Guest Post by Morbo
In 1453 A.D., Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. This did not happen because the Turks just woke up one day and decided to attack. Muslim armies had been chipping away at the Byzantine Empire for hundreds of years and conquering its lands. By 1453, Constantinople was all that was left of a Christian empire that once included the Balkans, Asia Minor and parts of North Africa.
Recently, I was looking at an interesting map of the area where I live that was published in The Washington Post. It accompanied a story about Wal-Mart, and what I saw alarmed me. In short, Sam Walton’s hordes have used time, attrition and a long-term strategy to advance, and now they’ve got us surrounded. It’s Constantinople all over again!
During the final siege, Constantinople held out for about 50 days. My area can probably fend off Wal-Mart longer than that, but I’m not sure it will be much longer. Like well disciplined troops, Wal-Mart just keeps marching forward.
The Bentonville Boys know what is at stake. As The Post noted:
Wal-Mart, which has conquered rural America with more than 3,000 stores, desperately needs to break into the urban market to maintain its phenomenal growth. So far, it has been rebuffed in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and the retailer views Washington as an important frontier for expansion.
When my area falls — and I’m sad to say I see it as inevitable — the consequences could be dramatic.
Around here, two dominant supermarket chains offer well-paying, unionized jobs to their employees. Workers at these stores have actual pensions and other good benefits.
Wal-Mart is going to change that. Clerks at Wal-Mart make about three to four dollars less per hour than their counterparts in the unionized supermarkets. Wal-Mart employees can contribute to a 401 (k) plan but do not get the traditional pension the supermarkets’ employees enjoy. Wal-Mart’s health plan is expensive and pales next to what the union won for its members.
These supermarket worker benefits are definitely better — but they mean higher overhead. Consequently, food at Wal-Mart costs less. The Post sent reporters to buy identical items at a Wal-Mart and a grocery store from one of the chains. Wal-Mart came in about $25 less on an order that ran above $100 total.
My father was a union man. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. I will never shop at Wal-Mart. But frankly, I understand why so many do: It’s cheaper, and in some parts of the country, people are rapidly running out of options.
I keep going back to what for most people is the bottom line: price. Progressive who dislike Wal-Mart have to deal with this reality: The savings make a difference to some people.
As a middle-class American striving to keep my head above water in George W’s “reward-the-rich-and-screw-everyone-else” nation, I feel the squeeze that is slowly grinding us to a pulp. My energy bills last year were frightening. Mrs. Morbo and I both drive fuel-efficient cars, but spiraling gas prices still hurts. As parents, we must deal with unexpected expenses that come along. (“Morbolina’s braces cost how much?!”) Things in the house break down with annoying regularity. On top of all this, we try to do the right thing by saving for our own retirements and the kids’ college educations.
I handle the grocery shopping for the Morbo homestead. There are four of us and one cat (who serves as CEO). I generally spend about $150 a week. If I could shave 25 bucks off that, I’d have $100 extra a month. Does that appeal to me? Yes. Will I start shopping at Wal-Mart if they open one near me to get it? No. The ghost of my dad would appear in my kitchen at night, singing “Look for the Union Label”; no one wants that.
But what about the guy across the way, the guy whose financial position is even more precarious than my own? Will he shop at Wal-Mart? He sure will.
Sorry to be pessimistic, but I have seen the future, and it isn’t pretty. Greek fire held off the Turks for a while at Constantinople, but as time passed the ingredients for Greek fire dried up. The city’s defenders ran out of bowstrings and, according to legend, wove together locks of hair from women in the city.
But soon there were no more arrows. The walls were breached, and the city fell.
The unions in my area are fighting the same battle against Wal-Mart. So far, they’ve convinced friendly local governments to use zoning regulations to fend off the Beast from Bentonville. It has worked — for now. Our walls stand.
Meanwhile, the enemy keeps encircling us. Seeing it on a map, you can’t help but reach for a military metaphor. You’re deep in enemy territory, your back is to the sea, and you are surrounded. They tighten the noose….
Wal-Mart has already taken small-town America. There, people trashed their own downtowns for the sake of cheaper peanut butter. Waving the standard of victory from that campaign, Wal-Mart marched on to the outer suburbs, then the inner suburbs. They fell without a shot. A few cities still hold out, but they look more like Constantinople every day.
When that city fell, the customary three days of looting broke out. It wasn’t pretty. But then the new overlords reestablished order, folded the community into their empire and renamed the place Istanbul. Today it is the capital of Turkey. In short, they were assimilated. Perhaps some of them even learned to like it.
Here’s what worries me: The day will come when those in the cities are finally assimilated. The last K-Mart will be shuttered, the final apocalyptic battle with Target will have been won; unionized grocery stores will be a distant memory. We’ll be at the Bentonville gang’s mercy. What price then will Wal-Mart charge us for peanut butter and Bounty paper towels?