Wal-Mart *GASP!*

Last night, the Jeffco Young Dems, and some other stragglers, congregated at our friend Linnea's house to watch he new Wal-Mart documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

As one who vows never, EVER to set foot inside of a Wal-Mart again, it was good to learn some new information on how they, and to a lesser effect some other stores, have such a destructive effect on local economies.

While the documentary didn't go into ever single facet of why shopping at Wal-Mart is bad, they did focus on a few important issues more in depth:

* The economic effect Wal-Mart has on locally run businesses
* The slave labor employed in China to produce "cheap" goods
* The poor Wal-Mart health insurance scam

To give a quick summary...Wal-Mart's business plan is to keep its "worker" employees out of full-time employment, with soddy insurance plans, and encouraging welfare. They disrupt enough local business with their slave-driven low-prices, which puts local shops out of business -- therefore the money you put into the Wal-Mart store you shop at is getting syphoned off to John Walton and his family, and not your local city.

Bottom line...always prefer a local mom-and-pop shop if possible. After that, choose your superstore wisely. I think next year I will push for Costco over Target. Target may not be so terrible, but Costco is a blue organization while Target feeds donations to the Chimp-In-Chief.

Before seeing the movie, I bought the book The United States of Wal-Mart that I am really looking forward to reading! This should give a broader look at the Wal-Mart giant. As I plan on doing some serious volunteer work next year for Bill Winter, CO-6 candidate for Congress, I want to learn more in-depth details on the most important issues our country faces.

Linn through a great get-together, and now the next plan is for our 1st Annual Festivus Party...so I need to do some research. :-)