Ah, propaganda at its best---George Orwell would be proud. A USA Today article details how major retailers are advertising themselves as being part of your neighborhood, and not just an impersonal and wasteful capitalist venture. These corporations are trying to tap into peoples' need to feel like they belong somewhere---and that somewhere is in the loving arms of Wal-Mart, which is opening smaller-scale suburban stores called "Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets". Ah, sounds quaint doesn't it? Now instead of taking over huge plots of land where trees used to live, Wal-Mart can now infiltrate your main street and stab the town right at its heart!
Hey, and how about Lowe's, which is calling itself your neighborhood hardware store? Heck, last time I was in Lowe's, I felt like it was a neighborhood in itself! I quickly got lost, and when they finally found me somewhere behind the rolls of carpet, I had a beard ten inches long and was holding a volleyball I had named Wilson!
Ah, yes, and no jaunt around the neighborhood could be complete without getting some good 'ol home cooked goodness at Applebee's, whose new slogan is "It's a whole new neighborhood"! Yeah, it certainly became a whole new neighborhood when Applebee's squeezed the locally-owned diner out of business in the plaza where my wife works. Aw, shucks---thanks, neighbor!
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