Sometimes I shop at Walmart… 

Now, don’t get me wrong: there are some things I really like about Walmart. Namely, low prices and one-stop shopping.

However, if you know me at all you will understand why I hate shopping at Walmart. After all, I am anti- GMO, MSG, HFCS, artificial dyes, fragrances, and sweeteners; antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, parabens and sulfites, bleaches and propellants, hydrogenated fats and BPA. And I have a strong preference for cotton, wood, glass, and steel over plastic in all its forms. I believe in sustainable agriculture and am proud of putting my money where my mouth is. As you can image, there is a very limited number of items on Walmart shelves that meet these stringent criteria.

And lets not forget low wages and less-than-full-time workweek for Walmart employees, children in Guatemala and India sowing the cheap clothes for Walmart, and workers at toxic plants in China making sure we have a stronger purchasing power.

But, if I were to be completely honest with myself, there is a deeper, more profound reason why I hate shopping at Walmart.

I look at the people who go there, many obese and in visibly poor health, and I think to myself: “How can all these people be so…so…” So what?…

Uninformed?

Oblivious to their own health?

And then it hits me –

 POOR

How can these people be so poor?

What I hate most about shopping at Walmart is being confronted with poverty.

I hate to even to begin to think of what it would be like to stand all day at the register making minimum wage and dealing with hundreds of customers with their endless coupons and bad moods. What it would be like to bring items to the register and realize that, with tax and all, I don’t have enough money to pay for them. What it would be like to have to wait for the manager to redeem my WIC voucher with an angry and impatient line of people behind me. I don’t want to think what would be like to feed my children poor quality foods or buying them toys that can potentially be harmful to them. I don’t want to think about any of those things.

Because, lets be honest, any of these people standing in line with me at Walmart would rather be sipping local beer at Wholefoods.