| | I remember a very informative commentary on techcentral.com that basically argued that independent stores of all stripes are valuable, in that they whittle down your choices into exactly what you're looking for. You don't have to deal with the lines, mal-informed workers, any of the cheaper merchandise or the "stigma" foisted on you by smug liberals of shopping at, say, Target. He called such independents "editors for consumers." I found that particular phrase brilliant (of course, I'm a journalist). In any case, there will always be a market for the higher-end products and the stores that carry them. Which makes you wonder: Why the hell are liberals so offended by Wal-Mart and other "box stores"? Their railing against so-called "third-world" countries and the "sweatshops" is fantastically belligerent anti-capitalist bunk. Talk about disdain for the poor. Liberals, for all their defensive harping and posturing, secretly hate the poor, but more particularly what the "poor" choose to buy, the places they hang out (remember Rand's assessment of bowling alleys?) and how they live their lives. All in the name of ... what? So they can put an anti-globalization sticker on their fucking Subaru? Or ignore the fact that the "poor" save a ton of money by shopping at such stores? Under their shitty way of looking at the world, they'd lambaste anyone who bought a Chevy as a consumer option to a Saab. I live in a town populated by such assholes, and sometimes it's hard to keep my sanity.
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