Spray Paint, hangers, a mop and Goo Gone
If you need to buy the four above-mentioned items in LA, Walmart is your best bet. Ralphs would have most of it, but they wouldn't have hangers, maybe the spraypaint.
I had no idea where Walmart was, so my wife googled it. Excited, she tells me it's on Crenshaw.
If you're as puzzled as I was as to why she was so stoked that we were going to south Crenshaw, Jami strongly recommends that you give a listen to Dr. Dre's The Chronic.
We knew we were in the right neighborhood when we passed two rim places, and a gold grill joint (we're both being fitted this weekend).
The Walmart was awesome. It had three levels and offered a wide variety of name-brand products such as Goo Gone, for substantially lower prices. I love Walmart*.
I was slightly surprised when we got to the hardware section. The spray paint was in a locked glass cabinet, like liquor or small electronics.
The large black lady that unlocked the cabinet for us was fantastic.
Her: What are you makin?
Jami: We're touching up a mannaquin that we're selling on Ebay.
Her: You go baby!
Jami: ...then we're gonna go tag some bridges.
Her: Ohhhh, that's right! (big laugh)
The other thing I noticed on our trip south...the gas difference. Gas in Hollywood is $2.99-$3.15 depending on where you go. I saw gas for $2.65 on south Crenshaw. I don't have a joke or anything here, that's just some damn cheap gas in these parts.
*This is troll bait. If you fired me an email telling me how terrible Walmart is, you're a raging toolbag. Being really good at inventory control isn't a crime. And if you want to cry about health insurance, do an ounce of fucking research first.
posted by Mikey Y at 2:17 PM
5 Comments:
Walmart, Alwys a mixed bag for sure. I have never been to a three story Walmart, But I do have three Walmart SuperCenters in town.
Gas is currently $1.98 per gallon.
I have nothing funny to add tonight, I am truly sorry.
6:10 PM
Do "an ounce of fucking research" is excellent advice, although I'm not sure reading Wal Mart's view of Wal Mart's benefits is the single best source. It might be; this might be:
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/
Or maybe neither.
Glad you enjoyed South Central. Good luck with the grill work.
4:49 AM
Wal Mart's "view" of their benefits is ...actually the benefits given. And what I'm disputing (which I admit, I did not spell out) is multiple claims I've heard (from hippies in Dayton to crew members on the show I used to produce) that Wal Mart has no benefits.
They say that because they heard somebody else say it.
It's true that when Sam died the board reduced employee benefits and cut programs over several years, but they still have medical benefits.
To be totally honest, I think your final guess is probably closest to the truth...maybe neither.
I'd bet the farm that there are are class action lawyers at the foundation of wakeupwalmart. And, to be fair, Walmart's going to make what benefits they do have seem like more than they are.
But I am curious about something; How much do you think totally unskilled labor SHOULD pay?
These are not jobs that are supposed to be able to support a family.
The skills and abilities needed to ring a register or take a food order aren't that valuable.
I'm unsure if managers, marketing employees, regional managers and so on are also considered underpaid. Does a graphic designer that works for Pepsi make more than a designer at Walmart? I suspect they make the same.
I suspect people are shocked, offended, or whatever about the fact that Walmart requires such a vast number of unskilled workers.
I wonder, if Walmart were outlawed tomorrow and smaller stores magically sprang up to absorb their business overnight, would stockboys and register clerks be paid better and have better benefits?
Walmart is a brand identity and consolidates those workers into one place. It's recognizable and more importantly, a juicy legal target.
You can't have a class action lawsuit against 13,000 corner stores or they'd do it.
7:43 PM
Dayton has hippies?
4:59 PM
These part-time job benefits are set up in such a manner that all of the wages for work put in to them wind up going to support the program. Granted, you may not be working the job at Wal-Mart for the awesome pay-day and good for them for providing a benefits program when a lot of companies don't.
Here's my issue with Wal-Mart. It isn't with the company or the business plan in any way - it's with the situation. The need that exists so that Wal-Mart may fill it. So Nabisco finds it can make a bigger profit by having Mexicans bake its Ritz crackers (This is a blind example - I haven't done an ounce of fucking research) so it closes its plant in Smalltown, USA and puts those jobs south of the border. Now the poor shleps (Working class - not graphic designers) that used to make $15/hour, with full benefits, are making $6.75 at Wal-Mart selling Ritz crackers at a bigger profit margin because people in that town needed some jobs and cheap shit.
I don't have a solution, but this country used to be a place where anyone with a strong back could earn a decent wage for an honest day of work and that's changing. Soon, it will be a class of Graphic Designers and service industry knuckle-heads with no one in between. I think an American Corporation, while clearly having a responibility to its shareholders, should also show some responsibility to its country. I personally seldom, if ever, go to Wal-Mart because the atmosphere has a sad whiff of desperation, but maybe you like that sort of thing.
11:48 PM
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