Wal-Mart

I remember in 1994, I think, when Wal-Mart came to Canada, taking over Woolco.  For a brief period it felt like a big deal.  The first one I went to was in Dufferin Mall.  Every Wal-Mart branch had a McDonald's restaurant, and a bench with a Ronald McDonald figure.  Like Toronto needed more McDonald's branches--even Dufferin Mall already had one!  I'll still go there for stuff like new pants, but I'm hardly proud of it.

I've heard very bad things about Wal-Mart in the USA.  Like how they'll open a branch in a new town and underprice all the local shops out of business, then sometimes they'll close that branch down and leave the community wrecked.  Sam Walton's family has a lot of clout in Arkansas--I heard that one relative got away with drunk driving because of her connections. (She had a "Don't you know who I am?" attitude.) I think Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors.

I don't have much to say about Wal-Mart, but I remember K-Mart.  I recall visiting the K-Mart in Moncton when I was young.  I remember their white, bullet-shaped wastebaskets, of a type I saw again in my local high school!