My original letter to Christianity Today

As a campus minister trying to teach college students holistic
responsibility, I was somewhat disappointed with last months article
on Wal*Mart. Jeff M. Sellers covers three of the bigger issues, but
looks past many others. For example, he briefly mentions the trend in
America of increasing service sector jobs. This is in part due to
Wal*Mart's large demand for units, and the power that comes with
ordering millions of units from suppliers. They have a strangle hold
on the market. Suppliers are forced to take work overseas when their
costs increase due to an increased cost of production (Levi's is a
prime example). There have been many articles in other publications
written about this.

Also in the article, beauty in diversity is ignored. Wal*Mart is one
of the largest powers of homogenization in American, and soon global
culture. You can drive across the country and never really leave home
if you always eat at the same restaurants, go to the same stores, stay
at the same motels, etc. We learn alot from seeing different cultural
objects. Wal*Mart rarely changes from place to place.

Finally a nice complementary article would have been one on
consumerism, and the idol of wants. My wife and I have chosen to stop
shopping at Wal*Mart and other large chains so that we can support our
local economy,and not be deluged by every product we could possibly
want. This makes us spend more time discerning what we need, so we
buy less. It is easier to pay less for everything, but when I have to
pay more, it makes me wait and think, "do I really need this ____?"
More Christians need to ask this question before they buy, and teach
there children the same skill. The excuse of saving money may fade to
the background when we actually consume less (which also means less
waste).

Thank you for covering a big issue across America, and for beginning
to ask a good question. The next question is: "If I don't shop at
Wal*Mart as an ethical decision, where else shouldn't I shop?"