I may be a greeter there one day

George F. Will : Another bender of liberal indignation
If Wal-Mart doesn't pay its employees enough, how come so many people have been applying for a chance to work in one of its stores?
George F. Will, Washington Post
Published: September 14, 2006


This was an interesting article by George. We’re Wal-Mart shoppers. We like the proximity of it, the prices, the convenience of one-stop shopping for all our needs, the comfort level, the selections; in other words, the whole package. (although, not all Wal-Marts are created equal, the one’s we visit in Maple Grove and Buffalo are nicer than some we’ve been in)

I’m thinking more about this type of stuff due to the recent decision that I know Surly Dave made in switching to a new blog server because of the practices/policies of Google. I don’t know that I’ve ever made any major consumer purchasing decisions based on the politics or social activities of any merchant/manufacturer/retailers out there today. I don’t know if people are just wired to be concerned with that type of decision making process, or if it’s a learned behavior. I imagine it’s like love---it’s not a feeling, but it’s an act of your will, to purposefully choose to love someone through the good and bad.

Should I purposefully choose to look at every single purchasing decision I make and decide based on whether I agree with the companies socio/political stands on issues? I guess I have made some decisions like that, but not very many. I choose not to buy the daily newspaper any longer because the StarTrib pisses me off on a daily basis; but I still check them out on-line because I want to see the local news. I swore I’d never buy Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream because they’re a couple of extreme liberal yahoos. (Mocha-momma loved their chunk fudge, I think the basic reason we don’t buy it though is because they’re so darn expensive, no ice cream is worth their prices) I can’t think of any other examples. We just shop at or buy where we get the best deals.

An off-shoot of this would be in regard to celebrities and performers. I would refuse to watch or pay money that would benefit particular individuals in the entertainment industry. I’d never go see a Michael Moore movie. On the other hand, I might still go see a George Clooney movie—I’ve liked him in some of his movies, can’t stand his politics. I’ve been a Springsteen fan since college: love his music, disappointed in his current dive into liberal politics.

I’m going to have to think about this some more and determine how serious I want to get about making these types of decisions. I just remembered one more great example---I did stop watching the Teletubbies after learning they were a secret front for the GLBT.