I sold my soul to Walmart for $30
I did something really bad last week…something I swore I would never do. But I didn’t feel like I had a reasonable choice. I feel compelled to come clean because I’ve been so outspoken about this to pretty much everyone, so I kind of feel like a fraud now.
I went to Walmart.
I hate walmart. I haven’t been to, or bought anything from walmart in at least 7 years. I never was a huge walmart fan, but I used to get my oil changed there, and they had good black bean and corn salsa, so I’d go in a couple of times a year. People make fun of the “people of walmart” (ie. other customers) and state that as a reason they don’t want to go there (especially around the 1st of the month), but “those people” never bothered me – probably because the walmarts that I went to were never very busy and were in nicer suburbs. Plus, I don’t generally concern myself with other people when I’m shopping.
I don’t have many hard facts to back up why I hate walmart, but since its my opinion, I don’t have too. I hate how they are everywhere. A new one just opened near our house this year, despite the fact that there are 3 others within 4 miles of our house. Our house isn’t on a major bus line, so it’s not like they are trying to reach a population that isn’t capable of driving 4 miles to the nearest store. There are also 2 Target stores, a Kroger marketplace, and a Meijer on a 2 mile stretch on the same road (all of these stores carry the same categories) along with many other stores. In total, there are 15 Walmart stores within 20 miles. NOT NECESSARY!!!!!
So other than the complete overkill of Walmart stores around Columbus, I think they make a lot of crap products. (maybe they have a lot of good things too) Cheaper isn’t usually better – cheap items from China break easily…but Americans are all about instant gratification. We want to spend less so we can have it all right now – even if we have to replace things constantly! Other reasons I don’t like Walmart? I have a relative who worked there for years and they treat their employees so crappy. They keep almost everyone “just” under full-time status so they don’t have to pay benefits, but they don’t pay a “living wage” either, so if that is the sole income for a family, they are going to need/qualify for government assistance…which costs taxpayers money. Even full-time employees make such low wage that they may need government assistance. Considering they are the largest private employer, that’s a lot of employees that are probably struggling. But it saves Walmart money, and that’s definitely more important to them – to the tune of 17 billion profit last year. They also claim to be environmentally-friendly, but it’s found to be mostly green-washing and they aren’t making a huge effort to change (just enough that they can spout some figures of their progress). I could continue to site resources that show how sucky Walmart is, but that wasn’t the purpose of this post.
Oh yeah…I went to Walmart. Why?
I wanted portable hanging file boxes so I could organize some papers. After spending way too much time looking for the type I wanted, I narrowed it down to the Sterilite brand because those are the ones that I found that were the right size and could stack and they aren’t crazy expensive. The problem is that I couldn’t find them anywhere for a reasonable price…other than Walmart…and I was searching online for at least an hour. They were being sold for double the price everywhere else I looked, and I would have had to buy them in a four pack, instead of just 2 like I wanted – which would have quadrupled my cost ($40 instead of $10). I told Lo my huge predicament…and he asked how much I was willing to sell my soul for. Apparently, $30.
So I went to the new Walmart that is going to ruin our neighborhood because its eventually going to close because there was no need for it in the first place (hopefully long after we have moved). I felt a little dirty and shameful the whole time I was there. The worst part about it is that I didn’t just grab my cheap plastic file boxes and get out of there. You see, I’ve been hoping to get to a store to take advantage of some after-Christmas sales for decorations and such for next year because we have less of that stuff than I would like, and next year Jenson will actually care about Christmas. I waited too long, so most stores had very little (worthwhile) items left (according to a local facebook group). However, since no one goes to this Walmart because it isn’t needed, there was a TON of stuff at 75% off (conveniently located at the front of the store). So I bought Christmas stuff. More than I wanted/should’ve/needed. Not that it won’t get used, but upon reflection, I realize that I fell into Walmart’s trap of getting people to buy a bunch of crap because it’s so cheap. I spent more than the $40 that I would have had to have spend had I bought a 4 pack of those boxes elsewhere. And I’m sure I would have found use for the other 2 boxes. I wasted WAY too much time debating going to Walmart and being AT Walmart (and now writing this post).
It took me forever to find the aisle where these boxes were even sold because the store is so huge and not set up in an intuitive way – I had to walk through the whole store, minus the grocery part (and there weren’t any employees around to ask). And when I found the boxes, they were fine – what I wanted, but yes, slightly lesser quality than I would have preferred (though still completely usable). I should have ditched my already full cart and ran out of there. But I didn’t. I checked out guiltily, and slunk into the house slightly ashamed with a bunch of too-tiny bags that only had 1 or 2 items in each bag because the cashier was too interested in telling me about his childhood Christmas book than paying attention to how he was packing the bags. Lo looked at my haul of bags and asked incredulously if I just bought a bunch of stuff at Walmart. I gave him my Christmas sale excuse, knowing that it wasn’t a very good reason and that he was silently judging me…seeing me as one of “them”. But he was gracious enough to just ask if I wanted him to bring me a storage bin so I could put the stuff away for next year, and he left it at that. I even tried to pretend that it was no big deal that I just did something that I swore I never would do by exclaiming to him how cheap some of the things were that we “needed”, as I unpacked the bags. I believe that I even said that I may even go back once they reduce the Christmas stuff to 90% off. But I won’t. I honestly still feel crappy and embarrassed about selling my soul to Walmart for $30. I know it’s not a big deal and my purchase isn’t going to singlehandedly ensure success for the company, but I’ve been so outspoken against Walmart that I feel super guilty. Is it worth gathering up a bunch of small items to return them (if they even will take them back)? No. I’m just going to cut my loses, chalk it up to a lesson learned, and reclaim my soul from Walmart. And every year when I unpack Christmas stuff, I’ll hopefully be reminded to be more mindful of my purchases.