A good word to learn… “Aldi’s”
This is a problem in our town as well. The Wal-Mart is right on the edge of town and the town is too small to have a bus system. Luckily, there is a quite inexpensive grocery store right in town and I have noticed a little van that brings elderly people there because it would still be too far for some people to walk. The food there is okay, not anything fancy, and I think that store will continue to be successful. The people working there are very helpful, they take groceries out for people that need help, etc. It has had competition from another large inexpensive grocery on the edge of town for many years now.
I wonder if the success of this depends on the size of the town and how many people come into the town to shop. Our town is about 10,000 people and then the surrounding rural area adds a lot to that. And the surrounding towns are smaller until you go, oh, 30 miles away. I wish I could remember what the organization was that was working with smaller merchants. I don’t know if it was just in Iowa or what.
I know I come across as loving Wal-Mart. That really isn’t it. I don’t enjoy my trips there. I think they are ugly, they often don’t have the same thing twice, etc. Smaller, more personal stores, are much more charming in many cases—although we have some small stores here that definitely lack charm. But I just think that the citizens of communities have made it a success and now it’s popular to run it down. I guess they would say they wouldn’t shop there if there were other places but apparently the majority doesn’t feel that way. They have chosen to limit variety in favor of saving money. In my town, I could, by going to a lot of little more expensive stores, probably get what I buy at Wal-Mart. But I don’t, so I don’t feel I can blame Wal-Mart since I shop there. That’s really my main problem and others might be in a different situation.
I agree with what others have said about this (the death of the “little man”) having been going on a long time and not totally being Walmart’s fault. In the small town I live in, the locally owned small pharmacy closed years ago after KMart and Walgreens came to town - but nobody made much of a fuss. The local 5 and 10 store closed then, too - and everyone just said it was a dinosaur whose time had come. The local hardware stores either closed or adapted their services long before a Walmart was rumored. But when WalMart wanted to come to town a couple of years ago, oh, the furor! Why, no one would be able to compete! Maybe that’s true, but I think people failed to see that it had been happening for a long time. It’s still sad, but it’s the world we live in.
Now, it’s the Shopko I see suffering because WalMart opened. Shopko isn’t as big of a chain as WalMart, but they’re certainly not a local family run business. While the small stores downtown, like the clothing store that’s been in business over 120 years, keep going on because they have a loyal customer base and they offer what Walmart doesn’t.
I’m not defending Walmart either, though I’m not ashamed to admit that I do a fair bit of shopping there. I just don’t think it’s the bastion of evil that some see it as.
I shopped at Walmart once.
It was after searching all over for a pair of cheap Wellington style boots to wear when out wildcrafting herbs.
Walmart had some in the boys shoe dept. in 3 different colors. As I was trying them on to see which ones fit my wide feet the best a lady walked up and asked me if there was a special sale going on for the boots.
Before I could answer a herd of people desended into the shoe department and began frantically trying on boots.
It became such a mad house that I decided I’d buy the pair of boots I still had on my feet.
At the cash register 3 people in line asked me what the price was of those boots.
They each gave me a funny stare when I admitted I didn’t know. I just needed the boots and I really didn’t care what they cost as long as they fit.
On the way out of store there were two people with disability plates on their SUVs having a screaming match over who would get the last disability parking place.
I hope those boots last me a long long time.
I ain’t going back for more.
This is a very good and thought-provoking thread.
I am enjoying it.
I do the majority of my shopping at Wal-Mart, and a small bit at the local grocery (enough to score a free turkey at Christmas!). I am not going to apologize about it. Quite frankly, in my life: Time is a precious commodity… If I can run into one store and find all the various things I need in one trip AND at BETTER PRICES than I would if I spent my time and money running around going to different stores, not to mention the parking and cost of gas, then sorry but that’s where I am going to do the bulk of my shopping.
As far as the quality of the grocery items, that’s up to you. I could find prettier tomatoes maybe, at Kroger, but I’m not going to make a special trip there to buy 2 tomatoes if I am buying all my other (canned and non-perishable, or frozen) foods at WalMart. Either I’ll buy what WalMart has available, or simply not buy tomatoes. (Actually, I am growing some) Same goes with everything else. Why would one advocate spending sometimes twice the price on a bottle of the identical brand aspirin, for example, just to be able to say “Thank God I don’t shop at WalMart” ~ yeah right.
I was particularly impressed with the guy who was in line in front of me at WalMart not too long ago. He had all sorts of derogatory things to say about the place. Yet he was shopping there! My point being, let’s see everyone who has a gripe with WalMart quit shopping there… 
M
Congratualtions to Whistlin’ Dixie, who is one of the few Americans I have ever seen here who knew the difference between “then” and “than”. (Sorry, one of my pet peeves).
The Walmart here has Clover Leaf Flake White Tuna on for less than half the price charged at the no-name brand grocery stores, which are cheaper than the Big Chain grocery stores. The large jugs of Tropicana orange juice (no pulp) are also less than half the price elsewhere. This is adding up into big dollars quickly - saved $2 per tin of tuna and saved $5 per jug o’ juice.
Yay, Walmart!
djm
I have religious beliefs against capitalism, so a part of where my reservations come from. At the same time, I am preparing to go to Walmart this evening to buy wire cutters (the hardware store is closed for the holiday). sigh
I don’t blame WalMart for using Capitalism to it’s own advantage (at least not entirely, since that is the system we use here in the US). I suppose part of my problem is that I am not a Capitalist, and totally abhor the system in general. But I do concede that the have the right to do exactly what they are doing. My biggest problem with them is that they deliberately take on new product lines in order to drive out competition. This seems to go a bit above and beyond in my opinion. Why not just compete like the other shops do? Why do they have to make sure that they drive every mom and pop shop out of town? That’s what I really don’t like.
Oooo…I hate that too!!! I searched for ages to find a grammar book for my kids that outlined when to use each of them, just because I didn’t want them getting it wrong. 
Same here.
My name is Congratulations, I am an English major, and I approve this message.
In popular usage, those two words are identical. I see no problem using them together or as substitues for each other as long as it’s not in an academic paper or somesuch. Then again, I’m a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. My observations lead me to believe that English majors tend to be prescriptivists.
In the trailer court, perhaps, or at the bowling alley, or behind the counter at Taco Bell, but in general usage, they are separate and distinct words, each with its own proper meaning and place.
Than is used to contrast things, as in “Bigger than a breadbox” or “His grammar is better than your grammar.”
Then is used to describe a relationship in time or consequence, as in “If this be treason, then let us make the most of it” or “First open the dictionary; then look up then.”
To fail to recognize them as such can only be ascribed to either indolence or ignorance.
My observations lead me to believe that those who either don’t care enough or don’t know enough to make the distinction tend to hide behind the label “descriptivist.”
And while we are on the subject of sloppy pronunciation begetting sloppy writing, seeing or hearing could of and would of instead of could have and would have just make me want to pound a nail into someone’s forehead.
Merciful Goddess, let him be wrong!
Calling our pronunciation and spelling “sloppy,” implying that we’re all ignorant, and saying we live in a “trailer court” so negatively is nothing short of xenophobia. I hope you’re ashamed.
I know the difference between than and then. I’ve also observed them to have been used interchangeably in Elizabethan spelling.
Mine and your speech is closer to Elizabethan speech than any other, supposedly.
But since I’m such an ignorant fool who can’t say words properly, please don’t trust me.
OK. How about this – It’s just plain wrong.
I did not imply you were ignorant. You, however, seem to have inferred it.
At no point did I say anyone lived in a trailer court. I merely implied that the linguistic standards of same were perhaps less exacting than those of the more educated world.
If fearing for the language when it is left in the hands of slack-jawed mumblers is xenophobia, then let us make the most of it.
Much less ashamed than you would think, thank you.
If one is bothered by xenophobes, does that make one xenophobophobic?
I’ve decided that if you are the Pope, I am Martin Luther.
Who wants to be my nun bride?