Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Walmart: My Americana



EcoMoms everywhere who have ever been Walmart junkies can sigh a little sigh of relief. I read a snippet about Walmart's reusable bags, and I was happy to see my old favorite Canadian-make-me-feel-like-I'm-back-in-the- States-store was attempting to go green.

Truly, when I moved to Ottawa, Ontario in 1993, I had to ask myself what kind of freaky place I had agreed to move to. All stores, except the Quickie Mart, were closed on Sundays. If that wasn't shocking enough, to know what the heck I was buying, I had to spin things around at the grocery store to turn the French labels into English. Milk came in bags. Meat came in kilos.

When Walmart opened in Ottawa, I took one look at the store hours--open past 6 on weekdays and open on Sunday, I felt a tinge of relief (I was actually in a panic about stores being closed on Sundays and holidays, though I learned to love it). Ahhhh, how American, a store chock full of everything you didn't need and needed at the same time.

My shopping at Walmart became such a comfort habit, that I had to de-Walmartize myself when I moved to Swank County in 1999. It wasn't too hard, there are many stores here where you can shop for useless junk. Although, I never shop at Walmart now (we don't have one), it made the cold, Canadian winters a little more friendly and eased my capitalist consumer loneliness.

Go for the green Walmart!

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Here in Vegas (I don't know about anywhere else in the states), all the Walmarts are open 24 hours. Try being pregnant with that kind of option available to you! LOL!

Helene said...

I think the Walmart where we live is open 24 hours. Who shops at Walmart at 3 am??!!

I think I'd go crazy if our stores were closed on Sundays, although the positive spin on that would be I wouldn't feel forced to do my grocery shopping every single Sunday morning!

I totally loved your Jerry Springer comment on my blog.

Deb said...

@Jennifer: I can still only dream. I moved from Canada to a place with even less after hours shopping options. I don't know how I managed to do it, but I still can't shop after 10 pm.

I moved here and asked where to buy diapers--seeing as I couldn't find Walmart or Target. The moms laughed at me and told me I'd have to drive 30 minutes to find Target and they weren't even sure if there was a Walmart within an hour. The moms sent me to Safeway. Believe it or not.

Hope it was a Super Walmart with ice cream, if you had to be pregnant with it near by :)

@Helene: I've only shopped at 3 am when I was on a different time zone right before Christmas. It actually was the quietest holiday shopping experience I've ever had. There were some characters wandering around though.

Thanks! Is Jerry Springer still on? I don't get much of a chance to watch t.v. lately.