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Truer words
Nov. 30th, 2005 09:08 am...were never spoken...
From the comments of a Huffington Post entry on Wal-Mart:
Of course, that forces the admission that, yes, I have been in the Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday night. When you live in a one-Starbucks town like Pensacola, if you are not into the bar/dance club scene, your options for entertainment are few on a weekend night, as the only places that stay open later than 9 PM are Books-A-Million, Barnes & Nobles, Wal-Mart, and a few grocery and convenience stores. When you've had too many lattes or frappes at the bookstores, you need somewhere to walk off the sugar and caffeine. There used to be some nice coffee houses scattered around town but they change hands so quickly that the cozy coffee place you went to one week turns into the Goth smoking club the next--which was rather interesting, but I couldn't take the smoke. The one place we used to enjoy hanging out and talking, drinking coffee, listening to music, having a dessert, has been variously the Art Bar and R Place and some bistro and is currently closed.
Anyway, the most horrific trend lately I've been seeing at Wal-Mart--and it spills over into the malls--is that of people wearing house slippers at the stores, mostly at Wal-Mart. I'm not talking about flip-flops, or even leather/pleather-topped slippers with a rubber sole. No, I'm talking about people wearing fuzzy slippers with cloth soles--clearly designed to be worn only around the house--out and about. And I'm not talking about the morbidly obese shoppers who ride around in the carts with swollen ankles, I'm talking about people of all ages, clearly mobile and hale, wearing bunny slippers and the like at the store. It just screams "trailer trash" -- which is a horribly unfair term, since I have known people who lived in trailers, some of which were quite nice (both the trailers and the people)--but you get the drift of what I mean with the term. It's like a new Redneck fashion statement, up there with the mullet.
And while I'm on Wal-Mart, to just record some thoughts stirred up by the post in question, it's not just Wal-Mart, it's all the big franchises that roll into a small town that tend to destroy the local businesses. A block away, there is a little strip mall in the middle of my residential area. It used to be the perfect little neighborhood shopping place. The big store was a small mom and pop grocery store (Piggly Wiggly? Red and White? I can't remember the name. Reynard, do you remember?) that sold the staples, had a real butcher in the back, and was a truly convenient place for when you were baking and didn't realize you were out of butter or eggs. Next to the little grocery store was a locally-owned pharmacy, with all kinds of notions and sundries in the front. And around the corner from that was a beauty salon. On the other side of the grocery store was a florist, a bakery/coffee shop, and a Tru-Value hardware store. Absolutely perfect. For your immediate needs, you were covered.
Now what is there? Two empty stores, 3 different churches (all Southern Baptist variants, each with a tiny congregation), an antique store, and a clock repairman.
Even the large regional chains are slowly dying. In the South we have "Winn Dixie" and "Delchamps" hanging on by a thread.
From the comments of a Huffington Post entry on Wal-Mart:
Everything that is wrong with this country can be witnessed in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart on a Saturday night.
Of course, that forces the admission that, yes, I have been in the Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday night. When you live in a one-Starbucks town like Pensacola, if you are not into the bar/dance club scene, your options for entertainment are few on a weekend night, as the only places that stay open later than 9 PM are Books-A-Million, Barnes & Nobles, Wal-Mart, and a few grocery and convenience stores. When you've had too many lattes or frappes at the bookstores, you need somewhere to walk off the sugar and caffeine. There used to be some nice coffee houses scattered around town but they change hands so quickly that the cozy coffee place you went to one week turns into the Goth smoking club the next--which was rather interesting, but I couldn't take the smoke. The one place we used to enjoy hanging out and talking, drinking coffee, listening to music, having a dessert, has been variously the Art Bar and R Place and some bistro and is currently closed.
Anyway, the most horrific trend lately I've been seeing at Wal-Mart--and it spills over into the malls--is that of people wearing house slippers at the stores, mostly at Wal-Mart. I'm not talking about flip-flops, or even leather/pleather-topped slippers with a rubber sole. No, I'm talking about people wearing fuzzy slippers with cloth soles--clearly designed to be worn only around the house--out and about. And I'm not talking about the morbidly obese shoppers who ride around in the carts with swollen ankles, I'm talking about people of all ages, clearly mobile and hale, wearing bunny slippers and the like at the store. It just screams "trailer trash" -- which is a horribly unfair term, since I have known people who lived in trailers, some of which were quite nice (both the trailers and the people)--but you get the drift of what I mean with the term. It's like a new Redneck fashion statement, up there with the mullet.
And while I'm on Wal-Mart, to just record some thoughts stirred up by the post in question, it's not just Wal-Mart, it's all the big franchises that roll into a small town that tend to destroy the local businesses. A block away, there is a little strip mall in the middle of my residential area. It used to be the perfect little neighborhood shopping place. The big store was a small mom and pop grocery store (Piggly Wiggly? Red and White? I can't remember the name. Reynard, do you remember?) that sold the staples, had a real butcher in the back, and was a truly convenient place for when you were baking and didn't realize you were out of butter or eggs. Next to the little grocery store was a locally-owned pharmacy, with all kinds of notions and sundries in the front. And around the corner from that was a beauty salon. On the other side of the grocery store was a florist, a bakery/coffee shop, and a Tru-Value hardware store. Absolutely perfect. For your immediate needs, you were covered.
Now what is there? Two empty stores, 3 different churches (all Southern Baptist variants, each with a tiny congregation), an antique store, and a clock repairman.
Even the large regional chains are slowly dying. In the South we have "Winn Dixie" and "Delchamps" hanging on by a thread.
