Although I hadn't thought of it that way, before, I think David has a point, the  progressives' traditional derision for Wal-Mart actually reveals an elitist bent in the green movement that we will have to move beyond real progress is to be made. Also, it reveals a very simple but compelling truth. Human beings need goods and services (and Wal-Mart offers plenty of them for a dirt cheap prices). But more importantly, they need community, and odd as it may seem, Wal-Mart offers that too. My own childhood town in Tennessee got its Super Wal-Mart about 10 years ago, and rapidly it became a mecca for the locals to gather, shop and simply hang out. A strip-mall variety substitute for the "stoop sitting" of decades past.
  Don't get me wrong, I think Wal-Mart has a lot to answer for regarding wages, outsourcing, and all the other evils inherent in giant big box stores. The irony is that the increasingly isolated, gated community lifestyles we've come to associate with these mega chains is that they leave an emptiness we come to fill---for a bargain, of cours---at Wal-Mart.

I hadn't stopped to think about Wal-Mart this way, but you have a very good point.  I'd like to add that Wal-Mart is attempting to do some very interesting things right now in terms of its ecological footprint.  I have to assume that there must be at least some pressure from its shoppers to provide more organic selection.  

Your comment about the unfair characterization of  "Wal-Mart shoppers, depicted as obese, dim-witted, herd-like hicks" rings true.  Maybe if we can start to give Wal-Mart credit for the changes it is making, some of that goodwill will transfer to Wal-Mart shoppers and change these stereotypes.

http://groxie.com DIY Environmentalism

Nope, it's a Walmart.

Sam Walton would be dismayed indeed by what his creation is becoming.  A destroyer of real competitive capitalism, instead of an engine of its growth.

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