Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:15:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Brad Page
Subject: Ole’ Joe
Re: Walmart versus so-called liberals. Cheap shot, Joe. I don’t imagine the typical Walmart customer worries much about whether his vegetables or plastic toys or electronic giggaws are liberal or conservative. Pig farms ain’t liberal or conservative either but you wouldn’t want one to land in your back yard.
One main fact that’s come out about Walmart along with a fairly continuous stream of scurrilous revelations is that the CEO earns 700 times more than his average worker – for those without a pencil and paper that comes to $5075 per hour. This beats even Wall Street in executive compensation disparities and Walmart is selling large quantities of what you can get at Family Dollar or Little General (my favorites for el-cheapo stuff) without the traffic.
Like at a pig farm, I occasionally hold my nose and go shopping at Walmart in Siler City. Still a liberal though (or maybe a progressive). Most Americans shop cheap because they’re broke or near to it and when you’re feeding the kids on under $20,000 a year you go for the short sales and to hell with the long term or the large ethical considerations. Too bad. That’s just the way it is.
Oh yeah, we can do without that Walmart up on 15-501. Siler City is just fine from the view of this Pittsboro Social Security only pensioner. If you’re worried about the five or six bucks in gas it takes to trot over there you might want to drive the other way on Hwy. 64 and to 14-mile s to Hwy. 55 for a little excursion to Apex and around Beaver Creek Commons. This is the juggernaught Walmart portends and it’s aimed at the heart of Chatham County.
The main thing is that those folks are living with that concrete and glass monster of congestion and consumption because of decisions made years ago by a County Commission that definitely didn’t care about much more than the dollars coming into the county. Certainly the best interests of it’s citizens didn’t have anything to do with it.