I shop at Wal-Mart. All the time. Whether it's for groceries or household items, Wal-Mart is my destination for one-stop shopping. Being a middle-class, college student on a tight budget, it's one of the only places I can go to obtain extremely affordable goods. But after reading the short selections from the book, two of which center fully on Wal-Mart, I feel rather guilty for shopping there and, more importantly, choosing to be an uninformed consumer. I might have heard about the evils of Wal-Mart in passing, and I could have chose to look more into it and modify my shopping habits, but instead, I turned the other cheek. I thought that these readings were so interesting and enlightening. It's shocking to learn about how full-time employees are working for poverty-level incomes without benefits or health coverage. Equally sad is how the company is taking out other retailers and pushing them into bankruptcy. I can definitely understand how some people refer to the place as "Sprawl Mart." These latest readings coupled with the ones on sweatshops and free trade have been very informing. Now, since I have a better idea of where my money is going, I feel like I can make better choices about how and where to shop.
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After reading chapter 2 I had the exact same feeling. The sad part is that I think we all already knew a lot about sweatshops and where our clothes came from before we read the chapter. Its as if we don't even want to admit it to ourselves that we as consumers have not been completely ignorant. Whether we were ignorant or not, the real question is, are we going to do something about it? Are we really going to stop shopping at Wal-Mart? Will we really make better choices? Maybe some of us will, but the sad reality seems to favor the majority wanting the lowest prices at any cost. Even so, I truly do feel some inspiration to look at a label before I purchase anything in the future.
So are you saying that you are going to quit shopping at Wal-Mart and other big name stores because of the manner in which they produce their goods? You're going to go out of your way to spend more time and money for essentially the same products? I find it extremely hard to believe that someone who is accustomed to buying goods from coorperations which outsource work can all of a sudden decide to quit shopping there. I don't really see any difference between buying whatever from Wal-Mart after becoming informed about what the company does from buying their stuff before.
I actually felt the same guilt you felt about Wal-Mart. I have to admit that i too have heard negative comments about Wal-Mart's practices in passing but who could be those prices! Through this chapter and its very informative look at a my once beloved "wal-mart", I feel like a more aware consumer. The label matters to me now because i know now there's a story behind those unbelieveably low prices.
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