Plug-along Monday: another hard hitting on the ground report from the American Paradise

Around Christmas time at our place, 2008. We have gotten older, but we still wear the same clothes. Since we hang our wash on the line, the clothes never wear out. Oh, and the breadfruit tree is now gigantic.

We braved the horrors of  Christmas shopping yesterday with a trip to Costco. Yikes. The only people who seemed to be enjoying themselves were the kids dashing around, totally out of control, except for those who were  throwing tantrums. It was like one of those Mad Magazine illustrations of crowd chaos. Yes, good times and the American way, ie consumer Hell. The focus at Costco is on buying stuff, 100%. It is unglamorous, to the max. The joy and wonder of the season was definitely a no-show.

Our favorite nearby Thai restaurant was closed, so we were forced to consume Costco turkey sandwiches that were barely edible. The food used to be better, with a passable chicken Caesar salad, but the last time I had one there the chicken was slimy.

Why are people putting up with this???????  Is it because they have never been exposed to anything better? I can't believe that or maybe don't want to believe that. I mean, is this supposed to be the good stuff, not like that awful WalMart! Our local WalMart has recently deteriorated, too, to the point where I can hardly stand to go in there any more. I think it's when they started selling groceries that it got so bad. They have always had a MacDonald's. My desire to shop always takes a nosedive when I walk in and smell the MacDonald's fast food odors. The implication is, "This is good enough for you people."

My feeling is that food and consumer goods should not be sold in the same stores.This unfortunate kind of retailing started in France with the Supermarches which offered one stop shopping. The French hate shopping and tend to be in a bad mood, usually, and are lacking in discipline and easily frustrated,and  these places made them  furious, as I recall. I suppose they are run better now. Last time I was in France they were selling fancy ready-made meals for those who no longer care to cook.

Fred Meyer, a chain that started in the Northwest, does a better job of providing comprehensive one stop shopping than most. They put the groceries in the front, so you can go in and food shop without having to look at other merchandise. They have a deli and a Starbucks and that's it.

Ikea, which I used to like, has become unbearable of late. And I do think it's the food thing that's the problem. People come there and linger for hours in the restaurant, taking up the parking spaces and not buying anything but the meatballs and fries. Just what you want to confront when you are trying to buy a bed or a bookcase.

In a mall, the food and consumer goods are in separate areas, which helps.  Our local mall, Prince Kuhio, while not being at all upscale, segregates the food from the merch and is quite OK to be in. The have a good taco stand  and other nice, simple places to eat.

There is the nostalgia for the olden days, even from hard-bitten me, whether it's the little shops on the proverbial Main Street or the glamorous Christmas shopping excursions I remember from my childhood in San Francisco, worth dressing up for,  with lavish window displays and my favorite wonder, the huge, elegantly decorated tree at the City of Paris,  but these things are of no interest to turbocapitalism and the bottom line.  I suppose municipalities that can afford it still provide Christmas joy. Honolulu was wonderful, the time we spent a couple of days there at Christmas  eight years ago. They did it up right!

Comments

[Brandon]

I almost never go to Wal-Mart, but I've eaten at its McDonald's a few times. What I don't like are the noise and crowds.
Oh, and the noise. Yes. It's awful, but another thing that people most places have simply resigned themselves to.

[Hattie]

Brandon: We are rarely privileged here, in that we don't have to deal with crowds much. Most other places, crowds and heavy traffic are the order of the day.

[Brandon]

"[T]he huge, elegantly decorated tree at the City of Paris"

Do you have a photo of that? What I found online were the tree by the Eiffel Tower and a tree in the Galleries Lafayette.

[Hattie]

Brandon: All I was able to find were some small black and white photos, not very satisfactory.

[Brandon]

I'm thinking it was the Christmas tree by the Eiffel Tower.

[Hattie]

Brandon: It was in a department store in SF called The City of Paris.

[Wisewebwoman]

I positively hate shopping. I'm thrift store, local small grocery and online. I think these huge soulless warehouses of product to the sky force people to consume like mad things so they can beat it out of there quickly feeling they fought a war in the desert and won.
I've listened to enough bragging about what they snagged.

XO
WWW

[Michael Strickland]

Well, you might want to stop shopping at those monstrous places, which makes you a collaborator to their awfulness. And that's your Holiday Guilt Trip for the season.

[Hattie]

Mike: I lack purity.

[Ingineer66]

We had the first Fred Meyer in California here in Chico in the late 80's and they had 3 more under construction. We loved the place, but the economy took a down turn and they decided it was more trouble than it was worth to do business in Calif. They closed and sold all their properties.
Our Costco has gone down hill lately too. I asked my son's girlfriend who works there when the clientele started looking like the Walmart crowd. She quoted a date and said that was when they started accepting food stamps.

[Hattie]

Ingineer: Everywhere I shop accepts food stamps. I thought they had to.

[Ingineer66]

I think Costco was not required to since they are a membership store. But they started doing it here about 18 months ago.