Sprawl-Mart vs. the kind shopkeeper

And now, a story.

There were once two shopkeepers in a small village. One was a kind man who treated everyone well--not just his customers. And those with whom he did business also walked away with a smile on their faces (not the yellow smiley face dude!) because they knew they had just dealt with a fair and honest person. He gave freely of his time and money in his community. He was the first to buy the Girl Scout's cookies, sponsor a Little League team, donate supplies to the school, volunteer at the homeless shelter, etc.. Everyone knew that their town was a better place because of the kindly shopkeeper's presence.

But then a different store was built next door and run by an evil shopkeeper. It was called Sprawl-Mart. He sold the same items as the kindly shopkeeper, but ran his business very differently. He squeezed every ounce of work out of his employees. He routinely shorted his employees’ paychecks. He even locked the employees in the store and told them they couldn’t leave until they did his bidding. When any employee complained or suggested making the store a better place to work at, the evil shopkeeper’s retaliation was swift and harsh. Sometimes they were fired. Sometimes they were beaten up by the shopkeeper’s hired thugs.

The evil shopkeeper pitted suppliers against each other, even telling them they had to use slave labor, child labor and yes, even child slave labor so that the evil shopkeeper could pay even less for his wares. Everyone who interacted with him walked away with a bitter taste in their mouths. They knew they had just been pressured into giving up more than their fair share to the evil shopkeeper. And because the evil shopkeeper was so tightfisted and miserly, he was able to sell his wares for as much as 5% less than the kindly shopkeeper.

The townspeople, thinking only of their own pocketbooks and not of the larger community, shopped instead at the evil shopkeeper's store.

Desperate to keep his livelihood, the kind shopkeeper did what he could to lower prices but still try be a good person. But to no avail. He discovered that, in order to lower his prices enough to compete with the evil shopkeeper, he would repeatedly have to hurt his fellow citizens. He would have to cut his employee’s salaries in half. He would have to take away the healthcare plan that kept his workers and their children strong, healthy and pain free. He would have to tell his retired workers—people who gave their all to him for 30 years—who he considered to be like his own family—that the pensions he promised them would be eliminated. He would have to set up sweatshops and factories that don't protect their workers from dangerous conditions, management abuse and take them away from their friends and families. That’s right—12 hour days, seven days per week, no vacations, sick days, etc. “I don't want to deprive children of their loving parents’ time, attentions, energy and money. But I’ll have to do all of these nasty things if I try to compete with the evil Sprawl-Mart.”

"Business used to be a force that operated for the good of society," he sighed. "What happened?!?!"

Sadly, he soon had to close his doors for business.

The evil shopkeeper rubbed his slimy, scaly little hands together at the prospect of no competition. He behaved even worse now because there was nowhere else for the townspeople to work or shop. They were now fully dependent on him. And just like he took advantage of employees and suppliers in the past, he was REALLY going to take advantage of this situation.

He bought up everything in the town: the banks, the newspapers and magazines, radio and television stations (after all, he wanted to control everything that the villagers read, saw and heard)—and almost all local real estate.

The quality of life in the town quickly deteriorated. Jobs which used to pay around $15-30 per hour were now paying only $7 or $8 per hour. Healthcare, which used to be a right of every citizen, now was a privilege offered only to the evil shopkeeper and his management minions. A quality education, which also used to be the right of every child, was now a privilege at a premium price in private schools for the children of the evil shopkeeper and his management minions. The local police tried to keep order in the town, but the evil shopkeeper ordered the city council to take away most of their funds.

“Why should I pay taxes to protect others?” he angrily snorted. “Let them fend for themselves in this hellish world I’ve created. I only care about me. I’ll pay for my own services. I can afford my own police, doctors and teachers. In fact, it works to my advantage if I keep my chattel uneducated, decrepit, scared and tired. They won’t be able to think for themselves. Then they’ll become even more dependent on me!”

The evil shopkeeper then had a huge stately castle built for him and his five bratty children. He had nice McMansions built around the castle to reward his management minions, or “knights,” as he preferred to call them. He had some small, but livable tiny condos also built around his castle for who he called “the help.” You know, the butlers, maids, chauffeurs, barbers, cooks—basically anyone who was willing or able to dedicate their labors in the service of the evil shopkeeper, who now insisted on being addressed as “king.” The rest of the townspeople could now only afford to live in shacks (which of course were owned by the evil shopkeeper). They truly lived in squalor. But did they finally rise up and take a stand against the evil shopkeeper? Did they start to work together again, create and shop at their OWN businesses? Nope. They were more isolated than ever. You see, the evil shopkeeper placed a device in each person's home. He called it the "idiot box." Everyone else called it "T.V." No one knew this, but the device settled people into a hypnotic state. Their brainwaves went from beta to alpha. Don’t believe me? Try just watching someone watch TV. Recognize the dead stare on their faces? It’s called hypnosis. Alpha brain wave state. Hyper-suggestibility. No wonder TV commercials cost way more than other advertisements.

“I have a captive, hypnotized, highly suggestible audience just waiting to soak up whatever I beam at them!” the evil shopkeeper mused.

The evil shopkeeper was no dummy. He recognized the benefits of controlling this device. He replaced all the news anchors, reporters and editors who worked at the local media. He hired new ones who would be “business friendly” and would only send out messages of which he approved.

One time the evil shopkeeper was informed about an uprising in one of his sweatshop towns. The workers kicked out the Sprawl-Mart suppliers and factory owners and held themselves a little election. The evil shopkeeper would have none of this. He told his media to tell the entire town that this distant village had many dangerous weapons that they were ready to use against the village!

“But none of it is true!” said one of the reporters.

“Who cares? Feed them misinformation. Whip up some nationalism. Find a scapegoat for everyone to hate. You guys know all the tricks. Meanwhile, I’ll print some buttons, T-shirts and bumper stickers that will encourage thoughtless patriotism.” The evil shopkeeper was drunk on his own power. He saw the hesitation on the faces of his media employees. “Now shut up and do what I pay you to do!”

So all of them (except the few reporters with integrity) convinced the villagers into going to war against the far away village. Almost all of the reporters, editors and news anchors spewed scary but phony information about the other village. Because of this, thousands of the village’s finest men and women died in a needless war. Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children died in the other village. But for the evil shopkeeper, it was worth it. After all, it was just one more village that he now controlled. “That worked like a charm,” the evil shopkeeper said hardly containing his glee. “I think I’ll do some more wars!”

One of his workers overheard the evil shopkeeper say this and humbly trudged up to him and said, “But sir, I lost both of my sons in your last war.”

The evil shopkeeper smiled, pointed a finger at the man and said, “Yes, but they weren’t MY sons.”

And naturally, the evil shopkeeper made darn sure that all the radio & TV stations, newspapers and magazines only said good things about him and his Sprawl-Mart. He even made commercials that portrayed his store as having a sense of community—presumably to replaced the sense of community that he helped destroy. . He even had the audacity to run commercials that equated his store with all that was good about America. Even though smart people knew better.

And because there were rumors about what a terrible employer he was, he aired commercials showing all of his employees looking happy and even being grateful to work at Sprawl-Mart. And the villagers bought it hook, line and sinker. They even felt good about shopping at Sprawl-Mart!

“I can get these people to think how I want them to think,” said the evil shopkeeper with a smirk. “They’re like dumb little sheep. I think I’ll call them ‘sheeple.”

"I read about this in a history book once," a smart little boy said. "Didn't they used to call this the 'feudal system'?" His parents shrugged. They were just too tired to respond or even to give their time, love and attention to their son. Just like the rest of the townspeople, they had just worked 80 hours that week for the evil shopkeeper. By "they," that included the smart little boy as well as his parents.

You see, once the evil shopkeeper had amassed his great wealth, with that came great power, too. He made sure that the town’s politicians and government agencies were under his control, too. No one noticed how he slowly de-funded the agencies that looked out for the welfare of the lower and middle classes. You know, the agencies that would have made working 80 hours per week a choice, not an employer's requirement. Or the agencies that would have stop an employer from allowing the smart little boy to work instead of getting an education and playing like a little boy should.

Oh, and the agency that would have stop the employer from using that dangerous box-cutting machine that claimed the smart little boy's right arm. It happened while he was opening one of the boxes that had arrived from the slave labor camp in the Northern Mariana Islands. That’s where the evil shopkeeper just LOVED to obtain the goods he would later sell to the "little people."

Yes, the evil shopkeeper had all kinds of disdainful names for his customers, workers and house servants (besides “sheeple”): serfs, peons, slaves, working stiffs, gofers, inferiors, droids, tools, toilers, peasants, inferiors, lackeys and work-horses.

And he respected women least of all. We won’t dare mention the names he calls women. He gave very few of them pay increases and promotions. Some of his female staff also complained about his unwelcome sexual advances and inappropriate comments. In fact, they complained to the local government agency that handles worker complaints.

“Those little chickadees are now without jobs!” the evil shopkeeper chuckled. “And that Dept. of Labor? I made sure the politicians who I own cut their funding to nothing. It’s now a shadow of its former self.” He put his feet on his desk and muttered, “So ladies…, who’s going to stop me now?”

Obviously, he didn't respect his fellow villagers at all. Why should he? He so easily steamrolled over their town. And not only did they offer no resistance—they helped him do it! He replaced all that the town valued--human values like a sense of community, caring for others, respect for each other, feelings of safety and security and personal growth. What did he replace those with? Hard-nosed business values, like "one for you, a thousand for me” and his favorite, “Screw you!” Oh, how he enjoyed watching this "race" over the past years--he called it "the race to the bottom." For everyone except him, of course. Through his deliberate schemes and scams, he ended up right on top.

Years later, confused by the turn of events, a group of serfs traveled to the shack of the good (former) shopkeeper. "What happened?" they asked him. "Our town used to be a lovely place where everyone shared, no one was poor and no one lorded over us."

"But can’t you see? It was you that made him our lord and master," the good man responded. "When you shopped at Sprawl-Mart, where do you think that money went? Do you think the evil shopkeeper was going to put any of it back into our community? Why would he need to? Everything he needed he got from those cheap overseas sweatshops. He wasn't going to shop at our businesses. He didn't care if your children had decent healthcare, education or clean air and water. He doesn't care about the entire village. He's a selfish man. He only cares about his own lifestyle."

"But what can we do now?" whimpered the broken down towns folk. "He owns us. There's nowhere else left in town to shop or work. And we have to pay him rent to live in our pathetic little shacks."

"But," the good (former) shopkeeper said with a twinkle in his eyes, "There is just one place left where we can fight back--and Mr. Evil Shopkeeper can't control it!"

"Where's that?" the townspeople desperately asked.

"In the hearts and minds of you, your families, your friends and your fellow townspeople," the good (former) shopkeeper said. "I've printed this flyer about Sprawl-Mart. In it, I'm telling the people about the evil shopkeeper's deeds. Post this flyer, distribute it to everyone in the town, talk to everyone you know. And most of all--don't shop or work at Sprawl-Mart! We'll work together through this tough time. We'll help each other out the way neighbors used to. Together, we can reclaim our town from the clutches of the evil shopkeeper."

Soon, a miracle happened. Web sites sprung up talking about the evil shopkeeper's way of doing business. And there was nothing he could do about it!!! And soon there was even a film about Sprawl-Mart that was made outside of the studios owned by the evil shopkeeper.

What's that you say? You'd like to see that film? Hey, good for you. Find out where it’s playing near you by clicking here:

http://www.walmartmovie.com/

Crap! Do it quickly! I just heard that King Sprawl-Mart is trying to buy and control the Internet, too!