Here in the US, a retail giant has been growing over the years, opening superstores in small towns as well as large cities. They are cursed by many for beating down their competition as they beat down prices. (In contrast, Microsoft maintains one central facility and keeps their prices high.) At the same time, they have been successful because people like going to one store and being able to buy just about anything they might want, most often at prices at or below market. The store is called Wal-Mart and their slogan is "Always low prices." This article is based on perceptions obtained largely from advertisements, media reporting, and conversations with "Wal-Mart Shoppers" — this Researcher has only been inside a Wal-Mart store once. In the words of the ruler of the Universe,

"I've never met all these people you speak of. And neither, I suspect, have you. They only exist in words we hear. It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their eyes and ears."

Virtual Shoebox Online

Any Hitchhiker seeking insight into Wal-Mart should first visit Derek's Big Website of
Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts, a fascinating, if useless, archive of Wal-Mart purchase receipts. Derek is apparently an avid Wal-Mart shopper with some anal-retentive qualities. In layman's terms, he shops at Wal-Mart almost religiously, and not at just one store, and he never throws his receipts away. At some point he decided he should digitize all his receipts and put them online. So we have over four years of One Man's Wal-Mart Receipts available to the world.

If this site is archived for future generations, it will provide something of a time capsule for tomorrow's anthropologists. It provides food for Sociologists to evaluate the items Derek purchases. Viewers in the Retail community can enjoy watching for changes in sales tax rates, management, printers, or POS software. Voyeurs can seek excitement finding the occasional condom purchase, or noting when the diaper purchases ended.

People actually study these receipts!!

What particularly impresses this Researcher is the fact that every single receipt is accompanied by an ongoing commentary, with tens or hundreds of remarks. Some, of course, are simple crude flames at the site host or visitors, but the vast majority of the comments are observations or questions inspired by something on that receipt. This is a phenomenom you REALLY have to see in order to believe!! A few hours perusing this anthropologist's dream will provide far more insight into Wal-Mart, and Americans, than this Researcher could ever hope to provide here. Go check this place out!

In conclusion...

As always, your feedback is welcome!

– Dent