Resolution: Walmart Alternative

I usually don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t do them because they’re generally things we should do every day regardless of it being a New Year.

The top 10 New Year’s Resolutions are:

1. To spend more time with family and friends.

Well, depending on your career and job status, this is easily done or broken. Actually, “more time” can be something as little as 5 minutes. So, I don’t consider this a legitimate resolution unless you’re a guy in a rock band who spends 18 months on the road every 3 years and then the rest of his time is spent in the studio.

2. To get in shape!

3. Lose Weight

4. Quit smoking

Admirable. I wish it didn’t take resolutions for this one. By the way, if it didn’t kill us, I would still be smoking cigarettes today. I’m a nervous fucking twit and I NEED THEM. I’m considering ecigs. I wish I was kidding.

5. Enjoy life more.

6. Quit Drinking

7. Get Out of Debt

For many people, this one just doesn’t happen and I think that our attitudes toward consumption are the reason.

8. Learn something new.

9. Help others.

Vague.

10. Get organized.

This year, I decided to do something else. I’ve become increasingly upset and angry at my local Walmart. I’ve always been rather miffed at the entire corporation, but in my area, we just don’t have a lot of choices as to where we shop. Walmart here is the most popular place to just do “all in one trip” shopping. This is why Walmart is popular. Because people want to do things in the least amount of time.

My Walmart is run by a bunch of monkeys, I swear. At Christmas time and during the peak hours they have one express lane, two regular lanes and the tobacco lane open.

During PEAK TIME!!! It’s a freaking mess.

They don’t keep shelves stocked, they don’t keep up on ordering and we can sometimes do weeks without items on shelves. And, that’s just the food department. Our local grocery doesn’t seem to have the same problem.

So, after doing a little research, it appears that I can skip Walmart a lot of the time and still get the things I need without having to travel 65 miles.

I wouldn’t bullshit myself into assuming that I can completely boycott Walmart, though. In my area, that just doesn’t appear to be possible and I know that at some point I’m going to have to go into Walmart to get something that we need.

So, my New Year’s Resolution is simple.

To find alternatives to Walmart and cut my use of their store and consumption of their products by over 50%.

Tall order in my community, but not impossible. It will also come with a higher price tag. But, I think I’m willing to deal with it if I can skip my local Walmart store. They’re just atrocious and I’m really tired of supporting their monopoly.

For starters, this will involve me shopping at my local grocery store for food items. This is a total and complete shunning of Walmart in this category. I have no real reason to shop at Walmart for food other than the fact that they’re generally cheaper. I never have shopped there for produce or meat because theirs is foul and the deli at my Walmart has no gluten free products. My local grocery’s deli counter is all gluten free meats and cheeses.

We have no other gluten free foods at my Walmart, whereas my local grocery store has lots of them.

I will also have use of our clothing stores and shoe stores, here, so that takes care of that. We also have a Dollar General.

I will run into snags for things like:

1. Housewares

This is iffy. I do a lot of online buying in this area, but for things like plastic sheets for Zen’s bed, I have to use Walmart because I’m usually buying them on emergency notice. I also will be buying canning goods, and Walmart is closest and cheapest. My central air filters are also only at Walmart in my area. I just refuse to make a 65 mile trip for filters. My task now will be to find out if my local Ace Hardware carries the filters I need.

2. Pharmacy

Zen gets his prescriptions from our local pharmacy, but he has insurance and I do not. I also probably never will. I have no choice but to use Walmart for this as far as my prescriptions are concerned. Mine run me about $125/mo. as it is. If I switch to my local, I’m going to be paying $200 or more. I just can’t work that into the budget unless I want to use Walmart for absolutely everything else for the rest of time. So, in this case I’m absolutely screwed and have to use them.

3. Garden center

Sad fact. My community has no other garden centers. The closest we have is Tractor Supply, but that doesn’t cut it for a lot of things. I’m actually wondering if my Ace Hardware can pick up the slack here and the research I’ll be doing will try to answer this. I plan to report on my progress at the end of 2013.

4. Electronics

Just like the lack of garden centers, we also have zero electronics stores. If I need something for my iPhone, it has to come from Walmart or be ordered. If I can plan it, it will be ordered. If I need something like right now then I’ll have to use what we have available. There are just no other alternatives that we have. I’ll be trying to order most things in advance, I think.

All in all, I shouldn’t have to use a Walmart but maybe once a month when I get prescriptions or on emergency. That’s a great decrease from how I’ve been using them for today. Realism tells me that this is all I can hope for right now. At least until I move closer to civilization, or perhaps gas prices go down considerably.

Last but not least, we also won’t be using Walmart for gas. We have been until now. We have a gas station and car wash attached to our Walmart. No more for us, we will be using a local gas station and store in the area, and the locally owned car wash.

This should be an interesting time and I plan to blog about my progress and experience with it!

So, Happy New Year, Everyone! Use Walmart less!