Shopping at Walmart is UNPATRIOTIC and UN-AMERICAN

I don't understand why people don't directly perceive this simple fact. Shopping Walmart is unpatriotic and un-American. Among other reasons, shopping at Walmart:

1. Encourages the destruction of local economies (local stores)
2. Encourages the destruction of nation-wide economies (made in America)
3. Unfairly increases the tax burden of people that have to pay for Walmart Employee health care benefits via public assistance.
4. Strengthens our #1 or #2 (potential) enemy in the world -- China.
5. Causes the destruction of the environment in China, and therefore the world
6. Encourages the massive misery of child labor in China and in other countries.

I view Walmart as a foreign invader. As far as I'm concerned, every Walmart store should be required by law to fly a Republic of China flag with a banner under it saying F* America.

Last night we were visiting friends on Thanksgiving, and they said they had to go to bed so they could get to Walmart by 4:30 AM on "Black Friday". I bluntly and directly said "shopping at Walmart is completely Un-American". At first they thought I was joking, but when I made it clear that I was not, they became somewhat offended and gave 50 excuses why it was okay. We then left with less than pleasant feelings between our two families.

Don't shop at Walmart. Just don't do it.

and don't want to shop there for a lot of the reasons you list, but I completely understand why so many do, and I think making the judgment that they're Unamerican is silly and demonstrates a lack of understanding.

I'm not nearly as prolific a poster as you, but we always seem to butt heads on issues, don't we?

No, I think the issue is extremely simple. Shopping Walmart causes huge damage, whether people realize it or not. One of our jobs as progressives is to educate people to this damage, and to encourage them to stop causing the damage.

less concerned about the issues you raise. And then there's the matter of education; how can you possibly educate them by condemning them?

at a business that destroys local economies and imports cheaply made crap from China that could potentially poison them.

Sadly, ignorance is bred like this. You can't educate people living hand-to-mouth. Maslow showed that in his hierarchy of needs.

Not.

Some people have no choice and to state what you are stating is freeperish at best.

You don't like what someone says so you whip out the Freeper label. Even on an issue as politically neutral is this. (Neutral in terms of being left or right wing).

What you said is just as freeperish as the right wingers claiming that not supporting the war was unpatriotic. Some people have no choice but to shop at Wal Mart. Claiming that they are Unamerican is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. You should be ashamed.

Or have some sort of investment in the behemoth. Hence the attacks.

Do you have tobacco stocks too?

I know for a fact that there are several DUers who have no choice but to shop at WalMart because they have no alternatives. Calling them Un-American because they have no other shopping venue is disgusting.

I can think of several who are far less Un-American than you are for posting this.

And, yes. There's a Wal Mart near here. I think I've been in it about three times in 20 years. There are alternatives here for me; others, not so much.

You need to put the broad brush down.

I can no longer shop elsewhere - my monthly mortgage payment is what I make every month. I have to use my childsupport income to pay my other bills.

These types of posts make me crazy.

When the products I buy are up to $1 less per item, that might result in an extra tank of gas or even taking the little to a movie.

whatever else it was that I needed to buy. (I think it was stuff for TM to go to school)

Anyway. I was astonished at the price differences. Astonished. I could easily save $100 a week on groceries if I shopped there. Easily.

I like Kroger's better, because of the produce selection, but boy, I am tempted an awful lot because of the savings.

The way the economy is going, I think we'll all be shopping there.

for produce - but you know, the green beans I used for Thanksgiving I bought at Walmart for 50% less than they were at the other grocer - and since I was using them right away I didn't have freshness concerns.

WE need to be more responsible and make sacrifices if WE want real change

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/01/8645

Despite bringing in over $378 billion last year, Wal-Mart repeatedly underpays its American workforce. More than 80 wage & hour lawsuits, including a recently certified class action lawsuit in California, are currently pending against the company. Plus, it faces more than 200 discrimination lawsuits for unfair promotion practices, pay discrepancies and other issues, including the nation's largest workplace gender discrimination lawsuit. By failing to fairly compensate its employees, Wal-Mart cheats states out of income tax revenues.
Wal-Mart also pays poorly. While the company seeks to benefit from the government's rebate payout, Wal-Mart's low wages means store employees have little or no disposable income to spend to stimulate the economy. Think about what even a small raise for Wal-Mart's 1 million+ workers would mean nationally, or what it would mean to your city or town if everyone at your local Wal-Mart got a raise.
Wal-Mart sources the vast majority of its products from countries overseas, meaning most of the cost of a given Wal-Mart product doesn't go into the U.S. economy. Rather than boosting the U.S. economy, Wal-Mart has played a major role in exporting U.S. manufacturing jobs to countries with low labor and environmental standards. Meanwhile, the company has embraced unions in its Chinese stores and has negotiated with them to raise Chinese salaries. Apparently, what is good enough for China is not good enough here at home.
Wal-Mart underfunds its health care plan and cuts corners whenever possible, forcing many of its employees to postpone care, thus decreasing their productivity and increasing the eventual cost of their treatment. In desperation, many of them rely on state-sponsored care and drain yet more funds from American communities. That means when Wal-Mart employees end up in emergency rooms, it's U.S. taxpayers who end up footing the bill. If Wal-Mart were truly interested in stimulating the economy, it would begin to adequately fund its health care plan and take care of its own Associates.
Wal-Mart routinely dodges state and local taxes, meaning money spent at a Wal-Mart store won't end up in your community. Wal-Mart actively works to challenge property tax assessments and creates complex real estate arrangements to obscure how much taxes the company owes. When Wal-Mart dodges its tax burden, it takes precious revenues away from cities and states to pay for roads, schools and other services. In turn, individual taxpayers are forced to pay more to make up the difference (which takes more money out of their pockets) or get by with less.
With its low price focus, Wal-Mart may appear to help the U.S. economy. But, the reality is that with its poor wages and benefits, massive China sourcing and tax avoidance, Wal-Mart makes its workers and the communities where it operates poorer.

had already been grabbed up.

I will apply next year. For now, the little one and the dogs and I will be fine, though. My family will help me.

Thanks for your concern, though, I appreciate it

LOL. Of course those that disagree with you must have a financial stake right? Good grief talk about narrow minded and judgemental.
How goddamned childish and stupid and the last refuge for someone who can't justify their view.

midlo just thinks that a sweeping generalization about people who shop a low cost option are unpatriotic is total bunk.

I don't shop at Walmart because I hate the store. But there are many other people in the US who don't have much of a choice.

Whip out something other than the Freeper label.

Mcshame and failin palin. When you do not have the money to pay the higher prices that are a part of all the other stores in our community it is hard to let your family go hungry because you do not like Walmart.

Target's not much better.

And yet, everything you say about its impact on America is true.

That is the truly sorry state we are in.

they're a piece of SHIT

WalMart epitomizes American values, I'm ashamed to say.

Someone would come up with a Wall Mart.
..but it would be called something else...

......................................................................................................

The business plan of Wall Mart...sell it cheap ...and sell lots of it...is totally American...

It's common sense. Some folks cater to the well to do. Sell a little but sell it at high prices each.

Some folks cater to the middle class. Decent stuff at a decent price.

And yes, some folks cater to the poor. Low prices but large volume.

There is nothing "American" about that. That's capitalism. Which last time I checked is practiced throughout much of the world.

We are not some evil that the rest of the world has somehow avoided. There are cheap stores, middle stores and exclusive stores all around the world.

batteries, some food, some medicine...yea..it is cheap..
but it ain't all shit........

And, I wasn't wearing a flag pin or singing the Star Spangled Banner.

"Patriotism is the most foolish of passions, and the passion of fools." Schopenhauer

I am a single parent who lives hand to mouth.

Is it unpatriotic and unamerican to feed my kid?

with all the crap they import--and china: the queen of melamine--fuck that. the toys they bring in, lead paint, blablabla (you've heard it all before)--just watch what you buy. i know we all need to pay attention but i think more dangerous products have a better chance of going through walmart than a lot of other stores--in part due to their high rate of imports, and in part due to their fucking indifference to people

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

I don't consider spending less money for the same American made products un-American.

Why spend more for the same bottle of Tide or the same tube of Crest?

I guess it's always been easy for the rich to tell the poor how we should live...

They put local businesses out of business and create low paying jobs that will need health care provided by the community. It's a fact you may pay less at the counter but it actually costs you more in the long run.

With "local businesses". They didn't carry much and what they did was overpriced. When you can drive to a big retailer / grocery store 50 miles round trip, figuring in your time, gas AND wear and tear on your car and still save $50-$100 EVERY MONTH on your grocery bill, then "local businesses" are too fucking high.

that fall back on the very community that you live in. Not a savings to the consumer as it turns out.

The local hardware businesses didn't have what I needed, and their cost was way too high. They told me they could order what I needed, but I needed it right then. I know it's because Lowes can buy in bulk by the shipload, so it's cheaper. But when you're tiling a 2000 sq. ft. house and you can get the same tile at Lowes for 50 cents less than a local business, it adds up.

Sometimes my wife will go to Walmart, but I can't stand to shop so I haven't been there in years.

***If you are buying groceries at Walmart, remember that you are putting food and produce in a cart that may have had pesticides/fertilizer/manure from the garden department in it earlier, so always protect your food with plastic bags if not already protected.****

who haven't shopped there for years

As in the Walton family?

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Alice-Wal...

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Christy-W...

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Jim-Walto...

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_S-Robson-...

As if Mall-Wart is the "only" store which discounts products.

Other small stores and big chains have dropped out and W-M is the last dump standing. I don't think that you should roll your eyes about that. Educate yourself or at a minimum give others the benefit of the doubt.

Excellent.




What about the posters who have no transportation and the bus only goes to Wal Mart? Or if the Wal Mart is the only gig in town?

Those bastards. How DARE they put food in their children's mouths rather than being Patriotic?

Once again, posters on this board almost take great delight in punishing people for their circumstances. It's delightful.

But if there is such a situation, and if Wal-Mart is the only shopping place in town, well then that's concrete proof how Mall-Wart has harmed the nation.

(As for the "patriotic" thing - that wasn't an issue within my post)

Or Tennessee, or Wyoming.

Places where the bus goes to the one store in town. Wal Mart.

Wal-Mart has clearly pushed out all the smaller stores. It's monopolized Main Street.

And WalMart brought jobs and groceries to a struggling mining town? Could that be?

Where did the mining town get groceries prior to Wal-Mart?

Seriously. I know of plenty of places here in Virginia that had people driving for over an hour to get groceries. It's not that unusual.

There are people on this board who are stuggling desperately who take the bus to the grocery store - Wal Mart- to feed their families. Is that that hard to believe?

if you don't like Wal Mart - Don't shop there. Some people have no choice. No choice.

then that means in areas where this has happened people don't have other options for shopping.

From my grandmother's town, the closest store bigger than a country store/mini market/gas station was a Wal-mart Supercenter. And that was still 45 minutes drive away.

Once a week the senior center shuttle would go into the town with the WalMart, and that's where she'd do most of her shopping.

...in an assisted living situation. Twice a week a shuttle comes and picks up the seniors for a trip to Wal-mart. It's one of the few opportunities to get out and see something different. My father goes to her place once a week and takes her elsewhere for shopping and then they have lunch.

Pick a subject and someone has something hateful to say about it. Go figure.

it's very simple. DON'T SHOP THERE!!!!!

For other people, it's a necessity and calling them Un-American? Puleez.

Maybe it's anger here and not hate or maybe you replied to the wrong post but you do make my case. Shop where ever you want to. Roll in it, live in it but if you have a choice between Wal-Mart and other stores you are killing your own chances of ever having anything better by shopping there. Peace, Kim

So sorry it didn't come off that way. I am in total agreement.

Peace,
Midlo.

Sorry.

I buy my groceries there. If the product I want is cheapest there, and I am a single parent BARELY able to feed myself and my child, where is my choice? Tell me, if my other grocery stores are more expensive and my CHOICE is between feeding my kid or putting gas in my car to get to work to feed my kid, where do you suggest I go.

Can you provide an examples?

And, no, I'm not kidding. If I shopped there for groceries weekly, I could easily shave $100 off my $400 bill. Easily. With no compromising on quality or quantity.

the frozen vegetables that I buy are 75 cents per box, the eggs are $1 less a dozen, the green beans I bought for Thanksgiving were 50% less per pound than at the supermarket, the pasta I buy is about 25-30 cents less per pound....need I go on?

I can't evaluate the other items you mention, but if they really are that much less expensive, I would not feel safe eating them, considering how Wal-Mart cuts corners in every facet.

Even without purchasing the Equate brand or the Sam's Choice brands, you can save a small fortune at Wal Mart on Groceries. \

In my grocery store, it is $1.59 for a box of Barilla Farfalle. The store brand is $1.29. At Walmart, I am buying Barilla Farfalle for $1.23 a box.

just for that much cheaper. I would not buy the store-brand at Walmart AND the name brand stuff at Walmart is the same price as the store-brand at my grocer and they don't have that option for what I am looking for.

Here are the shopping options I have: A small locally owned grocery store and a slightly larger one that was once a small grand union, a very nice and expensive country store and an even more expensive but very nice co-op.

The co-op doesn't sell frozen veggies. At the country store they do and it will cost you between a $1.35 and $1.85. At the small local grocery store it's about 15 cents cheaper and at the used to be grand union it's about the same.

You clearly don't know what you're talking about

You get what you pay for...

where WalMart is indeed the only option. Try the little town outside Fort Leonard Wood Missouri. Walmart is the only shopping center for about 100 miles. It is literally the cultural hub for that area, there is nothing else around.

There are all sorts of towns just like that area.

Unless you've done a census and can provide people with better options in a driveable distance (assuming everyone has cars, which they dont) then your rolly eyes sarcasm is based on your likely limited experience.

It is a situation, though, that Wal-Mart has created.

It's a situation that local businesses have more than helped created by being arrogant and over priced. Have YOU every lived in a small town, defined as population under 10K? If you haven't they you have no clue, NONE. You are like a virgin lecturing other people about sex.

As well as your contempt (and smearing) of Main Street small-business people.

However, there are plenty of places in this country where there is NO Main Street. No stop signs, no stoplights. Nada. People drive for over an hour to get groceries.

Hell in parts of AK, people drive for three hours each way to buy their groceries. If a Wal Mart moved in, don't you think that they should have the opportunity to shop closer to home? Environmentally at least, it makes tremendous sense not to drive 6 hours for groceries.

I lived in a small Texas town from 1977-1989. They were damn few business. What there were, were controlled by a handful of families that had lived there for years. They pretty much controlled everything. They kept any innovation and change OUT. But the small towns either side of mine grew and prospered because they had people living there that wanted more. Not just Walmarts, but large grocery stores like HEB and Kroger.

that has discounted products. I have no Costco, Target, Big Lots ect... I have no small grocer that doesn't charge an arm and a leg for it's products. I have to shop at WM for somethings because that savings adds up for that extra tank of gas, or money to heat my house.

Not all of us have the choice, and if you don't believe me, I invite you to come to my neck of the woods and see for yourself.

The grocery stores here charge much more than the Wal-Mart. You save significant money driving an hour to the Super Wal-Mart to do big grocery shopping if you can't find stuff at our little Wal-Mart.

they have the means to afford NOT to shop there, and they have access to other stores. and still, they shop there because THEY DON'T GIVE A FUCKING SHIT AS LONG AS THEY GET SOMETHING A LITTLE CHEAPER!

if people *have* to shop there then they *have* to. but when they most certainly can afford not to and they do it anyway--what do you call them?

were higher than other stores!

i wondered if just because they said they were "low" often enough people started believing it. it never used to be true!

i have no idea now--i haven't been there in years.

general rule of thumb in my experience, shopping at Walmart currently saves roughly 20% over other grocery stores

1. WalMart has low prices on many things. We can talk about the fact that it doesnt always have the lowest prices, but often it does
2. the economy stinks, which means low prices cease to become an option for many folks, they become a necessity
3. there are often not better options. Costco is not everywhere, Target is little better, and again is not everywhere, the "local stores" often mean paying more, which see note 2, is no longer an option for many

So your response is I dont care if you dont have the money, go somewhere else so I can feel self righteous?

Nothing that you say about Wal-Mart is wrong in my opinion, yet I have a hard time telling poor people not to shop where the price is lowest. If someone has scraped together $20 to buy food for the week, am I really going to tell her to buy half as much as the local market cause, you know, it's the right thing to do?

When you are unemployed or just struggling to keep a roof over your head, you shop at the least expensive places you can find. Walmart has the lowest prices on a lot of things. For some its simply a matter of survival.

Walk a mile or ten in the shoes of someone who is facing foreclosure and then lets see how "patriotic" you are.

Thank you.

Actually I posted it before I read your posts or the rest of the thread.

I understand the politics of Walmart and its not good... I used to avoid shopping there for the reasons the OP stated. But I've had a bad year. Been going to a food pantry since June, and I am still going even though I am working. So I now shop at Walmart... not exclusively, but if its going to save me money, I'm going there. If I had children to support I'm sure I would have done it a long time ago.

Its not fair to blame people who shop at Walmart for the things Walmart does to get cheaper prices, especially in this economy. If people can afford to boycott them, that's fine. But nobody has a right to judge others for trying to make the money we have go as far as possible.

I guess I could start a thread saying its unpatriotic to spend more on necessities than you have to, but I'll leave it alone.

Don't like abortion? Don't have one.

Don't like Wal Mart? Don't shop there.

Both of them are necessary to some folks, so stop the judging.


Not you. Others on this thread.

who, without a doubt, can afford NOT to and they shop there anyway.

The hypocrisy here is stunning sometimes.

And buying the products I wish regardless of their origin.

They are an American company that pays taxes and hire American residents who use their salaries to support themselves as well as pay taxes. And there are lots of American made products on their shelves.

I also shop at the local asian grocery.

asian grocery is UNAMERICAN

A surging sea of black hair.

Not long ago I bought a very large stock pot there, nice heavy stainless with a thick aluminum bottom so it doesn't burn sauces easily. Made in Texas.

The Anchor Hocking and Pyrex brand stuff is made in the USA. As I posted down-thread, they sell US-made cookie sheets.

From page 26: Our effective income tax rates for fiscal 2005, 2004 and 2003 were 34.7%, 36.1% and 35.2%, respectively.


http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/11/112/112761/i...

Sorry.

If there is no alternative where you live it's because you killed the alternatives by shopping at Wal Mart.
Suckers!

Sorry...

But I have to agree, Wal Mart is the epitome of Americanism.
Stupid, blind, greedy, juvenile, shallow, vapid, short-sighted and ignorant.
Just like America.

Sorry...

Luckily, I don't live in America, I live in New York City.
We've got a whole different set of fucked-uped-ness here, but at least I've got tons of great small, family-owned businesses in my neighborhood, and I don't ever have to set foot in a big-box store. I don't buy any cheap Chinese-made crap if I can possibly help it, and I don't have to deal with people who fall for the seduction of "bargains." We've got enough interesting things to do around here that shopping isn't a sport for anybody that I know, and I am so glad that I don't have to spend a single fucking penny today, on Buy Nothing Day. The suckers are out there trampling people to death to save a few pennies, and I say fuck the whole thing. Suckers!

Sorry...

Simply fabulous. Kudos!!!!

"sticks" as I am sure you would call it, I have to shop at Walmart if I want to feed my kid AND keep gas in the car, and the furnace on, and...well, you get the point.

with such stunning lack of compassion, it's difficult to see you being one.

And I live in Northern Vermont. I'll bet I buy less Chinese junk than you. I don't shop at any big box stores- not there are any around where I live. But I'd never be such a nasty snot toward people who do need to shop there to save their pennies.

Oh, and we up here in the sticks don't need NY to provide our entertainment. We make our own. And hey, I have a garden and chickens for eggs, so according to your shitty little philosophy, I'm morally superior to you.

Hey, a sucker is a sucker.
Whether "liberal" or some other stripe of bullshit.

Sorry...

you're so blind that you ignore people in this thread telling you WHY they shop at WalMart- and why it's neccessary for them to do so.

...some people chose to be suckers, allowing the big box stores to eliminate all of the local-owned retailers in their rural areas. To save money. I get it. Yeah, I know that it costs a lot in gasoline to drive miles and miles out of the way to spend more on the stuff that's cheaper at Wal Mart. I fucking get it. I've lived in rural areas, so I know how difficult it can be. And I got the hell out, because it wasn't working for me.

The lure of the big-capitalist retailers, who through the power of bulk purchasing and slave labor have been able to bring prices on junk that nobody really needs anyway down to peasant levels, have destroyed any real competition. Competitors that kept the money in the local economy rather than sending huge profits to a few members of an insanely wealthy dysfunctional family in Arkansas. I know... nobody really cares where the profits go, as long as the price is low.

Again... Suckers!

I understand all about the blinders of self-interest and self-preservation that we all wear that allow us to do things that work against our own best interest. We bitch and moan all day long around here about "Freepers" and "Repugs" who vote against their own political self-interest every single fucking time, and it's great laugh-along giggle-fest when we do that. Yet, when "consumers" vote with their dollars, which is probably a more significant vote than the ones people cast every four years, against their own self-interest EVERY fucking day... well if someone points THAT out, in a less than graceful way I will admit, then that someone is being cruel.

I say... fuck that! Shopping at Wal Mart is a dollar vote against everything that is in your own best interest. Like it or not, too fucking bad!

Just out of curiosity. What do you do for a living? How did you pay for college? I don't normally ask such personal questions, but you seem to have everything figured out, so I am interested to know more about your life experiences.

12. Possibly 13. Couldn't be any older than that with the drivel being spewn.

No answer.

Pokemon must be on.

"I AM FROM HOLLYWOOD!!!!"

"ALL MY LAWYERS WILL SUE YOU!!!!"

Perfect example of why people outside NYC despise people who live there. And yeah, you ARE pretty fucking sorry.

voting with your dollars is exactly what this person is stating. When you support a store like Walmart, you vote for the option that keeps you from being able to go to any other store.

He/she could have been more sensitive in tone, but really? What the fuck does arrogant NYCer actually mean? You either agree or disagree.... make your case, he/she did, you didn't.

I've lived in plenty of other places as well.
Don't know where I picked up the arrogance?

Wal Mart still sucks, of course!
And it wouldn't suck if nobody shopped there...

If you're alright with #1, but also don't mind #2, then I don't see what actual difference it makes if Wal-Mart encourages the construction of global economies. You're already destroying local economies with nation-wide economies. The natural progression of that would be to destroy nation-wide economies with global economies. America wouldn't even exist without that exact process. Hit land with 3 ships. Build 13 colonies. Expand from sea to shining sea. Create global system.

When you think about it, what is the difference between America and Wal-Mart? They seem to function the same way.

(It's THE store where I am now....few other shops to buy the necessities...guess everyone was driven out of business)

Wal-Mart used to have those made in America commercials. You don't see those anymore. It was the old bait and switch that happened over a period of years. Who would notice.

MADE IN AMERICA!

Nobody talks about that anymore, even as they trample fellow Americans to squabble--or kill for--that last plastic Chinese-made Santa light.

It would really help the environment, obviously anyone who doesn't go buy a new hybrid car tomorrow is unpatriotic as well.

I had to go downtown Wednesday to my lawyer's office and I swear I must have seen 40 Priuses! I have never seen that many.

I started thinking about how many of those folks purchased them because of the price of gas rather than the environment and whether or not they were now in a financial situation that they didn't foresee.

I work in Va, and there are a TON of Priuses where I work. I have one too, but I live in Md where we don't really have HOV lanes.

were driving any of those new cars you saw downtown. My point was that, believe it or not, most people can't just go buy a new car whenever they want. In fact most people will never own a new car in their lives. It is certainly the lucky few that when faced with high gas prices actually have the option of alleviating it by simply buying a new hybrid.

I just found it interesting that I saw so many. I haven't seen that many prior to $4 a gallon gas.

I just hope the folks who bought didn't commit themselves to a payment that will be a struggle because of the price of gas.

Although I guess one way to look at it is that the more of them that are purchased, the more ultimately end up on the used car market where working people are more able to afford them. Even people that can't keep them are taking one for the team by paying that one-time new car mark-up.

because American made is junk. Some people are never satisfied!

Is telling people that they should not shop in places where they can find the things they need at prices they can afford. If you can afford to shop where you pay higher prices for the stuff you need, then more power to you. Not everyone has that option.

You may live where there are tons of places to shop. That's great. Others do not.

Walmart stocks American-made products, as well as stuff made all over the world. One can buy just the American-made stuff if they want...assuming they can identify it.

Walmart hurt small businesses...sometimes. In other places, small businesses thrive, partly due to their proximity to a Walmart store.

What's un-American, in my opinion, is telling people what they can and cannot do, based on your own preferences.

completely agree.

I should add that I can't remember the last time I was in a Walmart. I just get peeved when anyone presumes to tell others that what they do is un-American. That's annoying.