OMG you guys I went to Walmart tonight for the first time in my life, I think, because I needed to buy a new shower curtain and I was like, “Hm, I remember seeing a Walmart around here. That seems like the kind of place that would sell shower curtains.”
They do sell shower curtains at Walmart.
They also sell SHOTGUNS, like two aisles up from the kids’ toys. I am not kidding. They do a better job of segregating cigarettes and gardening products than the shotguns. It’s, like, if you stumble ten feet from the pink Barbie car, you are face-to-face with a shotgun and the scary, scary man who sells it to you. Also they have gigantic knives with huge serrated edges that couldn’t possibly serve any purpose other than murder and the threat of murder. Now, at the risk of taking a ton of shit, I don’t think we should ban guns (or knives) in this country. But I also don’t think we should sell them next to Barbies. This was seriously disturbing to me.
Also the people who shop at Walmart make me sad. I live such a privileged life, and I always have, and I just have so little contact with the part of the country that buys their clothes and groceries at Walmart. It just always surprises me that they exist, and in such numbers! I saw a lady practically crying to her friend because her prescription cost had gone up to $40. She was like, “I don’t know how I can afford it, but I don’t think I can go without it.” I really wanted to walk up to her and be like, “I’ll buy it for you,” but I was afraid that would seem insulting. But it’s so sad that $40 would be such a stress to someone! For medicine! It really shouldn’t be like that.
Oh, and you know what they didn’t sell?
Soy milk.
Shotguns, yes. Dairy-free product? No. In fact, they sold basically none of the healthy, low-fat, dairy-free foods that I usually buy at Metropolitan Market or Whole Foods. They’re just not even presented as an option at Walmart, and, trust me, I saw people doing their grocery shopping there.
And the clothes were awful! I could tell just from looking at them hanging on the rack that they weren’t going to fit any body type properly. Even someone with a nice body would look clumsy in those clothes. How are women supposed to feel good about themselves when their clothes are guaranteed to make them look sloppy? I swear, looking at some of the women sulking around there with their heads down, poking through these racks of horrendous, boxy pants and shirts, I just thought to myself, “She would feel like a million bucks if you put her in an outfit from Nordstrom and gave her a real Kate Spade bag. She’d behave like a different person.” In my experience, you just don’t feel as good about yourself if you don’t feel like you look good, and how can these women ever have a chance to feel like they look good in these god-awful clothes? I bet they wouldn’t even know how to find the proper clothes for themselves if they had the money.
I remember reading about a woman who started an organization that went into the prisons and worked with the women who were about to be released, basically giving them makeovers: classy hairstyles, teaching them how to apply makeup, and teaching them how to shop for clothes that flattered them and made them look professional. The program had startlingly good results. The female prisoners who went through this program had some of the lowest recidivism rates of their peer group. Looking good really did help them to behave differently.
I’m sorry, I know how snobby and Paris Hilton-ish this all sounds, but I just don’t see this part of the country very often, and I was so taken aback by it. It’s all so awful and sad.
Is it really that economically infeasible to offer healthier, low-cost grocery options at Walmart? Or to design clothing lines that fall into a Walmart price range and also take into consideration the shape of a woman’s body? Is it really that hard? Why can’t we do it?
Oh, and something has to be done about medicine in this country. I cannot walk past a pharmacy these days without hearing someone desperate to get the medicine that they can’t pay for, sometimes even after insurance has kicked in. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m willing to help foot the cost to help fix it. These sadnesses and stresses just don’t need to exist. They don’t exist in my world. I have never in my life wondered how I was going to pay for a medical treatment that I needed. I don’t think anyone should have to.
What can I do to help?
