I was in a WalMart Supercenter—I mean, really in one—this weekend for the first time in my life. Naturally, I looked for reading material. WalMart has lots of adult coloring books, something that I did not know existed. Apparently, lots of people find it relaxing to color in semi-abstract designs, just as they find it relaxing to put together a jig-saw puzzle.1 People use colored pencils and “Gel Pens,” which come in dozens of “jewelescent” colors, to color them in. I saw one “Christian Coloring Book,” but none of the images used Christian themes.
WalMart carries one magazine I’ve never seen before, “Cigar Snob”, which is either blunter or less sophisticated than “Cigar Aficionado”. Cigar Snob is an outsized glossy, much like those fancy fashion magazines that you can’t imagine anyone buying, like Town and Country, that have even less to show for themselves than Vogue. These magazines can’t be cheap to put together—even Cigar Snob has some classy photography—and the ads are clearly expensive as well, for high-end products. But who would buy the magazines? They look like they’re designed to be given away at luxury resorts and spas, and “executive class” waiting rooms at airports. So why is Cigar Snob showing up at WalMart?
More in line with WalMart’s “other America” image, the store did carry a very large selection of magazines devoted to “urban guerilla” weaponry—camouflaged assault rifles with infra-red laser sniper-scopes (so your target won’t know he’s painted) and other “must haves” if you’re going to be ready for Obama when he comes to take your guns away. These aren’t rare at other large magazine stands—because “special interest” mags proliferate whilst general interest shrivels to nothing—but I’ve never seen so many anywhere else.
As far as actual books go, Nora Roberts seems to be the champ—not surprising, since she seems to have written several hundred and sold about half a billion. Since women buy most of the books, and I would suspect that most of WalMart’s shoppers are women, the selection runs very heavily to romance. I’d didn’t pursue the varieties, but I’m sure it’s worth a thesis or two.
Overall, I had a very positive impression of the Supercenter, increasing my lack of sympathy for WalMart critics, who can rarely avoid letting their snobbery show when they attack Sam Walton’s Mountain. People in motor-driven wheel chairs seem to find the Supercenter particularly congenial. The wide corridors and very high ceilings give a sense of spaciousness that’s lacking even in very large malls, and, if you’re in a wheel chair, the products are much more accessible than in a mall, where you have to maneuver in and out of small shops.
Wal-Mart certainly isn’t an ideal employer, but, well, who is?
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Also, apparently, this is well known to just about everyone but me, since these books have been a “publishing sensation” for several years now. ↩︎
