Wal-Mart is attempting to open a new store in my neighborhood, and unsurprisingly, my left-leaning enclave is vehemently opposed to a Wal-Mart colonization. There have been protests and meetings and people in Birkenstocks standing on corners handing out fliers and requesting that I honk my horn in support. The usual.
In the neighborhood newsletter that I received earlier this week, it seems as though they are making traffic the focus of their concerns (most likely in an attempt to sound sane and practical). The site of the proposed Wal-Mart is a decrepit, semi-vacant strip mall off one corner of a 5-point (possibly 6-point -- it's a bit of a cluster) intersection. Using the logic that a new Wal-Mart would increase traffic at an already busy intersection, it seems as though my neighbors don't want any successful business to move into the strip mall and revitalize it. Although, I can pretty much guarantee you that they wouldn't be protesting a Trader Joe's or a Target or a Whole Foods or a giant tofu market. Just the Wal-Mart. Because Wal-Mart is evil ... and fascist, according to some of the literature being dispersed. My husband saw this and asked me how Wal-Mart is fascist and to define "fascism". That's easy: anything opposed by liberals and leftists is fascism.
I am actually conflicted about the Wal-Mart. On the one hand, I love to piss off these kinds of people. And I love me some discounts. Which brings me to the other hand -- the Wal-Mart would displace my thrift store and as I sit here in my $4 sweater, $1 t-shirt and $3 shoes, that makes me sad. Such is free enterprise -- which is not fascist, but don't tell my neighbors that because they wouldn't understand the actual definition of fascism. If only the city/county had seized the strip mall using eminent domain to give it to Wal-Mart, these anti-commerce hippies would have my support.
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