August 4th, 2009
by Ned
Arizona is perhaps the most desolate state we’ve traveled through thus far. This is by no means a bad thing—the stark beauty of the surrounding landscape is just as awe-inspiring as it was in New Mexico and West Texas. But it does mean that there’s a lot of ground to cover in between each sign of civilization, and most of the towns we passed through were little more than a strip of road with a few restaurants.
The two exceptions we encountered before Phoenix were Winslow and Flagstaff. Flagstaff in particular was a very strange place. It was by far the greenest town we encountered in Arizona, thanks to a remarkably high altitude that made the nights there chilly even by the standards of us as New Englanders. And while we only saw the Wal-Mart, we got the impression there of a diverse, endearingly oddball community, shaped in large part by the proximity of Northern Arizona University.
Exhibit A: We were in the Flagstaff Wal-Mart for all of two minutes, surrounded by RVs, before we got a friendly knock on the door. A beefy, talkative guy with a scraggly beard bounded onto the bus and introduced himself as Pockets. He was traveling with his friend, Shadow, and their dog, in a van that they had been living out of for years. Pockets called us “family,” saying, “I knew there would be family in this parking lot,” and asked us if we had been at the gathering that year—meaning the massive flash-hippie commune known as the Rainbow Gathering. We said that we had not, and he launched into an involved description of his various debaucheries and hallucinogenic experiences over the course of the gathering.
Later, after the Sun Dance and the Grand Canyon, we rolled through Flagstaff once more on our way to Phoenix, in search of veggie oil. Unsurprisingly, the downtown was really cool—depending on who aboard the bus you ask, it was almost as interesting, or more interesting, than downtown Asheville, North Carolina. The music shops, food and street performers were all great, but the best part for us was that everyone seemed to genuinely like the bus; it felt like we were surrounded by friends. Or, as Pockets had put it, family.
Tags: Arizona, Flagstaff, Phoenix, veggie oil, Wal-Mart, Winslow
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June 15th, 2009
by Ned
I think by now we’ve been to enough Wal-Marts that I can officially declare myself a Wal-Mart connoisseur, if such a thing exists. And seeing all of these Wal-Marts go by, and expressing their rich, full-bodied flavors individually, it’s got me thinking about these big shopping centers in the context of the recession.
In a lot of these small towns, Wal-Mart isn’t just a place to shop but a genuine community center. I’ve seen teenagers hang out at the Wal-Mart in Cromwell, CT to genuinely hang out. I haven’t been to a single Wal-Mart where at least a few people haven’t gone in with their entire families to grab a meal and then go shopping.
It’s hard to say, based on observation alone, whether or not this has gotten more prevalent because of the recession, but it wouldn’t surprise me. We already know that fast food is doing comparatively well in the economic downturn, so why not the retail equivalent?
The weird, unanticipated side effect of this is that Wal-Marts and fast food places alike seem to be becoming local institutions comparable to town squares. When we were in southern Pennsylvania, I found an ad for the local McDonald’s in Kennett Square, PA, which had a calendar of all of their events for the next week. That included things like “New Garden Karate Kickoff Demonstration” and “Senior Bingo,” but also contests to win prizes from the restaurant.
All of which gives me an uneasy feeling. If one of the side effects of the recession is that the Wal-Marts and McDonald’s of America become the town squares and community centers, then it’s possible that a lot of towns out there are going to lose some of that individual character which I went on the road, in part, to see.
It’s hard to imagine expensive boutique shopping centers doing quite as well in the economic downturn, and their gradual collapse may yield some unforeseen treasures. My mom sent along this Andrew Sullivan post, in which we learn that the massive, high-tech, profane monument to the dot-com bubble that rose up in downtown San Francisco has now become a sort of post-apocalyptic farmer’s market. We’re still far from the West Coast, but I’m going to keep an eye out for other stuff like that as we trundle along. When we get to the Bay Area, snapping some photos of the inside of this place is going to be one of my top priorities.
Tags: economic recession, Wal-Mart
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