WalMart, the curvature of the planet, and why Voicestream cellular SUCKS

[Chip McDonald]

So, I HAD to go to stinking Walmart last night because the earpiece/mic for my cell phone had a short in it. So I chose to go to the Brand New and Shiny one located in a wealthy suburb of Augusta. I walk inside the Holy Flourescent Cathedral of Blind Consumerism and I am struck by the fact that this Walmart is EVEN LARGER THAN THE ONE THEY BUILT LAST YEAR ACROSS TOWN. What made it so immediately impressive is the fact that I couldn't see both side walls of the building in my peripheral vision at once. Ridiculous. As I trudged through the place, I notice that already you can find some examples of the Generic Future we all face. On the side of the McDonald's built into the place there's a poster that advertises "great milkshakes! Smooth!". That's all. Nothing specific. Nothing like "try our new raspberry whirlpool frosted mango shake" or something, just "here it is". They don't even bother anymore, there's no reason to do so: they dominate in that world - which is the future, so there's no need to be creative. There's no need to be creative. That's the overwhelming undertone to a visit to WalMart: we can all be happy in a system of calm and cozy consumerism, everything will be Perfectly Adequate. There's no need for Rogue Creativity! That's what's going on in the music industry right now, except the Holy Flourescent Cathedral of Consumerism isn't WalMart but MTV and corporate radio. There's no need for a new color, we only need red, blue and green. Like WalMart, once dominant/now dominant, the industry has no reason to strive for anything more than being Perfectly Adequate. Which sucks large bowls of dysentry, IMO. Voicestream: this ties together because today I found myself in a conversation with a "Jerome" at Voicestream customer service that basically went as follows: ME: "my phone is dropping the connection basically everyday, and the rest of the time it's usually garbled, or I'm hearing random noises throughout the conversation" JEROME (Voicestream support): "sir, if you look at your contract you'll see that that is allowable as part of service" ME: "you mean... You're not going to do anything about the fact that 2 out of every 5 phone calls I make get disconnected by mistake, and the rest are generally messed up as well?" JEROME (Voicestream support): "yes sir, that's just part of cell phone service". ME: "(*#^$)*&##(*^#!!!!!" NO IT'S NOT!!!! It's didn't used to be! Total BS! They've oversold their network - and since they're providing a PERFECTLY ADEQUATE service - THEY DON'T CARE. No one cares anymore. People suck and so does their music.

[surfjunkie]

i was hoping for a little more "curvature of the planet" content. hey, what's next? [b] Topic: I went to Target and now i'm angry. Topic: Office Max- they should call it "Office Min." Topic: Staples employs idiots, and Sprint is just useless enough to make me rip my teeth out. [/b] just kidding, Chip :D

[KHAN]

Resistance is futile. You will be Assimilated. ------------------ Locutus of Borg.

[mantovibe_dup1]

This kind of shit happens almost every fucking day :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: It makes it real hard for me to hold from hurting someone :mad: It's better to forget about it immediately and walk away :mad:

[ChrisJ]

[quote] i was hoping for a little more "curvature of the planet" content. [/quote]Wager, In the simplest approximation, the Earth is a sphere with a radius of curvature of 6378.136 km. A more refined model would describe the Earth as an ellipsoid with an equatorial bulge such that the radius of curvature was the aforesaid 6378.136km at the equator and about 20 km less at the pole (a part in 1/298.257). This is of course true only in some average sense and local topography will cause variations. -Chris

[Felix_dup1]

I hate Wal Mart, and think they're responsible for most or all of what is wrong with retail today. They taught the country that nothing matters but price. You don't have to have the best looking, best merchandised store with the best merchandise or the best service. It just has to cost less than anywhere else. Because of Wal Mart, people now think that they should be able to return anything, anytime, with no questions asked. They don't expect to have any store personnel available to help them with anything. They put up with the mess, the crowds, the crap - all to save a nickel and a dime here and there. And I don't know about you guys, but I see people at Wal Mart that I don't see anywhere else - scary people. And it's in any Wal Mart, anywhere. Creepy. I made it a point about 6 months ago to boycott Wal Mart. So far, it's working.

[Soundscape Studios.]

Save yourself the agg - stick with Verizon. Never dropped a call yet! :)

[Master Zap]

[quote]i was hoping for a little more "curvature of the planet" content.[/quote]Me too, having a debut CD by the name "The Curvature of Space" ;) /Z

[spokenward]

and another thing - what's the deal with the music bed for the KMart post-bankruptcy advertising? (to expand on the creepy discounter thread.) Is it just me or have they totally ripped the guitar arrrangement from the Tom Rush version of Jackson Browne's "These Days". Is there a site that lists credits for advertising campaigns? Where is the customer service counter, dammit!

[thisDude]

Walmart is definitly the soylent green for your consumer palette. As much as I enjoy being greeted by the black bearded lady with 2 lazy eyes, I have to say I frequent the 24 hour one in Tampa alot, with the hours I keep. Where else can you go and get a five pack of frozen pizzas, dress socks, copier paper, and a bird house at 4:00 am on a Sunday (my last purchase)? As far as the curvature of the earth goes....well, not quite sure if I beleive in all of that... And by the way... Jamie Lee Curtis is still hot after all these years. "Watch out for those falling prices"

[rold]

Last I checked trash-mart was averaging a lawsuit a day...I wonder what they're up to nowadays?.. :D

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by soundscapestudios: [b]Save yourself the agg - stick with Verizon. Never dropped a call yet! :) [/b][/quote]Literally, *every single aspect* of my life is screwed up/aggravating: I keep hearing rumors that Verizon is going to buy the local Voicestream network - which I'm now on month to month with. In other words - the moment I drop Voicestream I'm going to find out Verizon is... just on the horizon, and if I don't - continual bad performance. "Curvature of the Earth" - my reference was that this Walmart was so amazingly heeeeyoooge that I think I could almost detect it by trying to see the back wall in the distance.... Of course, that could merely be space dilation effects from the enormous florescent-powered Culture Singularity they bury under every new WalMart. Regardless... just more and more shiny and perfectly adequate packaged mediocrity, just like music today.

[CarmenC]

[quote]Originally posted by Chip McDonald: [b] [quote]Originally posted by soundscapestudios: [b]Save yourself the agg - stick with Verizon. Never dropped a call yet! :) [/b][/quote]Literally, *every single aspect* of my life is screwed up/aggravating: I keep hearing rumors that Verizon is going to buy the local Voicestream network - which I'm now on month to month with. In other words - the moment I drop Voicestream I'm going to find out Verizon is... just on the horizon, and if I don't - continual bad performance. "Curvature of the Earth" - my reference was that this Walmart was so amazingly heeeeyoooge that I think I could almost detect it by trying to see the back wall in the distance.... Of course, that could merely be space dilation effects from the enormous florescent-powered Culture Singularity they bury under every new WalMart. Regardless... just more and more shiny and perfectly adequate packaged mediocrity, just like music today.[/b][/quote]Wal-Mart just became the largest business ( in sales) in the US. I'm sure they're doing it all wrong... :rolleyes: What should retail look like, in your world? It sure sucks to be you, I guess... C ;)

[gtrmac]

Hey Chip, Why don't you move to another country like I did. Here in Japan there's nothing like Walmart. it wouldn't even fit here, not enough space. The style is slowly encroaching on the charming and strange traditional culture though and I must say that if you think American Pop Music sucks wait until you hear the Japanese imitation, yikes! Well at least there aren't many elementary school kids coming to class with automatic weapons... yet. I'm considering New Zealand next if things get too Americanized here and I also hear you can get real estate on the Mosquito coast pretty cheap these days. By the way the music school I teach at loves to hire American teachers and English teachers at the many schools devoted to that make good money also. The kids at the music school seem willing to practice which is encouraging. Another benefit might be that Japanese women find almost all Western men attractive, the opposite seems to be true as well. Look me up when you get here. ;)

[michael saulnier]

So, one possible future is... - Chip moves to Japan. - Starts highly sucessful "American style" guitar school. - Within 6 months the cream of Japanese youth are entranced with Chip-san and his guitar guru-ism. - 2 years later, a wave of Japanese shred-buki players invade America. We're dazzled by their prowess and their devotion to the One they call "Master". - Shred-buki dominates the charts and Shred-buki artists dominate the Grammy's. - Within a decade, there is no other music being played anywhere in the world. - A year later, Chip-san [i]buys[/i] Wal-mart... [b]closes it[/b]. - A thousand years of harmony and melody begins... :rolleyes: :D guitplayer

[Rog]

[quote]Originally posted by gtrmac@hotmail.com: [b]Hey Chip, Why don't you move to another country like I did. Here in Japan there's nothing like Walmart. it wouldn't even fit here, not enough space. The style is slowly encroaching on the charming and strange traditional culture though and I must say that if you think American Pop Music sucks wait until you hear the Japanese imitation, yikes! Well at least there aren't many elementary school kids coming to class with automatic weapons... yet. I'm considering New Zealand next if things get too Americanized here and I also hear you can get real estate on the Mosquito coast pretty cheap these days. By the way the music school I teach at loves to hire American teachers and English teachers at the many schools devoted to that make good money also. The kids at the music school seem willing to practice which is encouraging. Another benefit might be that Japanese women find almost all Western men attractive, the opposite seems to be true as well. Look me up when you get here. ;) [/b][/quote]Tell me more! I'm off to brush up on my karate and get over my raw fish phobia. Do you have spare tix for the World Cup Mac? That's the World Cup - very different from the World Series ;)

[Steve Smith]

A trip to Walmart is almost as bad as dealing with the fine folks at COMP UselesS A Good news is that MARRS seems to be falling apart.. I just hope the local stores can ride it out another year... the Office Depot of Guitar stores... now that is scary.

[Tom Capasso]

Chip - sorry things are going so poorly for you - hope some of the aggravations subside soon. I looked at your first post, and see where you are coming from about Walmart. I'm not sure the whole thing is so evil, but I take your point. So then I'm reading "In A Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson. He goes places and writes books about his experiences, and I'm enjoying this book, which is about Australia. He talks about one part of his trip where he drives 1000 miles through desert country to a town called Alice Springs, which is all built up. From his hotel room, he can see the expanse of the desert as long as he elevates his gaze above the - you guessed it - Walmart shopping center. Bill is traveling at this point with a British friend, who is struck the same way. The Brit says "You Americans have a lot to answer for", and Bryson agrees. Bryson goes on to say [quote]We have created a philosophy of retailing that is totally without aesthetics and totally irresistable. Then we box it up and ship it all over the world. [/quote]Thought you'd enjoy the similar viewpoint. Also, since this takes place in a largely deserted area of Australia, I'm not so sure emmigrating will solve the problem. Tom

[Gabriel E.]

In case anyone is interested: [url=http://www.walmartwatch.com/index.cfm]WalMart Watch[/url] Wal Mart is just plain Evil.

[FoxTick]

[quote]Originally posted by Chip McDonald: [b]No one cares anymore. People suck and so does their music.[/b][/quote]LMAO!! i feel your pain Chip, I had similar experiences with a certain company who shall remain nameless...well, their name rhymes with SCHMECKSTEL :D i have since been with Verizon. I haven't had a call drop since. (about a year and a half ago) last time i was in a Wal-E-World, i ate at the McDonalds they had there and i got food poisoning. since then, i no longer eat at McDonalds (or any mass produced fast food joint for that matter), that crap will kill ya.

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by CarmenC: [b]What should retail look like, in your world? It sure sucks to be you, I guess... [/b][/quote]Maybe you can help me to understand the concept of satiating the lowest common denominator?

[Chip McDonald]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gtrmac@hotmail.com: [b]Hey Chip, Why don't you move to another country like I did. [/b][/quote Don't tempt me.... [b]Here in Japan there's nothing like Walmart. it wouldn't even fit here, not enough space. The style is slowly encroaching on the charming and strange [/b] Man, I'd love to visit Japan, endlessly fascinating place. Let's see.... a land where I'm average height or even "tall", and having manners isn't considered a weakness? Sign me up.... How long have you been there? Is it still strange? Are you ever anything other than gaijin? I had one student that was really into Paul Gilbert (who is apparently a minor deity there?); he says "you go to Japan and teach guitar in store, make lot of money" - and I thought "huh... It'd be fun to learn Japanese and try that, but..." . I presume you've had Pocari Sweat? [b]think American Pop Music sucks wait until you hear the Japanese imitation, yikes! Well at least there [/b] Yeah, I know. It's very curious, there is a definite different thinking process there. The people I've taught have been very idiomatic in their Japan-ness: very precise players, obsessed with the glitz of something, but severely lacking an awareness of the rhythmic possibilities on both sides of a note... if that makes any sense. Probably not a lot of funk bands in Japan....? [b]aren't many elementary school kids coming to class with automatic weapons... yet. I'm considering New [/b] Isn't there some big problem with bike and car theft, though? [b]coast pretty cheap these days. By the way the music school I teach at loves to hire American teachers and English teachers at the many schools devoted to that make good money also. The kids at the music school seem willing to practice which is encouraging.[/b] You're kidding, that's what you do? I bet they do actually practice, don't they? That's got to be a breath of fresh air compared to here.... How did you get into that? [b]Another benefit might be that Japanese women find almost all Western men attractive, [/b] (opening new window to check JAL seat availability for tomorrow flight....) [b]the opposite seems to be true as well. Look me up when you get here. ;) [/b] Man. Don't kid around too much there, I might be knocking at your door.... A long time friend of the family has a sister that lives there who is a concert pianist (by the name of Morinaga, heard of her perhaps?), awhile ago it was casually suggested offhand I could go over and stay at her place (which is a beautiful Architectural Digest-like modern 2 story building; she dedicated the bottom floor of the building to her grand piano, acoustically designed through out, must have cost unreal $$$$$$$$ yen), but the culture/language thing seemed too daunting. I've always wanted to go there, though, just to feel the alien-ess of it, but there doesn't seem to be a "safe" way of going about it - or rather, a way that doesn't cost half of Bill Gate's worth I should say. Friends have been there a few times on tour (on other people's dime of course) and always have interesting/great things to say about it.... Anecdotes about how like playing at the Budokan things go PERFECTLY on time no matter what, everything is JUST so, sound company is POLITE, everyone nice and so forth... but also that there's enthusiasm for whatever is going on. Sounds great to me....

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by guitplayer: [b]So, one possible future is... We're dazzled by their prowess and their devotion to the One they call "Master". - Shred-buki dominates the charts and Shred-buki artists dominate the Grammy's. [/b][/quote]Thanks for making me laugh.... Shred-buki... I'm stealing that...

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by Steve Smith: [b]A trip to Walmart is almost as bad as dealing with the fine folks at COMP UselesS A Good news is that MARRS seems to be falling apart.. I just hope the local stores can ride it out another year... the Office Depot of Guitar stores... now that is scary.[/b][/quote]Yeah, I've heard Mars is having problems.... But Comp-USA - had a student that used to work there (who *thought* he was all that with computers because he was working towards his NT certification...) who told me I'd be amazed at the number of people that call up asking if they had reached "Com-poosa" (compusa..)... and actually, I'm not amazed at all.

[Tedster]

Well, I do go to Mars occasionally, we don't have a "Guitar Whoopee" here. So, I hope they don't fall apart completely. At least not yet.

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by Tom Capasso: [b]Chip - sorry things are going so poorly for you - hope some of the aggravations subside soon. I looked at your first post, and see where you are coming from about Walmart. I'm not sure the whole thing is so evil, but I take your point. [/b][/quote]It's not "evil", it's just there. It just brings to mind all of the anti-Soviet propaganda we used to have to watch as kids, where you'd see shots of people standing in line to buy 1 of 3 choices of an item, and how sometimes they'd be out of milk but there would be a stack of car tires for sale... all displayed in a generic, bland flourescent lit building. It's also part of the slacker culture that is ever pervasive. My aggravation continues... I went to lunch today with my parents at a place called "BD's Grill", where you basically pick out a bunch of ingredients buffet style, stick it in a bowl and take it to this giant grill and they grill it for you... Which is pretty cool, I've been maybe 3 times, today the 4th... Except when I went before it had basically just opened. TODAY they burned my food. Not once, twice. Watched them do it: "You didn't put enough oil in your bowl" they told me; bull, I put the same amount that I did the previous 3 times. THE DIFFERENCE is that now that they'd been open for awhile, they'd gotten slack. I watched them: they dumped the bowl on the grill, didn't mix it up or anything... just let it sit there. Turned it one time; that was it. Before they had a little round-robin procedure where they rotated around this grill and constantly stirred it, kept the food moving on the grill, KEPT THE GRILL SCRAPED... but today.. uhg. Burned. Didn't offer to give me the "meal" for free. Server walked up while I'm waiting for the manager to try to get them to grill a facsimile of what I wanted "right", and goes "finished up now? Like you check?" AND I HADN'T EVEN HAD ANY FOOD YET, and on and on.. THEN, as I'm driving away from this place some bozo tried to drive up the wrong side of the road in front of me, slammed into a car ahead of me... Which trapped me in traffic for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, turns out a less scheduled for 1:00 - who hasn't been for 3 weeks, hasn't paid for March, who I've removed from my schedule... has apparently decided today would be a good time to just show up again out of the blue, which gets me in trouble - but I can't do anything about it because I'm sitting in traffic less than 2 minutes away from work.... Then, as I'm finally pulling into a parking space at work a woman decides to open her door suddenly in the car parked adjacent to the spot I was entering, so I slam on brakes... spilling a cup of cocoa I had sitting in front of my shifter, onto a brand new pair of khakis... LEVI SIZE 31X30 DOCKERS, which are IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND (check out the availability grid on their web page: basically everything goes to retail outlets EXCEPT SIZE 31X30.... Also notice that in EVERY clothing store you're find 28x30,29x30,30x30.... THEN IT SKIPS to 32x30, WHICH IS TOO BIG. WHY does it skip 31"???? What's up with that??????? ahrgg) , and happen to be THE ONLY PANTS THAT ACTUALLY FIT ME WELL, which I found at a going out of business sale at Macy's a few days ago, my ONE PAIR OF THESE DOCKERS, which now has a lovely streak of chocolate down the side of them. Yeah. Aggravation does stop. Did I mention that I played a gig saturday night? Yep. I show up with 10 minutes to set up - since I had just left work, only to discover the p.a. was blown, fried crossover and a horn in one cabinet... Then find out my cheat sheet with both key signatures and SONG ORDER/MARKERS ON MY VS-880 was missing, so I had no idea what I was about to play before I played it... had to use my Deluxe as one side of the p.a., which basically meant I couldn't really hear both what I was doing or the music I was playing too... and of course, a friend was there to hear me play, had heard all these great things about me around town, and I'm flubbing stuff because I have modulations that I normally remembered by my cheat sheet, not to mention not knowing what I'm going to do until I'm hearing the backing music I've made start playing, and while everone thought it was fine she of COURSE no doubt heard everything I screwed up since she's a great bassoonist with the symphony... Of course, I had to be playing from 12 until 3 am the previous night WHEN THINGS WENT PERFECTLY and she couldn't come out that late, then... I mean, this kind of thing happens everyday. IT'S GETTING OLD. Don't people just have "normal" days where things don't mess up, people don't drive the wrong way in traffic, the p.a. system actually works, tires don't wait to go flat until the moment you're leaving for work (yesterday), on and on.... I swear, I'm in purgatory, it's uncanny.... [b]long as he elevates his gaze above the - you guessed it - Walmart shopping center. Bill is traveling at [/b] Midnight Oil has references to Alice Springs, hmmm... [quote]We have created a philosophy of retailing that is totally without aesthetics and totally irresistable. Then we box it up and ship it all over the world. [/quote]I've nothing against cheap goods. I'm a hypocrite; I buy things from WalMart - but I can't afford to buy some things anywhere else. Not only that, but I'll admit - I LOVE the fact they're open 24 hours, I get a big kick out of that; it's somewhat reassuring knowing that somewhere in town there's people arranging an aisle of washing detergent at 4 in the morning. I believe in capitalism and competition. BUT AT THE SAME TIME predatory capitalism serves no one except the elite. And when it starts pervading culture itself, that's even worse. Kids now have no idea that there was a time when there were privately owned gas stations, privately owned grocery stores, etc.; they expect convenience above all else. That's a negative IMO. [b]takes place in a largely deserted area of Australia, I'm not so sure emmigrating will solve the problem. [/b] Hmm. Still... AUSTRALIA! Oh well...

[Charlie-brm]

For about the last ten years I've understood the way Walmart functions is to open about 3 to 5 death stars in adjacent small communities, see which one 'sticks', then close the rest. By the time that assessment is made, the original competing retail establishments have gone under since their local and not so loyal customers couldn't resist the temptation to venture into the belly of the dragon. You know, just to see what all the fuss is about. Now the people in the towns with no retail left drive to the next town that has a surviving Walmart. That's all legit. Just count me out. I remember pulling up to the little grocery store up in cottage country to buy the weekend's food, knowing it would cost a few bucks more, but it was closed down. The cottagers who showed up with the back seats already full of groceries from the city seemed the most disappointed; "gee, all I wanted was a pack of smokes. Where do I go now?" Morons.

[Lee Flier]

Hey Chip, I totally feel your pain. You should check out a book called "How Wal-Mart is Destroying America" by Bill Quinn. The author is an old-timer whose charming Texas town got totally fucked up by our favorite retailer. Has a lot of great "ammunition" for people who are trying to fight having a Wal-Mart built in their area, etc. I never set foot in the friggin place myself. --Lee

[CarmenC]

[quote]Originally posted by Chip McDonald: [b] [quote]Originally posted by CarmenC: [b]What should retail look like, in your world? It sure sucks to be you, I guess... [/b][/quote]Maybe you can help me to understand the concept of satiating the lowest common denominator?[/b][/quote]It's the first rule of business. Give the people what they want. I think you get it just fine. You just dont like it. If you don't like it ,dont cooperate. Worked for Gandhi. If enough people also don't cooperate, Wal Mart would be gone. Dont hold your breath. You just seem to hate the fact that everything in the world is not to your taste. You come off as an snob, IMHO. BTW, you can get levi's here. http://www.us.levi.com/sp02/levi/home/l_home.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2101079&bmUID=1015475553717 ANY SIZE!!! Delivered to your home. You also wouldn't have to rub shoulders with the unwashed masses at Wal Mart. God forbid. Do me a favor. Stand up, grab your dick, and be thankful you'll never be as fucked over in this life as most black women in this country are. Go back and read your posts in this thread. Christ, you whine like a girl...

[Chip McDonald]

[quote]Originally posted by CarmenC: [b]Go back and read your posts in this thread. Christ, you whine like a girl...[/b][/quote]The only person truly whining here is you. Additionally, you're doing it in a very dull and stereotypical "I listen to Rush Limbaigh, and I wanna be a pompous neo-conservative, too!" way. Meanwhile other people here are echoing my sentiments, yet you've singled me out - which indicates I probably have been particularly effective in my posts. Or personally effective? Have some stock in Walmart, perhaps? Or maybe you have to STOCK at Walmart, and that's the problem? At least you could be more entertaining in your personal attack. But since that seems to be your modus operandi - up yers you ego inflated prick.