Leo Goes To Wal-Mart!
By
Leocthasme
New Page 1
Are
You Kiddin’?
Monday, October 31, 2005,
Pecos, Texas
 Noteworthy
and newsworthy, this date and this town in West Texas.
As usual the West Texas Wind was howling, doing its best to discourage
anyone from standing on a wide open spaces corner in a little town in West
Texas. But then there is always
someone to defy nature. And, the
someone, or some ones were three dedicated people from the land of howling winds
and blowing sands doing their thing and making their point.
And what was their point? They
were just trying to tell the folks in a little town in West Texas, that Wal-Mart
just ain’t doin’ right by ‘em.
And this picture should give you an idea of West Texas.
This is on the way to Pecos, on I-20.
Just miles of miles of nothing but miles and miles.
Well yes there is scenery, do you see all that flat land full of sand and
sage.
 Well,
so much for the 40 some odd miles to our destination.
An uneventful sojourn. Next
stop Wal-Mart. And here it is
our target; excuse me, no pun intended there.
Not the biggest Wal-Mart ever encountered, but then we are not in a big
town either. Keep an eye on the
tall banner pole at the beginning of the drive way, more about that as we go
along. And, not much activity in
that parking lot either for 10 o-clock on a Monday morning.
We hope things pick up for our ‘Candy Sale’.
We may rethink that a bit, but we do need some traffic.
And
that is me on the right, which should be obvious, only Leo C.
would go to Wal-Mart in his Union Attire.
The shirt says SEIU the cap says Local 1.
All who know me also know that I always make a statement,
by mouth and by dress.
Well let’s get to work now that we are here.
We set up our work table at the end of the driveway.
And got  everything
ready for our solicitations. That’s
me with the flyers in hand and a
candy and collection bucket on my arm. And I am ready go.
BUT HOLD IT! Our
first customer is not who we expected. I
am pleading my case there. Seems
Wal-Mart got the word as soon as we arrived, and my obvious dress code wasn’t
to their standards, and wanted no part of us on ‘their’ property.
And that is where it got funny. Do you see those pretty trees (won’t see many in West
Texas) behind the police car? And
that wide sidewalk along the roadway? Everybody
knows Wal-Mart demands tax breaks, and easements, and this, and that, and of
course they wanted a nice picturesque walkway in front of their store.
Well, God Bless Wal-Mart, they got everything that they wanted, the
state, county, city and whatever, gave them tax breaks, easements, and by golly
they built that walkway, and planted the trees, and the county or state workers
water those trees so that they will grow in West Texas sand in front of
Wal-Mart’s lot, and dressed up the front of Wal-Mart's lot, just so they would
be happy campers. But, the front of Wal-Mart’s lot ends at about the
beginning of all those pretty trees and walkway and if you look at our
set up we made sure we were on that pretty, state, county, and municipal
property, and surely not on Wal-Mart’s. Well,
the County Mounties decided we weren’t on Wal-Mart property either.
Of course, I did not offer them any candy, thus avoiding the possibility
of bribing an officer of the law, however I did
give them each a flyer and suggested they send mom and the kids by for some
goodies.
Well, we finally got to work and here are some snaps of
me catching the Wal-Mart shoppers coming and going.
And speaking of flyers,
Mary and Bob looked over the parking lot before we left to see that there
was no litter. And by golly there
wasn’t. Not one scrap of evidence
that we were there. I suppose
everybody hung on to their flyers just to check out my gift of gab.. But, do you remember me saying something about those light
and banner poles at the front of the driveway?
Well look back at that first picture of the parking lot and observe that
pole. Nothing in front of it,
right?
Now look here. Do you see those trash cans on each side
of the drive next to those poles? Wasn’t
long after we started passing out those flyers that one of the employees placed
those trash cans at the end of their drive so that all those flyers could be
deposited in Wal-Mart’s ‘proper place’ for publicity not particularly
pleasing.
Anyway, when we left, as I said we looked over the lot,
no mess, and in the cans, not one
deposit. Our flyers went home with
the candy.
And did you notice, not many more cars in that lot in the
afternoon as when we came in the morning. Are
we doing some good here? Let’s
hope.
For additional info on the candy "sales" to raise money to help Wal-Mart employees be able to get reasonable health care, check out the following link:
Wakeup WalMart.com
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