From the "Now Why Doesn't It Surprise Me That This Happened At Wal-Mart?" Files
Checkout line scuffle. Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm just being the "pretentious elitist liberal" that conservatives like to say about folks like me. Call the Sarah Palin "Real America" victim hotline.
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3 comments:
Funny thing is, while reading 'The Citizen Solution', where he talks about the value of and need for public spaces, my mind immediately went to our local Wal-Mart parking lot, which I'd argue is one of the more utilized publc social spaces in the small rural town where I live. If you are in a hurry, you don't park on the north side of the parking lot, because from sun-up till sun-down there is an everchanging congregation of locals discussing the local events of the day, and should you get sucked into that asphalt-laced milieu, you will not escape anytime soon! Anyone is welcome to pull up a tailgate and stay for as long as they want, and the only people who miss out on the value of this important public space are the ones who are too snooty to go to Wal-Mart!
Eric - Oh, I'm not to snooty to go to Wal-Mart. My family frequents the place with some regularity. It's just that I'm not surprised that these kinds of things happen at the Wal-Mart. I've read more stories about incidents like these at Wal-Marts than I care to, which makes me not only wonder about why, but also to not be surprised when the next similar story surfaces. There's something about the big-box discount stores, I think, that unleashes a bit of incivility in some people. The Wal-Marts here in the metropolitan area, though, don't have that congregational element to it that your local Wal-Mart seems to have.
Speaking of the Citizen Solution, I've been remiss in my duty on that one. I'll have to write to the club and just suggest we move on the next selection. The Citizen Solution was good, but I don't think it inspired as much interest as Nudge did. Perhaps the next selection will re-ignite the engines of the club.
"The Wal-Marts here in the metropolitan area, though, don't have that congregational element to it that your local Wal-Mart seems to have."
This is true. Our Wal-Mart is not a supercenter, in fact it is the smallest floorplan that Wal-Mart ever implemented. The square footage is actually so small that it greatly inflates our store's profit-per-square-footage ratio (supposedly an important metric within Wal-Mart management) so that this metric compares favorably with the larger, more profitable stores, thus keeping our tiny little store from being shuttered (a factoid I learned a few weeks ago, whilst hanging around the north side of the parking lot).
"It's just that I'm not surprised that these kinds of things happen at the Wal-Mart."
Well, I'm not surpised something like this would happen ANYWHERE a person cuts in front of a bunch of others in a retail store line and then starts screaming about racism when confronted.
"There's something about the big-box discount stores, I think, that unleashes a bit of incivility in some people."
I think some people don't have an ounce of civility in them no matter where they go or what they do. I've seen people act the same way in upscale dining establishments. Big box retail stores just tend to have a large number of people in them at any given time, thus increasing one's odds of witnessing (or being on the recieving end of) atrocious behavior.
"The Citizen Solution was good, but I don't think it inspired as much interest as Nudge did..."
I'd like to hear your thoughts about it. I thought it was a very interesting book. I just never sat down and wrote a detailed post collecting all my thoughts about it. I would still love to hear some thoughts on that one before we move on!
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