Good day Brothers and Sisters!
Any of our Good Brethren lucky enough to have traveled across our Southeastern United States will have seen kudzu, even if they didn't know what they were looking at. This invasive vine, ubiquitous across whole states, will grow over and cover anything that doesn't move out of its way, including trees, buildings, vehicles and Burma Shave signs. Regretfully, about the only thing that kudzu won't grow over and obliterate is Walmart. I guess its a case of professional courtesy shown between one creeping blight and another.
http://www.jjanthony.com/kudzu/
Having just returned from traveling the back-country of Thailand and Lao, I am dealing with the jolting re-entry into the First World. For me, one of the most notable differences between Thailand and Lao, on the one hand, and the US on the other, is the way retail commerce is carried out. What we in the West call "stores" are not the norm in SE Asia as I know it. Where there are actual stores, they are most often small, open fronted affairs that are family owned and operated. At night the shutters are rolled down tight and the day is done. In many cases, however, purchases of food, clothes and durable goods are made from stalls in one of the many markets, either the official markets operating in a designated area, or the myriad of foods stalls and hawkers of goods that spring up on almost any street, at any time of day.
Businesses in Thailand and Lao, whether stalls, markets, or actual stores, usually open directly onto the street or sidewalk. In many places, the sidewalk is not for walking at all, but is used as additional space for more marketing by folks selling spring rolls, fruit, shoes, or underwear. To walk on a sidewalk in Bangkok is to thread a gauntlet of tightly packed entrepreneurial enterprise in action.
When one shops in a small town in Lao, there is no avoiding being directly in contact with the people who run the establishment. Very often, the things you are purchasing are being manufactured, or cooked, right in front of you. That evenings chicken curry may well feature the chicken who dodged around your feet earlier in the day. Free-range takes on a whole new meaning in these countries.
There are, however, changes taking place. Although Lao, for the most part, remains more resistant to large stores and supermarkets, the Rev has seen the creeping vine of the big box store with my own saddened eyes. Tesco, the English version of Walmart, is making inroads in the larger provincial cities in Thailand. I drove past one example in the new town of Lopburi. I can only hope that the monkeys who make the old city their home will engage in raiding the big box store, wreaking similar havoc on the tall shelves there as they do in the small shops around the temple.
Maybe that's the answer to the blight of big-box consumerism: The Flying Monkeys
Of course the real answer to being aware of the hidden cost of Tesco, Walmart and others of their ilk, is to know the devil when the devil shows his face. The Rev would be lying to you if I said the impacts of big box retailing are simple. They are not, nor are the solutions to those impacts. However, what is a simple truth is that Tesco and Walmart hide the cost of their goods by under-paying their workers, denying their workers healthcare, and then allowing those healthcare costs to be passed on to the local governments. This means that while the taxpayers at a local Walmart may think they are getting a better deal on an item, the real cost of that item is being taken out of their community and their own taxes.
In countries like Thailand and Lao, the cultural effects are far-reaching. And, as in the US, no one is forcing the Thai people to shop at Tesco. But just as small town main street businesses in America are driven to economic despair by a Walmart on the edge of town, so will Tesco impact the local marketing culture in SE Asia.
Thailand and Lao already have an "eat local" movement as it is now so often, and rightly so, touted in the West. And just as surely as the emerging local food movement is a threat to corporations in the West, subverting the existing ancient local food culture in Asia is a goal big box corporations in the East. The Down-Pressor just calls it a "market opportunity."
For more perspectives on Tesco and Walmart, here are just a few of many, many websites exploring these issues. The site dealing with Walmart does a good job of exploring some of the complexities of the big box phenomena.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/marketing_material/tesco_takeover_leaflet.pdf
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug06/walmart2.html
In the meantime, all of us need to remember, how we spend our money is how we distribute our power. The economists call this a consumer based society for a reason. We simply need to remember who has the power. Without our capital, the corporate demons starve.
Brethren, be well, be strong, and Fight the Power!!
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