The other side of the story ….

There’s been a lot of yakking lately about Wal-Mart’s attempt to clean up its image with a positive public relations site. I can’t say I blame them. What began as a home-grown discount store has become the modern Monster In The Closet invoked to frighten small town businesses and the at-large liberal citizenry across the country. But in keeping with the I See Invisible People theme, I’m going to tell you the other side of the story.

I grew up in the heartland, in Spencer, Clay County, Iowa, the biggest little burg for 100 miles around. With a population of under 10,000, it was (and still is) a farming support community for the surrounding area. Most of the small towns in the county are lucky if they have one grocery store, let alone a supermarket. “Main Street” probably has 1 or 2 drug stores, a couple of cafés, a bank and maybe a handful of bars on the edge of town. The average resident has been there 50 years and at least 3 generations. It’s the original “where everybody knows your name” location. Mom & Pop shops are the rule, not the exception. We got our first fast food outlet in 1975, a Hardees. There was no chain supermarket in town until 1977, and then it was met with outrage for being open on Sunday. Until K-Mart arrived about 1978, Sernetts was the only department store in the county.

That calls up a warm and fuzzy image, doesn’t it? Unless you live there, and your name isn’t considered “good.” Or if you’re poor, divorced, the wrong religion, handicapped, etc and don’t fit the “upstanding citizen” mold for one reason or another. Then it’s a sucking swamp of closed doors and low expectations. Even a cousin or grandparent in one of the previous categories is enough to get you tagged as “bad business.” Good luck getting Mom or Pop to hire you to work in one of those few establishments then.

Though it’s invisible to the urban centers, rural poverty wears a different face but hurts just as much. Local businesses have little if any competition, which keeps prices high. They also have little competition in hiring, which keeps wages and benefits low. Still, in such a closed system, retail is considered a Good Job. Anything over minimum wage–if you can find it–is something to be grateful for. The result is a lifestyle gap where a whole lot of folks can’t even make ends meet, let alone get ahead.

Now imagine that little town gets a Wal-Mart. The human resources department there doesn’t care if your last name is good or bad in town. They don’t pass judgment on your divorce, your religion or your skin color. All they care about is can you do the job. They pay over minimum wage with chances for advancement, and glory be, they give you health insurance. Is it any wonder that their arrival is met with applicant queues a week long?

That’s on the income side. The outgo side is just as attractive. Suddenly you don’t have to pay $2.30 for a loaf of bread at the one grocery store in town. That store has competition. If they don’t try to compete, you can buy your groceries at Wal-mart and discover your paycheck goes 50% further. You might even get off food stamps. You can buy your kids new shoes for $10 instead of $40 on Main Street. Oh yeah, you can hear the painful squeals from here, can’t you. But for poor folks, Wal-mart can be the difference between breaking even and slipping even farther behind.

Yes, I’m aware that I’m breaking the Liberal Code here, but while Wal-Mart is referred to as the great monopoly, but they upset quite a few unpleasant traditions along the way, too.

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