and my soul is in cathay

Oh, Wal-Mart. You scoundrel!

Wal-Mart tries to get hip

For 43 years, Wal-Mart has been obsessed with individual bargains -the $24 DVD player, the $12.90 twill jacket - regardless of how they fit in with the rest of the store's merchandise, or even whether they are in style. That singular focus on best sellers has left the chain without the storewide design aesthetic that has turned rival Target into Tar-zhay, crammed with bold, contemporary patterns and designs that evoke a lifestyle.

You know, every time I think of Wal-Mart, I want to vomit a little bit. Every time I see a Wal-Mart commercial, it goes like this:
Middle age, yet reasonably attractive mom talks about how with a family as big (insert eighteen small, annoying children), Wal-Mart is a great deal! The whole family goes and they can get everything there, from food, to appliances to clothes!

Of course, she also has to talk in a slight Southern drawl. Because every Wal-Mart commercial I see goes that way. And with a mom with a hick-tastic Southern drawl. Now, maybe it's just my upper-middle class white upbringing... but the only people with hick-tastic Southern drawls are white trashy.

Let's compare with Target ads: they're trendy, they're hip, they appeal to everyone's inner desire to be better, to be cool. They seem fun, alive, and they show you the exclusive products available from hip designers.

Personally, I've always liked that Target has an overwhelming sense of style. Something that ties all the individual pieces together. Target has a definitive style that says "This is Target, this is mass chic." I don't think that Wal-Mart will ever reclaim that with my generation. All they've shown me is that they appear to the lowest of the lowest.

posted by Gillian @ 12:20 PM