Wal-Mart Values December 11, 2007 Christina From Feministing: Wal-Mart continues to be gross. Thanks to Mike for the link.
I’m shopping at f.y.e., Circuit City, Best Buy or Sam Goody. I don’t care if what I get is much higher than the Wal-Mart price, I am not going to get my gift from Wal-Mart. Period.
How much would anyone want to bet that stores like Wal-Mart and Abercrombie & Fitch deliberately do this to garner more noteriety in the MSM and thus, more sales from “Mainstream America”?
Just so’s we don’t go as far in the thread as they did at Feministing before someone clarifies, the back of the panties apparently freads “when you’ve got Santa?” Which, you know, would be a fairly neutral message if not printed on teenager-sized panties.
Wal-Mart makes suppliers “pitch” their goods down in corporate HQ in Arkansas or something. So, it’s bad enough that they sell ludicrous underwear but then, of course, some fat gross executive had to sit through a “pitch” and actually decide that offering said ludicrous underwear would be good business. i.e., Turn a profit. I debated tacking on this final remark: …In a time of great national / international upheaval at that. Buy panties: Thank you: We now pay our executives with the gold bars that used to line our streets a hundred years ago. DG
As if the list of reasons not to shop at Wal-Mart wasn’t long enough. You stole the words from my mouth….
Which, you know, would be a fairly neutral message if not printed on teenager-sized panties. and if they made the same undies for boys.
They are currently building another monstrosity only a few feet from where I’m sitting… they are destroying another lovely neighborhood, and they don’t give a flying fuck. Making plans to move. 🙁 I hate them.
As if the list of reasons not to shop at Wal-Mart wasn’t long enough. You know, maybe I’m just in a contrary mood today or something, but this bugs me. I mean, it’s great that you get the opportunity *not* to shop at Wal-Mart. But where I live, the three choices for buying clothes for my daughter are Wal-Mart, Target, and the mall, and Wal-Mart is the only one I can afford. Also, Wal-Mart’s grocery prices are significantly cheaper than grocery stores. It’s not always some sort of moral choice to avoid Wal-Mart. Sure, I’d shop somewhere else if I could. But I’m tired of taking shit (and this is more a reaction to an argument I got in with someone on campus the other day) for shopping there.
Vanessa, I dislike Mall-Wart, what they do to local communities, how they treat their employees, and how they sell shit goods made in China that some kid made for $0.25 an hour. I also hate the fact that our economy is so fucked up that there are people who cannot afford to shop anyplace else, and I would never give any person grief for shopping there. Hassling individuals won’t do much to affect Mallwart. Organizing as communities will. I want to live in a world where people can afford to shop someplace else, and where Mallwart has to pay their actual costs of doing business.
Yeah. Like I said it was more a reaction to a conversation in real life. Sorry to expose you all to my ranting, but I think it’s a valid point.
ATTENTION: All Wal Marts are NOT pulling these damn things! I gave a ride to Wal Mart in New Hampshire (she just had a kid the other day) so she could do some light shopping and I saw said underpants on display FACING THE OUTSIDE AISLE DIRECTLY ACROSS THE LITTLE GIRL’S CLOTHES SECTION. Now, seeing them is bad enough, being able to not miss their flourescent hue stabbing my eyes while I walk down the aisle is a little more than enough. Noticing that they are facing directly AT the Little Girl’s clothing display is over the top. I intend to call that Wal Mart store today and remind them of the Nov. 11 Faux News story, or possibly I should call their corporate offices?
Update: I called the corporate number given on feministing and was given the ‘assurance’ that they’d relay the message to management. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if stores are not removing the underwear like corporate promised and will not, expecting the whole issue to have been diffused by the press release.
/facetiousness the part that sucks for me is that all the underwear in that line (I have a Halloween pair with a pirate-costumed dog that says I’ve Got Booty and a winter pair with baby penguins captioned Just Chillin’) is some of the most comfortable I’ve ever owned. Srsly, if I didn’t think it’d make them think these were profitable, I’d buy them all myself – to keep them out of the hands of kids, y’know. /facetiousness but seriously, I can see what they were trying to go for (see above-mentioned penguins from the same line), but, I mean, don’t they have someone *read* these things before they go to production?