No Chain at the Chain Store Except the old Ball and Chain

I broke the chain on my Toro Lawn Mower. I decided to fix it Saturday. I decided I needed to get a new chain since the old one was pretty stiff. I am too. (That’s an “old” joke).

So off I trotted to Ace is the Place. Two locations. NO CHAIN. So you are clear, I’m talking drive chain, think motorcycle chain, bicycle chain. Now you got it. This was #40 chain. A pretty common size.

I grew up in the Implement business. We sold chain. Lots of chain. It came on a big roll, we sold it by the foot. We cut it with a large cutting tool.

So I traipsed up and down Randall Road, Home Despot (Depot), Lowes, Menards.

We don’t have chain they said. We only sell things that make lots of money. If it don’t come in a bubble pack we don’t sell it.

The nearest place that MIGHT have had the chain would have been farm and fleet, a 40 mile drive. But they are becoming less and less a real supply store and more a K-Mart with a saddle shop. No confidence there.

We used to have a “Real” hardware store. Valley (Home) Hardware. When Lowes came to town they threw in the towel. Didn’t want to fight the battle.

That’s what I hate about Big Box stores. Low prices low service low wages low loyalty down low!

Prices are low. That’s the ONLY thing about them that makes sense. But, when they come they destroy any semblance of customer service. Billy who waits on you at Wal-Mart in Automotive was in Lingerie the week before and the week before that was a cashier. He makes $9 per hour. Now you ask Billy a question…………..Right. If he knew he wouldn’t be working at Wal-Mart.

So the end result is you get stores self serve with minimum wage plus a little workers driving down the economic base so they can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart et al.

I’m in the nursery business. I watch the independent garden centers try to fight this battle. One of the movers and shakers in the business is responding to the pressure from big box stores by:

• 1. Firing all the people who know anything (and get paid well for knowing)
• 2. Stocking only fast moving product (if it doesn’t present X turn we don’t sell it)
• 3. Hiring at the same level as Wal-Mart. Don’t ask, we don’t know.

This works but it lets the customer fend for himself. The people that work for him know nothing. Worse, they pretend to know something so you have the blind leading the blind.

It’s a ball and chain. When a big box moves to town or an area it causes the full service knowledgeable firms to fold. Is their business model better. It’s obviously more profitable. But better? I don’t think so.

It may be inexorable. But the luddite in me resists shopping at Wal-Mart which was the progenitor of all this madness. Joni Mitchell sang Big Yellow Taxi. One line said: Give me spots on my apples and give me the birds and the bees.

We now have spotless stores with no soul. No owner. No responsibility. No accountability. No involvement in community. And, how long before consolidation takes place when Wal-Mart owns Lowes, Target, Home Depot, and Menard? Everything has a price and Wal-Mart has the money. If you have a superstore in your town that's the only place left to shop. They suck the life out of the rest of the town. USA you're next.

I am sick of the prattle about how much Wal-Mart and the French company Target’ pours back into the local economy. In real measure it’s a drop in the bucket. But the media and the locals rave about it.

This is preparing people for the reign of the anti-Christ. I’m not so sure that these trends won’t be part of the tribulation economy where no man can buy or sell except he had the mark of the beast either on his forehead or in his right hand. I am astounded how fast people sell the souls of their community out for a few cents less per item, never mind that it’s all made in China by people earning money that used to be paid to American workers. Do you remember when Wal-Mart used to tout how they featured or sold Made in America? You don’t hear that anymore. Old man Sam was a decent sort but the beast got away from him.

So, when the day comes that all the big box stores demand that you take the mark or an implantable RFID chip in your body in order to buy or sell there and when they keep track of all your purchases because they own the credit cards, when money is no longer used for most purchases, when every item you buy is tracked, you have been set up for the anti-Christ reign. You’ll wish you had those few bucks you saved back.

Everything I just said in the above paragraph are in the works right now or are already in operation.

Don’t you just love the Wal-Mart brave new world? Seig Heil!