Wed night (29th), I was over in Wal*Mart with my kids, who had some Christmas money to spend. Shortly after we arrived there was a general announcement, that was repeated about every 10 minutes thereafter by some poor long-suffering Wal*Mart employee. The announcement was, and I quote, "Attenion Wal*Mart Shoppers. Due to a problem with our Debit card system, we are unable to accept any debit cards at this time. We can accept credit cards, or debit cards being used as credit cards. Of course we can take cash or checks. We apologize for any problems or inconviences that this may cause." Was it a Y2K problem? I don't know. I do know that I saw several interesting shoppers.

We saw several stocking up (in December) on charcoal and barbeque supplies. That may or may not be unusual. Most carts had batteries, although with a recent Christmas and a world of electronic toys, that may not be significant. But all the flashlights were noteworthy.

But when we came to check out, it was the shoppers right in front of us in line that really caught our attention. They had a 9-11 month old baby and were buying baby food in the small jars. Based on the amount that they paid, and the average price per jar, they had a "tide" of more than 250 jars going down the conveyer into their bags. We got into their line because it didn't seem that they had much, until you got close and saw this "sea" of little jars going down the conveyer. They paid cash, and that was all they bought. For one child, 250 jars, should equate to about a 40 day supply of baby food.... Stocking up?

Hmmm......

Rich

-- Rich Marsh (marshr@us.ibm.com), December 30, 1999

Answers

I had a similar experience today. I took my son and two nephews shopping. First off, my nephew asked if I could stop at the Credit Union as his new debit card would not work and he wanted to change his PIN number. No problemo, did that. He even had to try his card out immediately at the Credit Union to see if he could get some cash - it worked. Off to Walmart. He bought a computer game with his cash and decided to use his debit card for another purchase as he did not have enough cash. Wouldn't work. So we waited while the gal called a supervisor. Then, of course to make matters worse they had already rung in a 93cent credit he had on a Walmart gift card to be deducted from the purchase. Well, that didn't pan out either and the girls were about to call another supervisor to help them figure this out, when I told them to forget it. I gave my nephew a loonie and we were out of there. Don't know if this is Y2K related or not, either. Also, Walmart will no longer accept cheques and will not issue any more cheque cashing cards, but will continue to accept cheques from those customers who already have cheque cashing cards.

-- Val Jones (vjones@cableestevan.com), December 30, 1999.

The Walmart credit card glitch- the same thing happened to us here in the New Hampshire Store.

-- Sandy Pearson (woodswoman@endor.com), December 31, 1999.

You guys! Stop shopping at Wal-Mart! Support your local businesses and let's get ourselves out of this corporate mess we're in!

-- Kate Savage (sauvage@gateway.net), December 31, 1999.

Thanks, Kate, my feelings exactly. Even though a locally owned family hardware store may be more expensive...it's worth it. And trying to buy locally produced goods as well. Alternative Radio produced a really good program called The Wal-Marting of America, (can't recall the date-it was in 99-call or look up your local Public Radio station or Alternative Radio in Boulder, CO., for a copy of the program). It describes the impact on local economy of mega-stores, and the global damage being wrought. I live in Seattle, and am still recovering from the WTO meetings here, as well as learning in depth about globalization & the destruction of local economies, hence communities and cultures. It's heartbreaking...and directly related to Y2K issues, both in terms of the role of computers in the globalization (read colonization) of the world as well as the opportunities we all saw to begin to rebuild our communities as a response to potential Y2K disruptions. For more info on economic globalization & the cultural imperialism it brings, look up www.ifg.org (International Forum on Globalization). It's all connected...

-- Rebecca Sandel (webweaver@w-link.net), January 01, 2000.