Thoughts on Walmart from David Breeden

Many years ago, there was a great independent bookstore on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles I almost worked at. It was 1975 and the store was paying $5.00/hour which in those days wasn't all that bad if you were mainly focused on your writing. You could actually live on that wage. I didn't get the job but I kept an eye on what they were paying from time to time and then I noticed something strange over a period of ten years: they kept paying $5.00/hour. In those ten years, our nation had some of the worst inflation we've experienced; also bookstore chains, along with numerous other chains, started pushing out the independents and store clerks saw their wages fall behind the rest of the nation so the store profits could be siphoned off to corporate headquarters somewhere.

David Breeden has been a guest several times on Donkey Path and writes on this occassion on the effort to get minimum wages in Chicago and on the general clout of companies like Walmart. His post can be found above.

After writing and teaching a number of years in Texas, he lives, teaches and goes to seminary school in Chicago. He still finds time to write and give readings in Chicago pubs. Some of his books can be found on Amazon or March Street Press.