[Jewelry making - Article 00257] - Re: [Orchid] Weapons of mass-destruction

[Lisa Orlando]

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>      Does it really matter if Wal-Mart or Costco is selling diamonds!
>     The local druggist who used to be my customer was forced out of
>     business by their prices, as was the local grocer, his employees
>     all are now minimum wage workers for Wal-Mart.  When we have no
>     customers the undercutting of our prices no longer matters does it!
>      I don't have an answer.  I find myself spending money at Home
>     Depot & Wal-Mart all while knowing that some locally owned store
>     might have that product for sale & they might be my customer
>     tomorrow if they are still in business. 

Dear Mark,

    Capitalism is an agonizing system which, as both you and its most
    famous critic have noted, contains the seeds of its own destruction.
    Unfortunately, it will probably destroy a lot of us before it
    destroys itself. (NB: to potential flamers: don't bother. And, sorry,
    capitalism isn't synonymous with "trade.")   

    Even though I still believe, as we said in the early women's
    liberation movement, that "there are no personal solutions," I deal
    with with this stuff by drawing arbitrary lines. If I have the energy
    and money, I purposefully choose to patronize local businesses and
    hope they will return the favor. If I'm really broke, etc., I go to
    the mall. But, although I've been known to shop at Home Depot
    (usually when the local Ace doesn't have what I need), I never shop
    at Costco or Walmart. Even if it does nothing else, this strategy
    keeps me from falling into abject despair. 

    However, as Lee pointed out, there is the additional strategy
    possible: organizing, rather than just agonizing. There are
    municipalities and counties that have banned to Walmart. My parents
    live in a little rural county in Nebraska, where some "outside
    agitators" got the locals to agree, formally, to patronize each other
    rather than drive to the nearest mall. And it worked. 

    I believe there is only one real "answer," and I doubt it will
    materialize in my lifetime. Meanwhile, the best we can do is support
    each other, and organize, when we are able. 

Lisa Orlando
Aphrodite's Ornaments
Benicia, CA


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