Sunday, December 30, 2007

BROKEN CHINA

today's rant will go a seperate direction, still spewing hate towards a retail giant, but this time, the biggest of the big, the one and only Walmart. the players are different, but the end results are all the same, pushing the concept of cheap cheap cheap, damn the results of the others, we are going for the jugular.
when i was a younger man, i was enthralled by the glitz and prices of the big box seller; it was like a staple of life, get paid on friday and by saturday after work, we loaded up the car for the trip to wally world, and a few hours later, unload all the crap at home and by monday, start the cycle all over again. as i aged(ah wisdom at the expense of humor), i came to loathe Walmart; like it's ilk of previous years, Kmart, the giant was going thru growing pains, after taking ahold of an area and laying wake to all the lesser stores, the decay sets in. admit it, try to shop at any Walmart; once you get thru the door, of so-called community groups hawking popcorn or cookies, you are greeted at the door by what looks like the "crypt-keeper", freshly dug up from his tomb and propped up by the carts to scare most small children...once you get inside, and try to get past the crowds at the understaffed return/service center, you may get a cart, or at least something that even the most jaded homeless preson would even turn their noses up at. as you swerve to avoid the 450lb people, too lazy and fat to walk, who are racing up and down the aisles like a bad nascar race and their offspring who are riding bikes and scooters up and down the busy paths, maybe i didn't need that small bottle of asprin after all( i need a gun, oops, they sell them there too).all indications that most southern comedians are right, only ugly people breed..but i am not here to complain of the clientel of the famed store, but of its tactics and policies as per-se.
you see, as the great dumbing down of america takes place and henry ford is rolling over in his grave, the average median income is coming down in record time, as the average income of third world countries is going up; karl marx would really be dancing in his, knowing that socialism is alive and working very well; soon, we all will be able to afford $10,000 cars and happy meals from mcdonalds as dinner dates.so , who is single handled responsible for this raping of the america as we know it? you got it, the big happy smiling face, reminding you about the new lower prices of stuff you need, not made in america, for our best interests, bought and sold by the chinese government. you could round up in any given walmart supercenter, all american products and they wouldn't fill the men's bathroom. it is a shame, but the truth. but the same is happening in our own industry as well, look at the contents of the parts you sell, in the interests of the ever budgetminded consumers, the value priced items, are all made in the land of the big red flag as well; hell, even general motors has said, 25% of its parts content, will be made in china.now, it stands to reason, with a population of over a billion people, the consumer market place china represents, is way larger than here and europe combined; so it makes sense, if you are going to build it there anyway, spread the costs all over; just good business sense. but from a country who blanantly reverse engineers a bmw and calls it something else, some thing is lost in the fit and finish and quality as a whole; cheap knock offs, no matter where made, are still jsut that, cheap knock-offs.
whether you shop at Target, Autozone, Krogers, or even my own store, if we just made a consious effort to buy and demand, quality made products, not just american made ones, we all will live happier and perhaps a more enrichened one as well.

No comments: