so i was in wal-mart the other night...
 

long story short, i was in a car with my friend at around 11:30 pm on our way to go play some pool. suddenly, he's all like, "i want a copy of that old nicholas cage movie raising arizona!!(???)" and decides to stop at the local wal-mart (motto: "because only illegal immigrants are desperate enough to hawk shitty imported goods to fat crackers." ) to look for it.

so as always when i find myself stuck in such a place as this, i wander over to the bike section for some quick laughs. which i did find btw, but i also found three bicycles that were actaully fairly decent.

this bike looked pretty cool, although for the same amount of money, you could probably buy the same thing from an lbs and save yourself the guilt. and sized for an adult. i'm small, but my heels kept feeling like they were gonna gouge out my asscheeks.

this bike offered the right amount of price and cool factor, didn't get a chance to ride it though.

mostly, i was impressed by this bike. a nice singlespeed cruiser in black for under 80 bucks. pretty light too, considering it was probably pig iron underneath that glossy finish. initially, i didn't like the broadly swept back bars, but they certainly made keeping the bike under control easy as i fishtailed (the only thing coaster brakes are good for) around every wide corner for the few laps i made before security caught up with me and asked me to promptly leave the store.

oh yeah, my friend didn't find his dvd. also, i whooped his ass at pool. go me.

I too like that Huffy Cruiser since it has fenders. I know they used to have it at target with a 3 speed nexus hub for aobutr $135 and I though about buying one to just leave it at my office for trips around town.

that lowrider thing mentioned the wheels were radial laced...was the rear radial laced too?

a few days ago I got suckered into following my mom into a walmart...bad move. I was happy when I went in, stressed out and mad when I left. and nothing happened, it was just the bad vibes in the busy stressing atmosphere in there....

f-walmart. anyone else see the PBS story about
'The Wal-Mart' a week or two ago??? they've made many big/small companies go belly up in this country, now they're making the chinese undercut each other by the penny. support the local hardware store, or corner market (if there's any left in your area). happy holidays everyone!

Wal-mart bikes have their place in this world, the only problem is that some of the components are plastic (easy breaky, no fixy).

Hey, I used to ride bikes in stores, too. It's alot easier to get away with when you are nine years old.

Kinda funny finding this post this morning while I'm at work. I clocked in and found the owner and one of the lifers talking about how much they hated wal-mart and its business practices. They were slinging facts that years ago could only be found in the most left literature or underground zines. I've been finding a lot of folks whom are far removed from economic critique to be of the opinion that wal-mart destroys communities and lives. Guess the empirical evidence is starting to outweigh the corporate propoganda. Granted they were coming at it from a reactionary, nationalist perspective but if you were a capitalist and small business owner you probably would too. I spoke of how capitalism is cycilic, tends towards monopoly, market forces/regulation, its nature being expansionary and the different types of exploitation being involved in a capitalist model. They just stood there and stared at the floor going, "yeah"...."yep"..."I just done know what to do"...etc. Then the lifer chimed in and spoke of one of her relatives from the south. She said that these relatives were from plantation wealth and still owned thousands of acres of land which is still being worked by black folk whom are paid little to nothing, recieve no education, live on the land in shacks with electricity and how that these same relatives own the grocery store, liqour store, etc. and that these people when paid then go and give the money right back when buying groceries, beer etc.

She thought of this because I was talking of how wal-mart moves into a small town, buys tons of property that small business rent shops on, open a small wal-mart if there isnt enough space for a big one, operate at below cost to drive under the mom and pops while at the same time raising rent on the land they now own. And that they then close down those little shopping areas and build the big wal-mart and then they start moving in affiliate video stores, hardware stores etc. until the only place left to work and shop are wal-mart or affiliated. When this happens, health care becomes non-existent, everyone works at minimum wage, no benifits, corporate prisons move in, crime increases until people are poor, living in system wear they keep themselves in literal chains in a space where there is on market, one product, one system and little to nothing else. A self contained, enclosed parasitic relationship. Ive seen more than one town die this way and this owner and employee were talking of how there home towns have succumbed to this model and now the only thing left is churches, prisons and wal-mart.

Got into it with a navy boy who was claiming that it is our resposiblity to buy cheap wallyworld crap to support poor workers in third world nations who wouldn't have a job if we didn't buy that crap. He was very firm in is convictions. I how ever don't think that we should be basing a global economy on injection molded plastic junk.

PS Wallyworld has overwelmed most of the ma n pa stores in our valley, and now we have legalized loan sharkers instead.

I went to Wal-Mart today. I was in a hurry and Wal-Mart is pretty much the only game in town to get ammo. Deer season opens tomorrow and I needed some shotgun slugs. They didn't have the brand that I sighted in with so I left. I searched around my house and found seven rounds in my tool box.

What a mob scene Wal-Mart was. Even if I agreed with their business practices I wouldn't shop there.

Yep, I sure did that PBS story. I hated Wal-mart before the story now I can't stand to even say their name!!

:mad:

ROTFLMAO! Thanks!

Hey!!
 

Hey hey hey hey hey hey.........
Who you callin' cracker,cracker?

Personally, if it hadn't been for Walmart I wouldn't have been able to raise my child very comfortably. In the past ten years my average income has been about $20, 000. The clothing there is inexpensive but good quality, and most items are a few dollars less than in other stores. This is especially true for kitchen and bathroom stuff. Sorry, but that's the way it is. Mom and Pop/local stores charge so much more, frankly, I can't afford it. Mom and Pop can go work at Walmart and make more money and benefits there between the two of them than at their little store in the village.

Here's a legitimate question: if there were no American industries, i.e., Walmart, would the third world be worse off than having the American industries? When I was little I lived in Japan. It was at the time when the West was just starting to send over industry. Some of the older Japanese were against this, but the younger ones wanted it big time. They wanted the jobs and the products.

I agree COSG, I am a unoin marine carpenter by trade, my union puts out a list of companies that we are to do our best to boycott. My reply was "EXCUSE ME!?" until the union gets enough balls together to negotiate a more livable wage, I can not afford to go to ma&pa. Don't get me wrong I do my best to support local buiss. yet like you all I have to look out for #1 and that is my family. I am no buisness tycoon, so until sombody comes up with a better product than Wally-fart I will have no choice to shop there.

Most of us that are old enough to admit how old we are started our bike riding life on a dept. store bike! ;) . Is shopping from Target better for the world picture. Thats where I go for household crap like soap, lights, etc..... FOK the mom and pop stores if they want to charge me more dough for dishwashing liquid. Procter and Gamble, Con-Agra, G.E. And DOW are gett'n it all in the end anyway.

Gee, those bikes are just swell. remind me to stop out at Walmart....SO I CAN POOP ON THEM!

I'd sooner go with a second hand frame and build it up with bargain basement stuff or N.O.S. parts. I'd feel better about myself, and the way I do it...well...I'm gonna probably come out on top, anyhow.

Next project? Walker recovered a girl's (Schwinn) cruiser from the trash. I figure with a BB shell adapter and some decent drivetrain stuff (Oh, let's say Alivio, Sunrace RDM-60, or the like) It'll make a swell addition to Jennifer's burgeoning bike collection.

COSG, I do it on a budget. I make it on part-timing it and my unearned income (for being a physical & psychological gimp--thanks to the US Army). I happen to have 3 high-quality and 2 mediocre quality bikes in my stable (and still drive a Subaru Outback!). Its a matter of spending your bike bucks intellegently & cautiously. Like I've said elsewhere, you can live without the latest doo-dads and still have a bike folks lust over.Oddball companies make some great components at prices far less than the better known ones. Hsin Ling (Zoom) or JD handlebars, accessories and seatposts are great. Look for them to cost a fraction of the cost of stuff by Titec (but I've gotten three Titec bars dirt cheap--New Old Stock!) or Easton. Sunrace (www.biketoolsetc.com) & SunTour (www.mtbstore.com) are two great drivetrain companies with middle-level stuff at the price of Shimano's bargain basement parts. Buying stuff off ebay can be cheap, too. I nabbed a 1997 Shimano LX crank for sub-$30. I'm leery of most online bike dealers, but Ibex bikes (http://www.ibexbikes.com/) are credible and darned nice. Tommaso bikes are inexpensive and very capable, too (http://www.getawaybikes.com/) as well as well as Ironhorse and KHS bikes (check out an Ironhorse bikefor less than $200 bones! )

http://www.getawaybikes.com/Detail.c...TOKEN=10725631

And a likewise "real" Schwinn

http://www.getawaybikes.com/Detail.c...OKEN=10725631#


Granted, these bikes are sort of Spartan, but I'd go this route before Walmarting it--in the future, anyhow.

Micargi is a common ebay brand--to be avoided. Lake Bikes (and I own one) offer an okay frame and nice drivetrain parts (from Acera to Deore XT...sometimes on the same bike!), but skimp on cockpit accessories and--this is scary--use infamously crappy fasteners where they can. Bikes such as these...well....you'll spend some money making them servicable.

As for buyin' other needs...well...we have a place called Gabriel Brothers that beats the tar out of Wally World...and ALL the clothes are brand name. Grocery shoppin'? Similar ethic...take me to Aldi's or Sav-A-Lot...maybe Erie County Farms. These guys smoke the super center every day.

The Lesion lives cheap...eats healthy...and plays surrogate dad (if you can imagine) to Jen's hellion offspring. Making do isn't something you have to surrender your ideals to do.

I wave my private parts at Walmart!