I just got back from the Oxnard Wal-Mart.  I had to do a some justifying in order to go into a place I had solemnly sworn never to set foot in, but I finally convinced myself that going in and walking around just to see what I could see was not the same as shopping.  My curiosity had been stimulated by the Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition, a group of citizens and organizations that are determined to prevent Wal-Mart from opening a supercenter on Victoria Avenue.

A visit to the coalition’s web site provided some interesting reading.  One page featured links to other community groups all over the country—including seven in California–that are also doing battle with Wal-Mart to keep this mega-retailer out of their cities.  I was particularly interested in the Bend, Oregon web page which provided information from Consumer Reports about Wal-Mart’s prices.  As it turns out, the popular mythology, fostered by Wal-Mart with billions in advertising, is just that: a myth.  It isn’t true.  All those ads saying, “Save money.  Live better.” are just some copywriter’s fantasy.

Former Wal-Mart executive Michael Bergdahl explained in his book What I Learned from Sam Walton, “Shopping cart comparisons will prove Wal-Mart’s prices are not the lowest on all items.  There is, however, a perception in the mind of the consumer that they are.  This perception has been strategically planted there by targeted advertising and marketing messages focused on Wal-Mart’s ‘everyday low prices’ campaign.  Consumers begin to believe that Wal-Mart has the lowest prices on everything so they stop doing comparison shopping.”

So, my interest aroused, I decided to see for myself.  I was aware of all the documented evils perpetrated by Wal-Mart in the supposed service of low prices: the exploitation of employees who are paid so little they have to rely on public assistance to survive, the pressures on suppliers to cut prices to the point that they have to outsource their manufacturing to countries where people labor in sweatshops for pennies a day, the destruction of local businesses in the towns invaded by Wal-Mart stores, all that stuff.  But I believed what everyone else evidently believes, that Wal-Mart has the lowest prices and therefore is helping low income families survive, particularly in this time of economic collapse.

I plunged into the belly of the beast, on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas yet.  Of course the traffic in the vicinity of Rose and Gonzales was horrendous, and the whole huge parking lot was packed for more than a city block in all directions.  Really, voters in Ventura who are in any doubt whatsoever about how to vote on the initiative that will be on the ballot next November 3rd owe  it to themselves to visit the Oxnard Wal-Mart.  Unless they have somehow developed a perverse taste for sleaze and squalor, the grime and ugliness of the place alone should convince them to keep a similar operation out of their city.

Entering the store, I found myself in a corridor of merchandise displayed under day-glo orange signs with white letters proclaiming “Unbeatable Prices.” Under each sign was a separate gift item: three pairs of bright colored polyester socks for $5; a collection of bath items, a bar of soap, bubble bath, shower gel, and bath crystals all in a plastic caddy, making the gift look larger than its contents, for $15; A set of holiday dishes decorated with Christmas trees claiming to be dishwasher, microwave, and conventional oven safe and Made in China for $15; twin sheets of cotton jersey, red with white snowflake designs for $18.92; a pet travelers seat saver, which seemed to be a throw for the dog to sit on, for $20; and a Stanley Homeowners Tool Kit for $28.

I’m not much of a shopper, but the prices on these items didn’t seem all that marvelous.  I had bought soap and bubble bath recently, the bar soap for under $2 and the bubble bath, a larger jar than on the Wal-Mart display, for about $3, but still there was no way to do exact comparison shopping because I didn’t recognize the brand name of the supplier.

I had to locate merchandise that I could also find elsewhere, so I wandered up and down seemingly endless aisles jammed with shopping carts and shoppers.  Most of the stuff piled on either side of the aisles, and in island displays where aisles crossed, were not likely to be encountered anywhere else for the purpose of comparison shopping.  In fact most were so garish and tacky that it seemed unlikely to encounter them even once, anywhere. For electronic equipment I would accept the verdict of Consumer Reports, which ranked Wal-Mart last in their listing of retailers such as Best Buy, Radio Shack, Circuit City, Target, and others.  Household products and groceries seemed the easiest to compare, so I started jotting down prices.

On my way home I stopped by a Vons store to compare some prices there with the ones from Wal-Mart.  A package 12.5 ounce package of “fun size” Butterfinger candies were two for $5 at Vons and $2.38 at Wal-Mart so you could save 12 cents by braving the crowds.  A jug of laundry detergent, 2x Ultra Tide with Febreeze, however, was on sale at Vons for $11.99 while Wal-Mart charged $13.97.  The Wal-Mart brand, Great Value, sugar frosted flakes were $2.98 while Vons generic flakes were two for $4.00.  The biggest savings I noted at Vons was for a gallon of whole milk selling for $2.99 or two gallons for $4.99.  A gallon of whole milk at Wal-Mart was $3.68.

The price differences were not dramatic, and broke both ways depending which item was being checked.  But I did come away from my brief stint of comparison shopping convinced that the notion that Wal-Mart prices provide huge savings is actually just another urban legend, and one fostered primarily by billions of advertising dollars.

So The High Cost of Low Prices, to quote the title of one book about Wal-Mart, is actually the high cost of our own gullibility.