Walmart on Smartphone!

I always dread spotting myself in one of these.

Bought my youngest daughter a penguin "Flashlight Friend" (#3) this very morning. The eldest, the "hot huez" that can just be made out next to "hot buns" in the same.

You just missed us.
 
cute! :)

wasn't trying to be mean spirited like some photographers who go to walmart.

I was by myself, so I couldn't get a good photo of myself there!

:)
 
At least the Walmart employeed tried.....

At least the Walmart employeed tried.....

Couple of months ago, I ran into the Walmart store to pick up some DVD disks.

I wandered over near the Smartphone section. It occurred to me to "mess" with the young man idly standing behind the counter, so I walked up and asked him if all the phones in the section were "Smart Phones". He said... "most of them". So I asked him where the tags were that indicated the IQ (intelligence quotient) of each phone was listed, so I could at least buy a telephone up to my Intelligence Standards.

He glazed over and said... "hmmm... don't know. Let me go ask my supervisor".

At that point I realized that I was the "problem" and he at least tried to offer me a service.

I surmise that 90% of the people who put down Walmart Stores, have never ventured into the store..... .EVER!
 
I agree kuzano! They are part of life now.

burancap, love is all that really matters. Everything else is just words.

:)
 
Interesting article. The photos represented the experience there fairly, without pointing and laughing, or pretending it's something other than it is.

Personally, I do avoid Asda (owned by Wal-Mart) on a number of points, and do as much shopping as I can in the Co-op or local independent shops. But I recognise that not everyone has that choice.
 
Thanks Rodchenko! Gotcha on trying to support local businesses. Unfortunately, not all of them are all that good either. Not specifically about Walmart, but one thing many of my more politically active friends seem to miss, is that the empolyees at any of the giant chain stores are all local. At the Safeways and Circle-K stores I go to the most (I don't shop at Walmart that much), I have ongoing social interactions with the regular employees. Modern life exists on many levels. :)
 
kuzano said:
Couple of months ago, I ran into the Walmart store to pick up some DVD disks.

I wandered over near the Smartphone section. It occurred to me to "mess" with the young man idly standing behind the counter, so I walked up and asked him if all the phones in the section were "Smart Phones". He said... "most of them". So I asked him where the tags were that indicated the IQ (intelligence quotient) of each phone was listed, so I could at least buy a telephone up to my Intelligence Standards.

He glazed over and said... "hmmm... don't know. Let me go ask my supervisor".

At that point I realized that I was the "problem" and he at least tried to offer me a service.

I surmise that 90% of the people who put down Walmart Stores, have never ventured into the store..... .EVER!
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Most people who criticize Walmart, myself included, have been in them - who could you completely avoid them? More than once I have been stuck on a conference trip in some suburban office park hell, and the only place to pick up something I needed was at a Walmart or similar outlet.

I have no doubt you met a nice and helpful person working at Walmart, why not? That doesn't mean there is anything praiseworthy about that retailer. It's the labor of all those nice and conscientious people that keeps the Waltons afloat - they owe their workers everything. So nice that they help them apply for public assistance.

Not to continue ranting, but I listened to an interview on NPR a few weeks ago, featuring some asinine business commentator. He actually said words to the effect that wages at Walmart weren't so bad, since the employees had other forms of 'compensation' - like the earned income tax credit , and public assistance! And the host let it slide without comment... That's what now passes for journalism at public radio.

Maybe a group of photographers should 'occupy' Walmart and take photos in the open with real cameras - I wonder what management would do? I am thinking like a few dozen all taking photos at the same time. That would be a blast!


Randy
 
mh2000 said:
Thanks Rodchenko! Gotcha on trying to support local businesses. Unfortunately, not all of them are all that good either. Not specifically about Walmart, but one thing many of my more politically active friends seem to miss, is that the empolyees at any of the giant chain stores are all local. At the Safeways and Circle-K stores I go to the most (I don't shop at Walmart that much), I have ongoing social interactions with the regular employees. Modern life exists on many levels. :)
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The employees most anywhere are local - the majority of people are not going to commute from out of town for a minimum wage job, although there are those desperate enough to do so.

Of course, some people commute from outside the country to compete for low-wage work, but I don't think you were talking about immigrants.

Shopping at Walmart is like buying produce from a plantation in the 1800s - you can convince yourself you are actually helping the slaves. I mean, what else would they do, anyway?

Randy
 
Sure, you're absolutely right, and I like your labelling of Wal-Mart as 'symptom'. Quite.

I'd much rather that those employed in the big exploitative chains (often on zero hours contracts) had more rewarding (in every sense) employment. But, yes, that depends on dealing with the underlying disease.

Getting there from here, however, may include singling out some companies for particular disapprobation or boycott because of certain practices. I don't necessarily believe the good life can be achieved by the slow crawl of incremental change. OK, so Barclays disinvested in Apartheid South Africa eventually, but there was still a long way to go before I was going to bank there. Similarly, if Nestles stop their unethical marketing of baby milk (the reason I have boycotted them for nearly thirty years now), there's still the matter of how they've treated the Rowntree workers in York (some of ehom I knew personally), and their inappropriate extraction of water, depriving underdeveloped communities.

I am aware that Nestle doesn't seem to have suffered too much from the loss of my business - but just think how big their profits would be if they'd had me on board! :D

Nestle aren't the only company acting unethically in that area. But they are the worst. If Nestle gets out of the game, the others should know damn well we're coming after them.

Other boycotts are more successful. Although there are a lot of High Street chains which use the product of sweatshop labour, the death toll at the recent factory fire prompted a campaign to get them to sign up to better working conditions. And it worked by picking them off one at a time. Now pretty much every clothes retailer on a typical UK High Street will be signed up.

Even then, though - that won't get us to the Promised Land. It'll just be the sharpest edges worn off the capitalist system. And the survival of capitalism depends on not quite pissing off enough people to enough of an extent for them to demand change, whether that means keeping people ignorant, or loudly promoting your 'green' credentials (without getting too much into the details).

Change is a difficult and unsettling process, and people shy away from it into the imagined comfort of their existing pain.

Edit: X-posted with zauhar, with whom I would agree.
 
I think that if you dig deep enough, you can probably find a reason not to shop almost anywhere. Wal-mart, at least, still sells film. And it provides a low(er) cost retailer that an awful lot of low-income families are very happy to have available. Not sure that dumping on "white trash" is really helpful either.

Everybody can now jump all over me for missing the point, if you want to.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the photos.
 
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The reason Walmart gets picked on is because they have set the "model" for retailing for others. They developed the 'pillage and plunder' method. Suck all you can from your vendors and employees. If anyone even hints at rebellion, cut them off. We (Walmart) don't need them, they need us. That is their mentality.

I started work at a well known american retailer in the 70's. They offered full time hours, medical that you could afford. (this medical saved my family from financial ruin when my first wife went through 10 months of cancer treatment before she died) They also had matching 401K contributions and a modest pension plan on top of that.

Now, all gone. They only hire part time at minimum wage with NO benefits. They grind through a constantly changing workforce and put their few managers under enormous pressure to get that last nickel out of the customer's pocket.

Their reward for this is a almost relentless downward sprial that will probably end in their going out of busness. I retired out at 34 years in 2011 at 62. Would have stayed till 65 but they had got so cheap and nasty I could not stand another day.
 
rwintle said:
I think that if you dig deep enough, you can probably find a reason not to shop almost anywhere. Wal-mart, at least, still sells film. And it provides a low(er) cost retailer that an awful lot of low-income families are very happy to have available. Not sure that dumping on "white trash" is really helpful either.

Everybody can now jump all over me for missing the point, if you want to.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the photos.
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Yes, desperate people (like the people with low-wage jobs at Walmart) do rely on the lowest possible price. There is a popular phrase, 'race to the bottom' that describes the phenomenon. Wait until you're living in a tin hut, then you will REALLY love the low, low prices.

I don't castigate the people who shop at Walmart, they often have no choice left, after all the other retailers have been pushed out of business. Of course, they could have supported those local businesses while they had the chance.

Speaking of which, did you know that Amazon has not made a significant profit in years, in fact often operates at a loss? The stated goal is to become the dominant retailer in the US - the unstated goal is to do this by driving everyone else out of business. This seems a classic antitrust case, given that Amazon already has substantial market share in many areas.

So, I also don't buy anything at Amazon. You might not either if you ever talked with someone who works in one of their 'distribution' centers, especially at the Xmas rush. It could really f-ck up your holiday spirit.

Randy

P.S. To the OP, I did like the photos you took, but I still think a flash mob of photogs with 'real' cameras at Walmart would be incredibly cool.
 
mh2000 said:
Here's a new piece from the trenches in Walmart. Let me know what you think!

http://markhahnphotography.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/fighting-the-symptoms-walmart/

Best!!!
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Since you asked, here's what I think. Political propaganda, dressed up like an article on photography. This article was an excellent representation of the Liberal mind. At first I thought it was a parody making fun of liberals, then I realized the horror, no, this is actually a liberal being totally honest. Simply amazing. Tax the rich (job creators). Ya, that will be great for the economy and pile even more people onto the sinking lifeboat. I will say the liberals mean well, but they operate by feel, not by logical thinking. Just watch Cspan for a few minutes and you can see what I mean. I am convinced that there is a genetic difference between the way liberals think and the way conservatives think. Right now natural selection is favoring the liberals as they are reproducing like crazy and signing up for benefits at a frightening rate. Cheers.
 
Forget labels. Liberal, conservative? Most people are much more complex than that. If you were to hear me talk about greed and busness you would say "Oh, he is a liberal"

On the other hand my views on sexual morality would get me labeled as a "conservative".

No matter what someone says, some folks will agree and some folks will disagree.

One thing I know about Mark Hahn is that he did a great picture tutorial on how to service my Minolta 16, thanks Mark.
 
@68degrees: Good points. And for an even better idea of what a society looks like with minimal liberal governmental interference with business, look no further than that hotbed of conservative freedom known as Somalia. It has everything a capitalist would want: a cheap labor force with virtually no regulatory interferences at all. </sarcasm>

@OP: great photo essay, this really illustrates the place for mobile phone documentary photography, as steganography is built into the form factor.

~Joe
 
68degrees, this is a photo essay that you can take for whatever you want. Personally, I meant it to leave readers with the thought that no matter what, love, art, photography and writing are really what should matter most. This is what makes us us. All the other arguments are just words... so 'scuse me while I go smooch with my little Goth girlfriend (fantasy)! :)

Thanks HoeV! Glad you enjoyed the piece!!! Working on little projects like this is really fun... and cell phone photogtraphy makes it all come together!

Thanks zuiko85!!! Glad you found the Minolta 16 piece useful! Yeah, just enjoying shooting photos, writing and thinking about stuff! :)

zauhar, I hear where you're coming from, but let's be realistic, many local businesses are horrible employers too -- often offering no benefits at all. Business is business and the point is to make money, not to provide welfare. I'm not trying to convince myself of anything one way or the other with respect to Walmart. As I said, when I am out shooting photos a hundred miles away from anything, Walmart is all there is. This is the fact and this is real life as it is now in America. Bringing this back to photography, pull out your cell phone, where was it made? Pull out any of your cameras, where were they made? Even my Kodak Retina was made in Germany! Now everything is made in Asia, most in countries with very poor labor laws.

rwintle, glad you enjoyed the photos!!! :)

Thanks all for the feedback!!! Yeah or nay, I appreciate your thoughts!

Best!

:)
 
JoeV said:
@68degrees: Good points. And for an even better idea of what a society looks like with minimal liberal governmental interference with business, look no further than that hotbed of conservative freedom known as Somalia. It has everything a capitalist would want: a cheap labor force with virtually no regulatory interferences at all. </sarcasm>

@OP: great photo essay, this really illustrates the place for mobile phone documentary photography, as steganography is built into the form factor.

~Joe
Click to expand...

sadly in Somalia they are missing a government enforced bill of rights. Personally I dont use the words, conservative, libertarian, anarchy, republican, capitalism, and american interchangeably as liberals do to avoid critical thinking. They like to put everything neatly into as few compartments as possible to simplify decison making.
 
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