My Adopted "Ghetto K-Mart"

The picture to the left serves two purposes.

• I saw that the local "Toy's For Tots" was critically low on toys to distribute to children who are at risk for not having any presents under their Christmas tree on December 25th  I told my kids that we would use this season to give to someone else rather than have them receive anything more.
• This is a return trip to the one store in Metro Atlanta that has "Herrs Barbecue Potato Chips".  This is the land of Lays potato chips.  My favorite brand of chips from Philly is only available at K-Mart.  (A select few stores have Herrs but they have wacky flavors like KC Barbcue, Salt & Vinegar, Ketchup, Cheddar.  I have talked to several store managers telling them to get Barbecue instead of these other flavors that no one else is purchasing.  The barbecue chips for the "Food Lion" brand taste very close to Herrs.)

The K-Mart on Cleveland Avenue and I-75 on the southside of Atlanta is my new favorite store because of the potato chips.  This time I returned to a store that was crowded with Christmas shoppers.

The economic demographic make up between this store and the one in Peachtree City GA could not be more different.  Despite the fact that the location in PC seems like a poor cousin to the brand new Wal-Mart about a mile away the shopping center is newly remodeled improving the appeal of the K-Mart and other stores within the plaza.  The Cleveland Ave location is old.  Tonight I saw the stark socio-economic differences among the shoppers.

The Return Of Layaway

Layaway died in the age of easy credit.  My mother used to make use of layaway when I was a kid.  Back then K-Marts were known as "Kresge".  

Today layaway appears to have returned with a vengeance.  The picture to the left shows the long line of people who are waiting to layaway merchandise.  It may be hard to see but there are about 40 individual transactions represented in that line.

While I don't do long lines I actually have to credit these people for using cash instead of increasing their credit debt to purchase items for Christmas.

As I filled up the cart with toys ranging from $5 to $15 so that I can stay within my budget I noted an issue that is more important than the question of the creditworthiness of the people in line: every toy that I purchased was made in China except for one item that was made in Mexico.

While the majority of the people and me are in differing income classes - we both are purchasing imported goods en masse.  We are both net consumers.

The bulk of these toys are low value, commodity items.   The relatively high labor rates and overhead in America will insure that these items won't be manufactured in this nation OR they won't be sold at $5 as labeled on the boxes.