The Billiken's Bluff

I came across this article from the NY Times this morning. I was reminded of Edward Norton's character in Fight Club lamenting that in the future everything will belong to corporations. Planet Starbucks, The Microsoft Galaxy. Well apparently we are taking a step in that direction with Walmart attempting to create a city within the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.

I've never been to a Walmart so I may be wrong, and this may not be a cause for alarm. However, I have had extensive experience with another Mart in my neighborhood, KMart. Kmart was a terrible, terible place. It replaced a Bloomingdales, and must have lowered the property value of everything in the zip code. The Big K provided poor quality merchandise and low costs. You could save a few dollars on pampers and lawn chairs if you were willing to spend an afternoon waiting in interminably long lines.

Now I understand that Walmart has a much better reputation for quality of product and shopper satisfaction, but aren't the two stores basically the same? The one glaring difference is the type of consumer the two stores target, Kmart, positioning itself in urban areas, Walmart on the fringes of rural towns. The latter strategy has proven to be much more profitable, but it seems as if Walmart is no longer only focusing on rural communities. They are attempting to build this Supercenter in Inglewood, and 40 additional stores in California.

So what is my issue with Walmart? Let's look at the name Supercenter. It sounds large, behemoth. It's not just a supermarket, or a departmetn store or a pharmacy, but rather a Supercenter. You can put just about anything in a Supercenter. They want to build a 60 acre Supercenter in Inglewood, which would not be required to comply with city building or environmental standards. They are circumventing local authorities in Inglewood, and bringing the issue directly to the people in the form of a referendum. I'm all for the people deciding what they want in their community. I'm sure it sounds appealing as well, you really can save a lot of money, and find just about anything in a Walmart. But let's take a step back for a moment-

They pay their workers close to minimum wage. Probably the only place that a Walmart employee can actually afford to shop in is, well... Walmart. How long before they start getting into the housing business and equip their Supercenters with low cost housing for their workers? The SuperCenter, City-within-a-city is a bold idea, a grand vision, which brings to mind another grand vision,- Communism.

Their employees look happy enough, but I'm not convinced-
http://graphics.samsclub.com/wmimages/wmstores/careers_covershot.jpg