The high cost of low price ripples through the Universe, producing unintended consequences.
I rose from the television, my evening’s indulgence. I walked through the crystal glare of the screen and entered the kitchen.
Flicking on the lights, I reached the pantry, opened its wooden doors and pulled down two contents: a can of Equal Exchange Organic Hot Cocoa, and a plastic bag of Western Family Marshmallows-jumbo.
Outside, a layer of clouds blocked the night sky. A sheet of rain piddled on the patio. As the teakettle came to a boil, I turned down the gas flame and filled my mug.
I stirred in the powdered chocolate and white puffs of sugar. As the marshmallows dissolved to sweet perfection, I wondered: is true sustainability ever possible?
A Sickness At The Root
Back in the television room, I continued watching the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Directed by Robert Greenwald, the film captures the stories of employees and those affected across the United States.
It is a story of American capitalism gone awry. Like David versus Goliath, the box-store behemoth slams into a community and entices families with its cheap plastic products. We hear from an employed mother forced to seek government-assisted healthcare to raise her children, and a family-owned hardware store crushed by the neighboring Wal-Mart superstructure.
The movie recalled my recent journey to Mazatlan, Mexico and the newly razed soil to accommodate the acres of asphalt and the high ceilings of cheap Wal-Mart goods. Not only has the corporation captured the minds and bodies of Americans, but now it extends to Mexico, Europe, and countless other countries.
Wal-Mart imports an outrageous amount of products from overseas. On November 29, 2004, Jiang Jingjing of China Daily reported, “The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US$18 billion this year, keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years.”
That’s an estimated $18 billion pumped out from sweatshop factories employing young, naïve women, men and children living in poor provinces. According to Global Exchange, Wal-Mart employs 400,000 workers overseas.
It’s everywhere. At the beginning of this year, just 15.59 miles from my doorstep, a Wal-Mart Supercenter opened its doors on January 31 in Poulsbo, WA. It’s 203,000 sq. ft. store provides 525 new jobs in 36 departments that remains open to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What’s most amazing, apart from the $35,000 donated to local organizations through its Good Works community involvement program, is the fact that twelve miles down the road there is another Wal-Mart Supercenter located in Silverdale, Washington.
The Accomplice In The Mirror
As always, my cocoa was most delicious. Let it be known hot cocoa without marshmallows is not the same. Plainly, it sucks.
But as I continued to watch the film, I felt a pang of guilt. Here I was, drinking organic hot cocoa fairly traded through the worldwide network of small farmers and co-ops, yet topped with gigantic, jumbo-puffed, white-oozing, falsified sugar marshmallows.
No, the marshmallows were not organic, fairly trade, or manufactured with conscious decisions. They were packed, shipped, stacked and stored for months. They were not sustainable, the plastic bag unsalvageable-America’s weak recycling programs will not help this time.
The movie ended. I went to the kitchen sink and washed my brown, sugar-stained mug. I opened the pantry and perused its contents. I took note of the products: most were organic, purchased in bulk. They were stored in containers able for reuse or recycling.
They were fresh and limited; only the necessities and a few luxuries, not piled with the excesses of your average soccer-crazed Mom with an over-zealous fear of Judgment Day. But still…those marshmallows.
Despite my reassurance about the impact I was making on the world, I felt a needed to do more (or less). This yearning carries me into each and every experience. It is one of caring for the world, caring for our family of brothers and sisters.
It is a desire to look forward into the future and make sure we have preserved the beauty of the land and its resources for the generations to come.
What more can I do? What more can we do to better our minds and lifestyles? And what more can we do to make a difference in the way economies run so economic tyrants like Wal-Mart return to their more modest roots.
Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s founder, once said, “You can’t create a team spirit when the situation is so one-sided, when management gets so much and workers get so little of the pie.” I wonder if today’s CEO Lee Scott remembers his words?
The Karmic Consquences
In Mexico, I overheard a woman who had been traveling to Mazatlan for twenty-five years. She was grateful for the new Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Now just a mere five-minute pulmonia ride, she buys all her groceries as if she were back home. “We arrive. We shop at Sam’s Club.”
That night, I found myself in the heart of Old Mazatlan wandering the Centro Historic in Mercado Pino Suarez. This was Mexico.
The large market houses vendors from traditional foods of homebrewed recipes to clothing and appliances. It felt real. It is a culture supporting people. It is their livelihoods mingling with their tradition of agriculture, textiles and cooking.
Purchases made, a small-town local supported.
Back home, the US continues to expand and dominate other regions from the Latin world, to China, India and Bangladesh, to Europe and beyond.
There are those among us who condemn this expansion, who believe in a higher standard, not of income or consumption, but in something far surpassing the physical world. We’ve come to recognize Mother Earth’s life. If some don’t take notice, it’s bound to fall into hands far more omniscient.
On March 15, the Wal-Mart of Poulsbo saw a glimpse resistance. The Seattle Times reported a suspicious fire that broke out in the women’s undergarment department causing one million dollars of damage. Nobody was injured and officials are looking into suspected arson.
Cameron Karsten writes a weekly spiritual travel column for Brave New Traveler. He left his formal classroom studies to indulge in dreams of travel at 19 years old, and has been wandering ever since. Visit his personal website.About the Author
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13 Comments... join the discussion!
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Here is the deal in a nutshell, as far as I can see. America in general, if you are not in a city or a small New England style village, you will not find markets that are easily accessable enough for the common person who has to live in surburbia because they can no longer afford a house or even an apartment in the city, or the NE village for that matter because the only people who can afford them is those who are affluent.
The economy in the US is so bad now, that people who desire to be sustainable have a really hard time accessing these kinds of products. It is a very sad reality.So my question is – how can the average Joe afford to be sustainable? How do we get there? I think so many people want to get there, but just cannot afford it.
It is funny how we call this progress…..
Back in the day the poor were healthier as they lived off the land and had direct access, now all they can afford is a big mac or kraft mac n’ cheese. We need to make organics and fairly traded products affordable!↵ -
Hello…
Im from Mexico and even though buying from the Mercado is still a common practice, I can assure you that more and more mexicans are buying from Wal Mart now, and that TOO is Mexico, thats what we do every weekend when you buy groceries for the week.
It might be hard to understand when you are in some other country where you have enough money to decide where and what to buy. But in a third world country there is no option so you get to buy in the cheapest place and you dont care about anything else but having more food for your kids.
I can tell with no regret that mexicans are buying from Walmart cause there is no option and that is because we are poor.
Just my 2 cents…
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hi nate — thanks for your comments. i can’t speak on behalf of the author cam, but i’m certain his intent was not to say that Mexico should deprive themselves of the necessities at the best price. This is a common practice of any culture. But with these cheap goods comes the price of environmental damage, diluted community, and low-paid workers around the world. Surely, there must be a way to provide for all of us without relying on massive multi-national corporations that concentrate only on profit.
dave – thanks for the heads up on that organization.
jenn – excellent food for though, as always.
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Welcome to Capitalism… and America is the king of Capitalism, so how Walmart acts is of no surprise in a capitalist market driven society.
How about moving out of America?
What do you suggest? A move to communism? Collectivise our foods and resources and dish them out equally to the masses?
America has a cash driven society where competition is encouraged to invoke choice and quality. It’s in these ripe conditions that companies like Wal-Mart thrive.
I’m not sure America dominates China, with 25 million dollars of Chinese imports to America and only 4 million exported you could argue it’s the other way round
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There is always a better way, a better way for worsening the situation, a better way for creating something more bountiful and nurturing for man, woman, creature and Mother Earth. Maybe it’s not a better way, but simply “evolution”.
Whether it’s a large multinational corporation or a person causing unnecessary injury to him- or herself, we’re all here as a family to help one another find resolution for the needless suffering we all face in the world.
Between each and every one of us, there is the answer for a healthier lifestyle, a healthier family, a healthier relationship with one’s Self, one’s neighbor, and one’s planet. It comes to the question of whether or not we’re ready to sacrifice a little of what we think we have and who we think we are in order to help evolution spin the right direction.
The snake eats its own tail; give to receive to give to receive; rain onto the earth back into sky…life is a gyrating phenomenon of life eating life, but how can we eat the best of what we have and what we can make?
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Eagles may soar high, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.
Put the key of despair into the lock of apathy. Turn the knob of mediocrity slowly and open the gates of despondency.
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This is a very heated topic and one that I am passsionate about. Ideally it woudld be great if Walmart did not exist, but it goes much deeper than that. it has to do with the economy of the world. Things need to be changed from above, and from below.
I agree with Cam, we can always do better, strive for better, but in most cases it takes years to accomplish something like getting rid of Walmart, because in the end it isn’t really about Walmart, Walmart is a representation of what the world economy is becoming which asks the bigger question: How do we get out of it?
Everyone needs to do their part. If everyone did their part, like recycling for example, it would make a world of difference. At least people are becoming more aware of what is going on, THAT in itself is a great start. So things happen, they just happen slowly, sometimes.
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Jenn – i agree, to blame Wal-mart for the world’s woes is like blaming George Bush. He’s a manifestation of a particular world view that is representative of a (shrinking) amount of Americans. Yet, as I think Cam points out, a corporation is merely made up of people who can make a difference – by aligning themselves with higher values and purpose.
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Well Ian, let’s hope more people start doing that!
We need to change the economic situation of this country and other countries in order so that people aren’t forced to shop at Walmart because it is what they can afford. Until we shift that dynamic, it is going to be hard to pull people away as much as they themselves might want to.↵ -
Cameron, I can certainly sympathize with the crisis of conscience you’ve felt. I wrote the script for a future video piece titled “An Inside Job” specifically in response to it:
I hope you, and everyone who responded here, will take a few moments to check it out. Here’s an excerpt:
“The ‘inside job’ I mention in the title of this video refers to making ourselves into the changes we wish to see in the world. Everyday now, I’m waking up more and more to how much power I have as a conscious consumer of food, products and services. I thoroughly believe that if you take the time to analyze your own lifestyle choices, you will find many, MANY ways you can improve your situation by simplifying. And by simplifying, you can begin to balance your budget and free up more time in your schedule to do the things you really want to do. And I thoroughly believe that THIS is how you can best influence the corporations and organizations whose polices and practices you want to change. No need to buy lottery tickets or rely upon get-rich-quick schemes. Not when you can work smarter and invest all that spare capital into getting rich at the rate of one freedom per lifestyle choice.”
“Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
-Henry David Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”-
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Guess it would help if I posted the link, huh?
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thanks for the follow up Derek. very interesting essay and more inspiring food for thought.
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