index

The spirit of commerce

click on images for full-size:

Wal-Mart Super Center

Selling for Less

Enjoying the world of products

"Who are you, dragging those big boxes behind you?"

"I am the Spirit of Wal-Marts Yet To Come."

"You must be busy."

"I bring big boxes full of little things. I look for spaces and I redirect cash flows."

"I can't quite see the shape of those boxes."

"They are yet to come, in new styles, bigger and better, and on line too."

"Your holiday compatriot scared the Dickens into Scrooge."

"He was gloomy, graveyards and all that, but I bring expansion, on and on, no end."

"There's got to be an end sometime."

"The Hudson Bay Company is still doing business after several centuries."

"Sure, but competition moved more slowly for most of that time, and the Bay isn't such a big deal now. Lots of young upstarts are trying to overtake you."

"Let them try. I have Momentum. I have Brand Recognition. I have Mindshare and I Attract Business."

"You have a lot of enemies, too."

"No publicity is bad publicity."

"You are making everywhere be the same."

"I glory in it. Serving and redirecting local needs, that's what I bring."

"And those cash flows, that's what you take?"

"Sure. Making America safe for mobility. Always the lower price leader."

"Have you ever read about Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City?"

"Wright paints a pretty picture of distributed retail along with his ideas for scattered housing, but he didn't understand Economies of Scale. I'll do all the general merchandise -- clothing, housewares, food and such -- and leave boutiques to those local craftspeople Wright liked to write about. Let them look after the place's local identity. I've got Business to do."