Wal*Mart trip
Love it or hate it, Wal*Mart is America.
We had to make a trip out of our suspended-reality Beaverkill bubble yesterday to get passport photos made. The nearest place was the Wal*Mart in Monticello, New York, about 40 minutes from our cabin.
Monticello itself is a totally beaten old town in a depressed part of upstate New York. More than half of the buildings on the Main Street are empty, and there are few signs of economic vitality or hope.
The Wal*Mart at the edge of town was packed with people. The demographic was interesting: roughly 40% Hasidic families, 30% Latino families, 30% all others. The portrait studio was overrun with (no exaggeration) about 25 small children from three Hasidic families, two of which were waiting to take baby pictures. While we waited, I took Zola for a great haircut (at Wal*Mart), and we took both kids to McDonald’s (at Wal*Mart). After we got the passport photos done, we bought an inexpensive digital camera, some toothbrushes, a bunch of magazines, kids’ books, safety glasses for chainsawing, and other things we didn’t know we needed. I think if you stand still, consumer goods just fly off the shelves at you.
We were glad to get out of there, but it was amazing to see how much stuff was getting bought, and how much other activity there was: at the bank, at the manicurist, at the optometrist, at the florist, etc. It is impossible for most Main Streets to compete effectively with that.