Guess what? I've lived in a place that was "lucky" to get a big old Wart in it. Guess what happened? Most all of the locally-owned business went out of business and it wrecked havoc on my community.

Little league teams didn't have sponsors so kids had to start paying high fees to play baseball. The kids from poor homes were out of luck.

At least one local bank had to shut down because Wart deposits ALL of their money (and this goes for EVERY SINGLE STORE) back to a bank in Arkansas. All the people who were promised fulfilling careers were left waiting around five, ten years, making $.25 - $1.50/hr. more, if they were extremely lucky. (Wal-Mart gave raises, if they did give them, in nickel and dime incriments.)

Mysteriously, after Wart's competitor's went out of business, their prices weren't so cheap and ,darn, they no longer had a that liberal return policy they'd based most of there business on.

After most of the competition was gone, Wart cut its employee health benefits (for the precious few who had worked themselves up to "full-time" status,) to the barest bones possible. Their excuse? They "couldn't afford it." That was an absolute lie! Again, the MEGA-CORPORATION hid behind their facade and did their dirty work through proxies. Fact: Mall-Wart's Stock has been one of the top grossers for last decade!

I consider Wart THE biggest contributor to the downfall of American industry. For those of you who weren't "lucky" enough to have a Wart around you, it was one of the first companies to bring in products made by wage slaves from other countries, primarily China. At the time, China was one of the world's major human rights violators and widely used prison labor to fuel their burgeoning manufacturing sector. Other discounters (or their subsidiaries) felt the need to match the prices of Wart and began to use labor from sweatshops overseas. That race to the bottom is now history.

Even the hype about Wart's low prices is bunk. Any smart shopper can stock up on items on sale at other stores and do BETTER than shopping at Wart, which doesn't have sales. For non-expendable items, nothing beats the goodwill of Goodwill, garage sales, the swap meet and, yes, the trash heap! I would know. I've been a single parent, lived on a HALF A SHOESTRING and didn't starve, though I've learned to love 99 ways with rice and beans!

Let's rally against this big bully that wants to destroy our communities and way of life! I know I can definitely live without cheap plastic CRAP. How about you?!?