I have never been a fan, or even a more than occasional patron, of Walmart. I find their products to be of questionable to crappy quality, and their loyal customers, for the most part, to be trailer trash or just too cheap for words. Harsh? Uh-huh, extremely harsh, but the kind of low prices and discounting that have been the foundation of the Walmart building empire can only really come from underpaying employees and cornering markets in an effort to stamp out retail options for local residents. A lot has been said, and will be said again, about Walmart’s generous and competitive wages, opportunities for employee advancement and their benefits packages. Little is said about the fact that most employees are not full-time anyway, the rather sexist way employees are promoted, or not, and that the benefits it provides, health insurance for example, are so meager that in the state of Iowa for example the largest working group that makes use of state funded health care programs is Walmart employees and their families. Will used to joke that a person couldn’t go into a Walmart, day or night, and not find at least one customer with visibly missing teeth. He wasn’t really joking though because the two  or three times we ever went into a Walmart during our entire marriage, sure enough, we encountered toothless patrons. I know people will scoff and call me an elitist. I don’t really care. Walmart does not deserve my patronage or my money ,and I am ashamed to say that since moving to Canada, I have had to shop multiple times at their store as it is just about the only thing going in this town. Not the only thing, Rob’s younger daughter would argue and she is right, but for width and breadth of goods, pretty dang close.

I have read more than one article about the “evil ways” of Walmart. While I don’t dispute them, it is only fair to point out that all retailers take advantage of their employees to one extent or another, but every time I think I have heard it all where Walmart is concerned I manage to be shocked and deeply ashamed of ever having crossed the Walmart threshold all over again. This evening the “cover story” gracing MSNBC was the revelation that Walmart’s Mexican grocery stores are employing fourteen to sixteen year olds as baggers for tips only. Though it is apparently a deeply regretted custom that has managed to survive the unenlightened days of yore. How “yore” is my question, and if it is regretted why does the Mexican government allow it to continue? Regardless, it is clearly wrong to profit off of what is basically the exploitation of children. Not that Walmart is too concerned about that since they were last fined for breaking U.S. child labor laws as recently as 2005 according to this same article for “24 child-labor violations. Some of the accusations involved minors who operated forklifts, chain saws and other potentially dangerous equipment.”

In the face of this most recent article, I can’t be as nonchalant about my occasionally lapses anymore. Walmart is not somewhere a person can shop in good conscious. They don’t treat their workers with respect and dignity due all persons when they hire themselves out as labor. They look out for the bottom line, and the personal fortunes of Sam Walton’s heirs. But isn’t that what all businesses do? Sure and when I read about their flagrant abuses, I will reassess my patronage of them too. For today though, I have more than enough information to safely cross this retailer off my shopping list.