Walmart Parking Lot
You wouldn’t think Walmart’s superstore had closed not far from the Oakland Airport on Hegenberger Road, the lot stayed full, fooled anyone who didn’t know how a high minimum wage had tossed Raiders T-shirts into the end zone. All that’s left, McDonald’s wrappers and empty cups spell a mega mocha dose. We waltz inside with discounts and seasonal stuff, magnets on key chains, […]
Mustang
I’m on vacation from Chicago and visiting my girlfriend in Louisiana. Kathy and I met in college where we played on the same basketball team. This is my first time visiting the South. The plan is to drive to New Orleans the next day for the Jazz Fest. “Hey, Bev. Can you take the car […]
The Bottom Line
I will miss you the most in the evening after the dishes are put away and I’ve retired to the bedroom knowing there’s nothing on TV to hold my interest, pull back the sheets and expect you to enter the room holding a glass of something cold, jiggling ice cubes until you set them down […]
Shopping Cart
Heads of lettuce are deconstructed into plastic tubs that cost twice as much, if not more than whole heads replaced by escarole, radicchio, and baby spinach leaves. Romaine (cos) and iceberg (crisphead) continue to be available. Even so, the more nutritious outer leaves have been stripped away to reveal pale green. Walmart sells hearts four […]
Shopping at Walmart in January
Walmart ordered way too many bicycles this year to sell over the Christmas holidays. They outline the entrance to the store all the way back to the Garden Center, blue and pink bicycles, waiting like lost puppies for a family to take home. It is January, post-holidays, several weeks since we’ve gone shopping. Provisions are […]
I Hate Walmart
“I pass an aisle of travel mugs in different colors, and sizes, with Disney characters, Duck Dynasty members, motorcycle riders and flowers growing in orange and purple, overdosing in consumer excess and Walmart is the pusher.” I hate pulling into Walmart’s parking lot in Monroe, Louisiana, where I watch out for motorized patrons who carry […]
Seven Things I Will Not Think About in the Last Seconds of My Life
“I am a master of hallucination.” –Arthur Rimbaud I will not think about my retirement account. I will rest inside a concession stand of white gauze, sun hot. I will ask for water loaded with chunks of ice as a pinball machine rises from Poseidon’s eyebrow. I swallow chrome balls like egg yolks slipped into […]
Afikomen in Sterlington, Louisiana
Daffodils sprouting in bright yellow bunches always have always signaled for me spring and Passover. Matzah plays a big role here, the unleavened bread symbolic of the Jewish exodus from enslavement in Egypt about 3,300 years ago. (“Hurry up, Sadie. We don’t have time for the bread to rise. Grab your hat and let’s go!”) […]
A Doll Goes Shopping at Walmart
For weeks, I had been reading up on Walmart, absorbing everything from Sam’s biography to reports about how the global chain was destroying labor guarantees put into place by the New Deal. I wanted to understand how Walmart had evolved from a variety store to an international behemoth hated and loved by all. Call it […]
Walmart is a Big Box
I made a pilgrimage to the heartland of Walmart in Bentonville, the same day the conclave of cardinals named a new pope. White smoke rose up from the Sistine Chapel. Along the highway, an egret or a plastic bag? I remember John’s Bargain Store on Soundview Avenue, a place with cheap stuff stacked in plastic […]