I read a letter to the editor this morning stating that Wal-Mart has "basically anything you could ever imagine and need." Sigh.
The writer was encouraging his readers to buy from locally-owned businesses, a position I fully support. Still, I'm bothered by the assumption that Wal-Mart is the answer to all our material needs, that Wal-Mart somehow contains within it everything we might ever want. Isn't that exactly what Wal-Mart wants its customers to believe?
Here are five items I can't buy at Wal-Mart:
bottled ink (I write with a fountain pen)These items are a random listing of what immediately comes to mind. If I were to begin thinking about matters of culture--art, books, movies, music--there'd be no end to a list of items that I can't buy at Wal-Mart. Since I choose not to shop at Wal-Mart (save for increasingly rare, extenuating-circumstance scenarios), it's all moot. I wouldn't want to buy these things at Wal-Mart anyway. Doing so would only undercut the efforts of the businesses that are already making them available to me.
flat (Italian) parsley
loose Twinings tea
Moleskine notebooks
Patak vindaloo curry paste
What can't you buy at Wal-Mart?
comments: 6
Happiness, contentment, safety, love, friendship, peace and anything really essential are all things you can't buy in Wal-mart
Interestingly enough Wal-Mart's new subsidary in England has been out-traded off the wall by home-grown Tesco in England - so much so that it's complained to the government Office of fair trading Ho Ho Ho!! Now Tesco really knows its customers - it's database is complete...precisely why I don't always shop there ....use cash.....they won't know who you are......
I saw the vindaloo curry paste on your list and picked some up at the International Food Store. Do you have a vindaloo recipe you could recommend?
Thanks,
Buck
Julian, thanks for your comment. I've read about Wal-Mart's successes and failures in various countries, but I didn't know of its presence in England.
Buck, I would just follow the directions on the jar and serve it with basmati rice. I wish I had more to say about it! There's a recipe using Patak's vindaloo paste here
http://www.funhouse.com/jfw/dinner/vindaloo.html
along with a recipe for vindaloo from scratch ("Vindaloo the Hard Way").
This is not really related to your comment on Wal-Mart, but what sort of fountain pen do you write with?
Signed,
A fountain pen lover in Perth, Western Australia
Hi CW,
My favorite pens to write with are a Pelikan 800 and a Lamy Safari, with Pelikan black ink.
Actually, they have flat leaf Italian parsley at our Wal-mart
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