The Bible terms bread "the staff of life" -- but Walmart finds it one more opportunity for exploitation of its "shoppers." In our small town, there are few food stores and no bakeries, so we are forced to buy our own Daily Bread at the Big W. It was not so long ago that Walmart had a section with overproduced bread and other bakery items at a forty percent discount, which was helpful to us retirees. Then, earlier this year, with of course no publicity, they cut that discount to thirty-five percent. Now, lo and behold, we have found a further cut, to a discount of only thirty percent on this bread!
Now, that may not seem like such a big deal, but it is a sneaky way of raising expenses for average Americans during the Great Recession which continues to erode our standard of living. More telling, it is typical of the way Walmart does business, while assuring customers that its former slogan "Lower Prices - Always!" still applies at the Big W. It would seem that it is not enough for Walmart to pay lower wages to women than to men, fire anyone who even whispers the word "union," and parade its Americanism with American Flags while buying most of its stuff from China and elsewhere. No, Walmart needs to make it even harder for budget-conscious Americans to make ends meet by gouging them over "the staff of life" too. Perhaps a more-honest Walmart slogan would be: "Walmart -- Greed Above All, Always!"
Author's Biography
Eugene Elander has been a progressive social and political activist for decades. As an author, he won the Young Poets Award at 16 from the Dayton Poets Guild for his poem, The Vision. He was chosen Poet Laureate of (more...)