Fraters Libertas

Class Insecurity And Where You Buy Your Deodorant

Over the past several months Wal-Mart has finally gotten around to responding to the various public relations assaults waged against it over the past several decades. It's good to see they are answering some of this nonsense but I think it can only be described as gross management incompetence that they have allowed unions, democrats and liberal activists to position their brand in the minds of many consumers.

It is a matter of faith among the left that there is something wrong, if not immoral with Wal-Mart. Much of it stems from a simple elitism that allows them to make high-minded criticisms of a place they consider to be for the proles and the semi-washed. They realize it just doesn't sound right to admit that they hate Wal-Mart because they consider themselves superior to the people who shop there, but saying "I disagree with Wal-Mart's (fill in the blank) policy and therefore I go to Target" allows them to avoid the place (and the people) AND to make what passes in for an intelligent point at the same time.

Even those who aren't lefties and are in fact quite conservative can be heard making the case that Target is superior for this or that sundry reason and would never consider setting foot in a Wal-Mart. In the Twin Cities, part of this is the fact that Target has been around much longer, but the elitism of the left can affect conservatives as well (like people who somehow cannot find one item of edible food on a Friday's menu and moan about "chain restaurants").

I guess it comes down to the fact that Wal-Mart is perceived (correctly) as catering to lower class and lower middle class customers (one woman I work with said it was too "Bubba" for her). By shopping there and by telling (admitting?) others you do, you are positioning yourself with the lower class. For many people, they could care less how they are perceived by others, but for many others, this kind of decision is one of the ways (including the car they drive, their house, their Ipod) they tell society who they are. "Oh, we aren't one of those Wal-Mart families, Target is so much hipper and cosmopolitan" is every bit a part of the psychology of choosing where to shop and as important as rational reasons like location and price of the goods.

And of course it's subconscious--people don't consciously tell themselves they have class insecurity and don't want to be known as a Wal-Mart shopper--this works below the reasons that the non-Wal-Mart shopper would cite if asked why they shop where they do.

Personally, I shop at Wal-Mart and do so proudly as a big middle finger to leftists (and snotty conservatives) and because I am a cheap, cheap man. Plus it allows me a kind of reverse coolness that I can lord over others. I'm just glad they have put their top guy on the job of getting their story out and putting to rest the myriad of lies about a great company. Convincing Target shoppers that going Wal-Mart won't make them seem less sophisti-macated or cosmopolitan, now that is a much bigger job.