A Commentary by Doug Draper
Hey all of you ‘soccer moms’ out there. Move over. Here come the ‘Wal-Mart moms’!
Yes, that’s right. Pollsters in the United States have now taken to calling younger mothers of voting age in the United States – particular those who shop at least once a month at Wal-Mart – Wal-Mart moms. And given that those of us living on the Canadian side of the border have a provincial, if not a federal election looming within the next 12 months, it probably won’t be long before that label migrates over here.
Until it does, we can only go by the surveys conducted to date on the American side of the border, and they so far show that Wal-Mart moms tend to be “independents” when it comes to their voting preferences. A majority of them voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections and although they say they still like Obama personally, they are disappointed and may not vote for him or his fellow Democrats in the same numbers in the future.
And why? Because the Wal-Mart moms say they don’t see enough improvement in joblessness and the overall American economy, that’s why.
Well here is something all you Wal-Mart moms on both sides of the U.S./Canada border might want to at least think about when you are fretting over the state of jobs and economy in our communities.
When you go into Wal-Mart or some other big-box discount chain stores to do your shopping, where are most of those “deals” you fill your cart with being manufactured? I think you know the answer to that question – in China, Thailand, South Korea or just about any other region in the world but North America, where the merchants selling them can profit from the cheapest labour possible.
Those good-paying manufacturing you are worrying about were outsourced to sweatshops on those countries and some of the people who used to have them here in Canada and the U.S. may even be cleaning floors and stocking shelves for a minimum wage in places like Wal-Mart now because there is hardly anywhere else left to go to making any kind of a living.
I know. Some of you are probably saying what I’ve heard so many times before from people; ‘That’s fine to suggest I should be going to independently owned stores where I might find merchandise made in Canada or the U.S. But chances are it is going to be more expensive and I’m not doing so well myself these days. That’s why I shop at Wal-Mart’.
That’s fine. But just think about what we are going to have left of a decently paid middle and working class if we all just go out and buy the cheapest stuff possible from sweatshops overseas? At the end of it all, we’ll all be working for a minimum wage at big-box discount stores.
Just something the Wal-Mart moms and the rest of the family might want to think about.
Niagara At Large welcomes you sharing your comment below on this topic. In the meantime, we also encourage you to watch the following You tube video classic called ‘Big Box Mart’ by the folks at Jib Jab by clicking on www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKv6RcXa2UI. This video should be mandatory viewing in churches and schools. If the link doesn’t work, try going to your search engine and punching in Jib Jab Big Box Mart.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents on both sides of our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
It’s not just the younger, single moms shopping at Wal-Mart these days. People of all ages, and from every income level, are buying their groceries, clothes and home electronics from Wal-Mart.
I think it’s sad and ironic that the Wal-Marts, Costcos and other box stores have closed so many small businesses and left so many people unemployed, so that the only places they can find work are at the very places that put them out of work.
And because these stores don’t pay much more than minimum wage or offer significant health care plans, employees can’t afford to shop anywhere else except places like Wal-Mart.
So these monstro-marts become the cause of, and solution to, a lot of people’s misfortunes.
If you haven’t already, I suggest you watch the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. But you’ll have to go to your local video store to rent it because I have a feeling it’s not for sale at Wal-Mart.
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Great suggestion. You can watch the doc on you tube for free (in 11 parts) here: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=3GINui9LdIQ&feature=related, or check the library. ‘The Corporation’ is also a great doc which touches on similar issues.
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Very very good! I know that Wal Mart carries so so much merchandise made outside of the U.S. and Canada. I now look at the origin of everything I buy. I do my utmost to buy things made here in the U.S. If something is made in China, I look for a similar item on the same shelf, or go elsewhere. If I can’t find my item for the same or reasonably higher cost made in the U.S. I will as a last resort, buy the item. Most of the time, I can avoid giving money to China, and feel I am doing my part to keep and or regain employment at home. I don’t have the same passion with other countries I do hold the companies who engage in slave labor, responsible for loss of employment too. American and Canadian companies who are way busy burning the midnight oil, looking for ways to get their product manufactured for less and less, and directing profits into their greedy little hands. I truly believe we can bring jobs back home. Sometimes it is more important to have a clear conscience, than saving a dollar or two.
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As with many other things, bureaucratic elites find small business “untidy” and too “bloody minded”. In the pursuit of authority over the great unwashed and the creation of a dependency class, it is only logical that a handfull of big-box operators, and big businesses generally, can be “nudged” into line whenever required. No need to play “whack-a-mole” with thousands of messy “little people”. If it means sacrificing small business owners for their politically incorrect desire to be self sufficient, so be it. Until respect for human dignity and the dream of a better future regains its primacy in Canada’s culture, we can expect no change.
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It’s a viscious cycle.
Drive to big box store. Pay for gas, car expenses, roads, street cleaning, emergency response, hospital space and all the extra costs we pay for driving automobiles and then pollute the air we breathe.
Soccer moms need to be aware that the exhaust from their vehicles go straight into kids’ faces and lungs.
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It’s a double whammy. ‘Big business’ is supported by our investments and pension plans. Do you know what your investments are supporting? Additionally, municipalities are so hungry for Wal-mart dollars that they use new box stores to promote urban sprawl. An extreme case-in-point is Hamilton’s recent promotion of the hamlet of Winona as the next Wal-Mart superstore site. So not only are we enabling job loss and poverty, but promoting fuel wasting commuting.
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And all this time I thought it was the world-wide economic shift from post-industrial societies to emerging industrial nations that started in the late 1960’s. Shame on those foreign countries (the bad guys) with their emerging economies and their sweat shops. Europe and North America (the good guys) managed to industrialize without sweat shops. Didn’t they? Thank goodness that your article pointed out that the problem is really my wife; women in general, actually. If our women would only stop going on their materialistic, giggle and gossip filled shopping trips in search of sales on lipstick and dress pumps, we’d all be better off. If only they shopped more like men; men with a soap-box.
There certainly is little to love about Wal-Mart’s business practices. And there’s something very admirable about buying local, Canadian or North American. I do it too (or try). I guess it makes me feel good. But as surely as water flows downwhill, production (and dollars) will flow towards the efficiencies. We can’t blame women for that.
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