Always Low Opinions

I don't think that Wal-Mart "war room" spin zone is helping shape public opinion:

The first national survey of public attitudes and opinions about Wal-Mart by Zogby International finds American adults hold an increasingly negative view of Wal-Mart. The poll found 38 percent, or nearly 4 in 10 Americans, hold an unfavorable opinion of Wal-Mart, and 46 percent of Americans believe Wal-Mart’s public image is worse than it was 1 year ago.

The poll found that 56 percent of American adults agreed with the statement - "Wal-Mart was bad for America. It may provide low prices, but these prices come with a high moral and economic cost." In contrast, only 39 percent of American adults agreed with the opposing statement - "I believe Wal-Mart is good for America. It provides low prices and saves consumers money every day."

It's really hard to get people, Americans in particular, to look past their personal dollars-and-cents interests and focus on the big picture. That people are coming around to that with regards to Wal-Mart is either a testament to those doing the work of educating the public, or an example of what a horrible public citizen Wal-Mart truly is. The ways in which they have undercut small business and destroyed the fabric of communities has viscerally affected people in ways that other big-box stores haven't. I saw the Robert Greenwald polemic "The High Cost of Low Prices" (although it wasn't as much of a polemic as I expected, with lots of voices from the workers themselves driving the story) with a bunch of Westside liberals. I can virtually guarantee that not one of them had been to a Wal-Mart. But they've probably gone to Barnes and Noble, or Home Depot, or any of a hundred other big box stores. People get that there's something different about Wal-Mart and their tactics: whether it's locking janitorial crews full of illegal workers in their stores overnight, or urging their workers to apply for public assistance rather than giving them a living wage or an afforable health plan, or trying to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by forcing all workers to do some form of physical activity, or not paying attention to the violent crimes that take place with staggering regularity in their parking lots, which are bereft of security personnel.

What I consider to be the most telling Wal-Mart story is pretty resonant these days, given the "Black Friday" holiday shopping season that we're currently in. There's always some story about Black Friday shoppers getting trampled in the mad rush for store openings. Well, that happens a hell of a lot at Wal-Mart (remember, there's no security outside the store). But this story from 2003 took the cake:

A 41-year-old woman was knocked unconscious and then trampled by a mob of shoppers who continued to step over her as she suffered a seizure during a Friday sale at Wal-Mart in Orange City, Fla., according to Local 6 News.

Authorities said that Patricia Van Lester arrived at Wal-Mart at 3 a.m. for an early sale on a DVD player for her mother. When the store's doors opened at 6 a.m., Van Lester grabbed the DVD player but was quickly overcome by hundreds of shoppers rushing into the store.

The woman was knocked to the ground, slammed her head on the ground and suffered at least one seizure, according to Local 6 News.

Her sister watched the incident and tried to stop the crowd as they made their way to the merchandise.

"I screamed, 'Stop, don't step on her, my sister is on the ground,' and nobody would listen," the woman's sister, Linda Ellzey said. "I've never seen so many people in a store at one time -- in one area. If there was a fire, nobody could've gotten out of there." [...]

Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called to ask about her sister, and the store apologized and offered to put a DVD player on hold for her.

They wouldn't give her a free DVD player, they wouldn't offer to pay her medical bills. THEY OFFERED TO PUT A DVD PLAYER ON HOLD FOR HER. They basically asked her to spend money at there store again. That was their apology.

Even the devil himself looks at that exchange and thinks, "You guys suck."