

So, it’s not that people have less to spend… it’s that they have no job with which to earn money to spend. The real price gouging comes from the gas and oil companies after a time of crisis (war, hurricanes, etc). After three consecutive months of record profits, you’d think someone would step in… but that’s for another post. We’re talking about Wal-Mart here.

Another problem, which is downplayed in Utopia’s argument, is people living beyond their means. More people do it than people who don’t. In this world of “gotta have it now”, eBay, No Interest Financing, Internet Shopping, and Wal-Mart, people want to have everything bigger and better than their neighbor. I should know, I fell victim to this a couple months ago, getting a big-screen TV that’s 5 inches bigger than my good friend, Whitey’s. The difference is, I can afford it. I have a decent paying job, my car is paid off, I’m not married and I don’t have any kids (that I know of).

In one of my many prior lives, I sold cars for a living. I sold cars to people who had payments bigger than my house payment! I remember selling a brand new truck to a guy, and he was happy that his truck payment was going to be “only” $838 a month… for five six years. If that’s not living beyond one’s means, I don’t know what is. Is it really necessary to have a brand new vehicle every couple of years? Buy a car and pay it off! Drive around for free for a couple of years, save up what you would have spent in car payments and use it as a down payment on your next car! Buy cars in cash! They’re a losing “investment”.

Let’s also look at the housing market. Here in Georgia, it’s cheaper to buy a place than to rent. But people are buying houses that are over a quarter of a million dollars and they’re putting three people in the house! One person I know, “Blondie”, who’s making not much more than I am, and is living in this very situation! She’s the only wage earner in the household, so on top of the monster house payment, she has a new car, pays all the bills, and then wonders why she has no money at the end of the month! My house cost half of hers brand new, my car is paid for, and I can afford things like the big screen TV.

Wal-Mart is definitely not the consumers friend, but it’s also not the only evil out there. The “keeping up with the Joneses” is just as big of a problem. It’s all about your priorities in life. Learn to live within your means. Be humble. It takes people years to acquire nice things… you don’t need it all at once.

TheBisch

This cartoon also derives the same wrong message, but shows my point exactly… “My house is full of crap now, it used to be empty!”

Oh Big Box Mart! My paycheck reminds me… your everyday low prices have a price, they aren’t free!

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