Wal-Mart Camping

I’d like to say that I avoid shopping at Wal-Mart for some high-minded reason like they killed small town main streets or their use of child labor or the shitty way they treat their employees but really, I just can’t stand crowds. That’s why it amazes me that this year Wal-Mart is going to stay open on Thanksgiving Day and allow customers to camp out next to their desired items and I’m sure there will be thousands of people across the country who will take them up on the offer.

It reminds me of a documentary I rented a few years back called “This Is Nowhere”. The movie told the story of RVers who use their Wal-Mart atlas to locate stores across the country where they can camp, ensuring that they never have to leave the concrete jungle and see anything besides the same strip malls and fast food restaurants they left behind. Isn’t the whole purpose of camping to get away from the crowds and back to nature? But I realize what they’ll be doing on Thanksgiving is more closely related to camping out for Springsteen tickets than pitching a tent in Yellowstone.

And I’m sure they’re doing this promotion for the same reason that arenas banned festival seating after 11 people died at the Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979. No one wants to see a repeat of the lethal stampede last year that killed a Wal-Mart employee and sent a pregnant woman to the hospital. Hopefully, the campout idea will dial back the violence to the shoving, punching and hair-pulling of earlier days but in a country where almost 17% of children go hungry and 45,000 people die every year because of lack of health insurance, should making sure you get the best deal on that Barbie Power Wheels Ride-On really be the most important thing this holiday season?