Do you really think that to be the case or do you just want to believe it? Crony Capitalism is not Laissez Faire Capitalism, at least not as far as this Lefty Libertarian is concerned but I accept that I may have misunderstood you.

I hear you and also shop there and elsewhere. I wonder how many proud bourgeois Wally-World boycotters can honestly say they also refuse to buy any (for example) Chinese made products. It is a class-based privilege to even have the option to play such a game of selectivity. I try to support local businesses, too, but I can't afford to be a purist about it.

@MikeInBatonRouge Well said. This is like all of those who opposed the stimulus check but you never hear of the great troubles they went through to give their check back. Obviously they kept the money.

@DenoPenno One can focus blame on individual companies, Walmart, Amazon, Google, McDonald's, etc, for all kinds of social ills, and there is no question their ethics can rightly be questioned, but modern history is pretty clear that righteous attempts to punish these giants through publicized boycott efforts fail time and again.

Worse, though, is the implication that customers who shop these (most affordable, most accessible) options are somehow morally lapsed. Bullshit. Focus on building business and visibility of local businesses, instead.

The post's cartoon is really good, actually, because it is highlighting the systemic nature of the problem. Individuals (economically squeezed) are pawns stuck in the middle.

Not a big fan of shopping either and definitely not WalMart.

But you have to admit that the people watching can be extraordinary sometimes, I go into a WalMart once a year at most, usually because my wife can't find something anywhere else and Wally World is the last resort.

Yeah, this is what I was talking about. Restaurant chains make it super hard for independents to succeed. Grocery store chains have almost completely eliminated small grocers. Amazon has closed mails all over America that contained thousands of independent kiosks. Years ago a had a coworker trash me for shopping at Wal-Mart because of the wages and the way they treat their workers. Unfortunately for him he was taking food out of a Burger King bag while he did it, so I pointed that out and that ended that. When will everyone learn that people don't/won't do the "right" things out of the goodness of their hearts?

@JeffMurray I think for many people its not about "the goodness of their hearts" and much more about the contents of their wallets (and bank accounts). Shopping at Kroger is easier, probably cheaper and definitely more convenient than going to the local farmer's market that's only open one day a week.

@Charles1971 That's true too. But I was talking about the companies then. We can't (and shouldn't have to)
rely on individuals to boycott things that we need our lawmakers to reign in because there's no chance the companies will ever do the right thing without those laws.