The Discount Giant

So speaking of Wal-Mart... I've already brought up the subject in my official welcome-to-my-blog post... I spent three hours inside the nation's Discount Giant today. Mainly because I took my car there for an oil change. It's sad, isn't it? I feel like I'm admitting that to a support group.
So let me start at the beginning. I can honestly say, for the first three years that I lived inside the city of North Port (I've been here four now), I could count on one hand the number of times I'd stepped through the front sliding glass doors of Wal-Mart.
It had absolutely nothing to do with Wal-Mart being considered a corporate monster that cheats people out of fair wages and closes mom-and-pops - all arguments I've heard over and over from my more worldly friends.
No, this small-town girl has nothing against Wal-Mart. I never shopped there simply because the only Wal-Mart closest to my house was in Port Charlotte - a city next door to North Port.
But that changed when North Port got its own Wal-Mart.
There's something to say about a city that went for so long without a box store.
In general, people here felt the Discount Giant helped put them on the map. Maybe that's because Florida's towns and cities have always been defined by Wal-Mart. Take a Sunday drive through the center of the state on U.S. 27 or State Road 17 and you know you're driving through another town because there's another Wal-Mart.
In addition, city officials and economic development forecasters said because Wal-Mart was now here, other elements of Corporate America would follow. So far, they were right. Home Depot opened shortly after. We now have an Applebees, Beef O'Brady's, Taco Bell and three Quiznos. Meanwhile, we are set to get a Perkins by November, a Buffalo Wild Wings and Grill and a third Walgreens. A Super Target is rumored to be popping up at the corner of Sumter and Price boulevards, but that has been unconfirmed by Target's corporate folks.
But there was something else tied to that Wal-Mart when it opened. Something I was never expecting: a sense of ownership.
I know I felt it. So did others that I've talked to. It isn't just another Wal-Mart. It's OUR Wal-Mart.
And that's strange to admit, considering that I'm a journalist who has written story after story about communities fighting the mere suggestion that a Wal-Mart might be moving near their neighborhood. I'm naturally skeptical and question most everything.
But, indeed, there I was, for the first time, standing in the middle of North Port's Wal-Mart just after it opened. My heart was singing praise.
I'm now a Wal-Mart shopper. Most of my clothes come from the Discount Giant. Why? It's cheap. The sales racks are under three dollars. And they have a nice professional brand George that does well for my work attire.
Best of all, I now grocery shop at Wal-Mart. Just today I got a pound of red seedless grapes for a $1 less than at Publix. It's not just fruit and veggies (although I have to say that's really what I'm after most). The same is true for several of the other name-brand goods at Wal-Mart. Soup costs less. Cereal costs less.
Yes, my worldly friends cringe. You might be cringing, too.
But Wal-Mart offers something you can't see elsewhere: a glimpse at North Port. I truly believe a store like that reflects all of the different faces and cultures of a city. Most shoppers there are exactly what the statistics are telling us: they are young, families, middle to low income, and looking for a great deal just like me. It's no wonder Wal-Mart didn't open sooner.
I think that's why I didn't mind spending three hours in Wal-Mart today. I spent three hours being out and about in my community.