Always Low Prices, Really?

by Cooper on 5/11/2010 8:42:35 AM2 Comments

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio on a soggy Tuesday. It's a grand day for a rant, I think!

Now to be a true rant, the author often heads in the direction of policy, right? Does it count if it's MY policy? Let me explain.

Way back before it was cool, I began a personal boycott of the monstrosity of an enterprise, whose name begins with wal and ends with mart. October 2004, to be exact, was the last time I threw any dollars into their magna-massive coffers. I often brag about that. I am quite pleased with the longevity of my boycott. I have had people respond with, "wow, they must have really treated you bad". And actually, they appear to treat everyone pretty much the same, which causes me to wonder why people still go there.

"So why is this blog post surfacing now", you ask? A friend asked if I wanted to go over to the neighboring town with her yesterday. Ok. When we got there she mentioned, on her list, of stops was the object of my boycott. Have I mentioned that not only have I not spent any money in said store since October of 2004, I had not even walked into one? Yesterday I walked in. Not much has changed. Lots of cheap plastic stuff. Most of it stuff that people don't really need, but it's arranged to make them want it, and after all, it's "always low prices", so buy it.

Can anyone remember when their daddy Sam, used to advertise his products as "made in the USA"? A few months ago my husband brought home an interesting tidbit, the number of empty C containers Walmart ships back to China each month, to be refilled and brought back here to sell some more. Sorry---did not retain the number, just that it was overwhelming. Hey, and just a short while ago, they used to advertise "always the lowest prices". Now they get by with "always low prices".

Because I was in the store with nothing better to do, I decided to price compare, and looked for a few things that I purchase often enough to have the price memorized. Shampoo, for example. Turns out it's 3 cents a bottle less at my local grocery store. I walked over to the book rack. There was my friend Mary Connealy's new book release. It was the exact same price as what I had just paid ten minutes earlier downtown at the local bookstore. You know, the kind of bookstore where the owner lives in town, and his kids go to the local school, and they spend their money in town, and it all works together?

Robert Genn, at the Painters Keys had a letter a week or so ago about "The Next Big Thing", regarding promoting an artist or an art form as what EVERYBODY will be in awe of shortly. You should key on the word promoting there. "Ha", you say, "now she's finally getting to the point!" With a little bit of promotion, we will believe just about anything. With a little bit of promoting, a canvas that's painted a flat solid red can be called great art, loudly enough so that some fool will be convinced enough to shell out the big bucks. With a little bit of promotion, what we don't really need becomes something we want bad enough to pay for. With a little bit of promoting (advertising) the store that used to brag made in the USA, then always the lowest prices, now gets by with "always low prices". And we believe. Dios mio. Stop with the gullability, friend.

And you know what?---the guy who owns the local bookstore downtown---he was friendly, and he chatted with us, and told us about other new things that would be coming in soon, and he was happy to be at his job. His store was neat and clean, (no merchandise laying on the floor!) and shoppers were happy to be there. And because of people like him, life in a small midwestern town will continue to be good, despite the delusion at the pile of plastic and concrete out on the edge of town.

Rant complete. The paint brush should fly now, eh? Thanks for stopping by!

Later, Cooper

2 Responses to Always Low Prices, Really?

	marcia s schuette via karencooperpaintings.com	21 months ago
	"With a little bit of promotion, we will believe just about anything." how true; although they say every herd needs one free independent creative thinker.

	eugenia w martin via karencooperpaintings.com	20 months ago
	Love your rant just happened on it tonight. I have not stepped in a JC Penyea since 1976. They did me wrong. Like your work.

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