Always Low Prices--Always
Grumpy "OLD" Man came across a really good blog find and blogged about it this morning (Friday, April 30, 2004).
Always Low Prices--Always (ALP) is in fact an interesting team blog, which has a stable of contributors who write about: The Best and the Worst about Wal-Mart [new Web address].
there are seven (7) regular contributors to ALP so far and they also have guest writers as well.
ALP's Disclaimers states that the blog
... is not affiliated with Wal-Mart in any way.
No author owns shares of WM directly.
Those of us who work for WM admit it freely.
The opinions of ALP contributors are their own.
In fact, most of us don't even shop at WM.
the ALP blog has only been up since Thursday, April 08, 2004 and, at the time of my own initial visit this morning, they already have had 17,342 visits to their blog.
for a relatively new blog on the block, that certainly is a great amount of interest and popularity the blog is generating. not bad!
*update*
while browsing through the archive of previous blog posts on the ALP, I came across this invite posted by Kevin Brancato on Wednesday, April 14, 2004:
Interested in Blogging about WM?
Always Low Prices is actively looking for cobloggers.
If you would like to blog the controversy surrounding the world's largest corporation, send me an email at kbrancat-at-gmu.edu.
There are no editorial restrictions or requirements to blog at ALP, save decency and my personal liability, and the desire to post at least monthly.
And yes, we welcome bloggers who dislike WM, but only if they do so out of logic, reason, and experience--not out of hype.
not being able to resist, I e-mailed Kevin about my interest in blogging on ALP. am posting it here fyi:
Dear Kevin,
just came across the ALP this morning, thanks to a blog post by Jonathon on his Grumpy "OLD" Man blog.
while I can see you already have a growing stable of bloggers on the ALP team: yes, if your Wednesday, April 14, 2004 posted offer is still open for accepting additional contributors, I am Interested in Blogging about WM.
am not into hype myself. am a 48 year old white male, whom happens to be living homeless (most of the time under a roof so-to-speak; i.e., couch surfing from place to place; though I may end up tenting out once again very soon) in Montpelier, Vermont. my online access is mostly via public access computers, but I most certainly can post at least monthly and have the strong desire to do so as well. am a social change activist.
while I do so somewhat reluctantly for various reasons, as certain WM practices causes major struggles of conscience for me, the fact is that I do sometime shop at Walmart out of pure necessity; though I do not apologize for it either, nor do I feel guilty doing so. it is just that if I could afford to shop elsewhere, I would; but I do not have that luxury like some people have. the other thing is many of the things I buy there are the same things made at the very same off-shore low or no wage places Walmart gets them from, but the local stores hike up the prices for their lions share. buying local is not always truly buying local of course. some of these local shops do not always practice being a good or generous neighbors in various ways either. in certain cases, some so-called locals do not always provide livable or even wages much above minimum wage and no health insurance either. so buying local does not translate into an improve locally, except for the snotty locals who think they are better than their local have nots. do not get me wrong though, I am not defending Walmart, but am merely pointing out certain observations and hypocrisies by the
merchant trade in general, whatever size they may be or where they may be located or where the money really goes. of course each of them has their set of pat excuse as to why they cannot do better by their workers or the community, etc. yet I do have deep concerns over Walmarts labor practices and have seen their impact hit home close by, hurting people I know and care about. however, that said, I have had my own up close and personal experiences with some of these very same practices in the past before by others in the merchant and other trades or industry, long before I ever knew or heard anything about Walmart. yes, I think Walmart needs to be taken to task for what they do and also be set as an example, but if we think what they are doing is wrong, it should be clearly and repeatedly pointed out that they are not alone in some of what they do that has such a bad impact on so many people and workers as well as their communities, who each and all end up paying the price for their practices. Walmart is not the first to do may of the things they do, they are merely the latest, though not necessarily the worse either, just possibly one of the biggest maybe.
am simply sharing with you some of my own thinking, experiences and observations concerning these matters so you may be able to better clue into who the person behind this particular e-mail is. of course you can check out my blog as well. it is Norsehorse's Home Turf.
*yet another update*
heard back from Kevin rather quickly this morning in response to my e-mail to him. as a result I am now among one of the co-bloggers of ALP. that was quite painless.
have just finished post and, then, updating my first post with which to introduce myself to ALP's visitors: New Co-Blogger Intro.
feel free to let me know what you think and feel concerning these matters, whether it be within the comments here or on the ALP blog in response to my blog posts there or, via e-mail.
*note*: updated post with mostly minor edits for the purposes of clarification and readability; also included additional information, links as well as an e-mail to ALP of mine; added an update about my becoming a ALP co-blogger: last updated on Monday, May 10, 2004 at 4:59 PM [EDT].
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