< PREVIOUS ] [ 2004 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
When we gather with local friends these days, we often try to determine whether we abide in a Red or Blue Zone. Colorado is a Red State (by definition, in Spanish) and George Bush the Younger carried Chaffee County with 56 percent of the vote. Pete Coors even won here, though by only 17 votes.
But in my Precinct 2, John Kerry led by better than 2-1, and he would have won in a landslide if the rest of the country had voted like the older parts of Salida. Fred Hardee even carried several Salida precincts; if you've never heard of him, he was the latest sacrifice to 10-term Republican Joel Hefley in the 5th Congressional District. Both Democratic candidates won county commissioner seats; for the first time in living memory, the board is all Democrats.
So the election results don't really paint us one color or another, and neither do cultural indicators. Salida has at least 15 churches, as well as a Super Wal-Mart. We also have a score of art galleries, and several places where you can get a double-mocha-decaf-latte.
We can't figure out whether we're in the heartland where devout people display Confederate flags to show their patriotism, or in an effete decadent coastal zone that somehow got transported 1,200 miles inland and elevated to 7,000 feet above sea level.
After we reach that non-conclusion about our political
coloration, the conversation generally turns to What are
we going to do if the Safeway workers go on strike?
There are several good health-food stores in town and there are local meat producers, for another combination of Blue and Red indicators. They offer tomatoes with taste, locally raised beef and wholesome packaged goods. But we can't afford the best of everything, so for everyday groceries, we have two options: Safeway and Wal-Mart.
After the election, I read Linda Chavez's advice that Democratic pundits should stand in line at Wal-Mart so as to understand the real people of America. I want to make it clear that I have endured many hours in Wal-Mart lines, and thus should be spared if there's a purge.
But even if Martha and I sometimes get milk or canned commodities when we're at Wal-Mart, we buy most of our food at Safeway.
Safeway is only six blocks away, and it's a pleasant walk. This saves money in several ways. We get exercise without paying for a gym membership, we avoid burning expensive gasoline, and we resist the temptation to buy a lot of stuff because there's only so much we can carry on foot.
Wal-Mart requires an auto trip and it seems like a major
excursion. It makes you think As long as we've come all
the way out here, we might as well get ...
Its remote
location actively discourages low-spending pedestrians.
Safeway is a union shop, and some goods cost more there. But at least to some degree, what we spend on groceries there is compensated by reduced taxes.
According to a study at the University of California released last August, Wal-Mart's lower wages ($9.40 an hour in the San Francisco Bay area, as compared to $15.31 for union retailers) mean that Wal-Mart workers are more likely to need tax-funded public assistance.
More specifically, the study found, California taxpayers spend $86 million a year on public assistance for Wal-Mart workers: $32 million on health care, and $54 million on other programs, such as food stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, subsidized school lunches and subsidized housing.
The big grocers in Colorado (Safeway, King Soopers, Albertson's) are worried that they'll lose market share to Wal-Mart unless they can cut labor costs (or, to put it another way, pull a Wal-Mart by shifting some labor costs to taxpayers). And the union, of course, wants to preserve if not increase pay and benefits. Thus the possibility of a strike.
The dilemma here is that if we honor a picket line at Safeway, then we're pretty much stuck going to Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart is why there could be a picket line at our Safeway. It makes me wish that I'd been more dutiful about putting up some food from last summer's vegetable garden, although I don't know whether that's a conservative Red State pursuit (thrift and self-reliance) or a liberal Blue Zone cause (organic non-corporate food).
Perhaps I'll figure that out someday, but meanwhile I hope that the grocers and the unions come to an agreement so that I can feel comfortable about getting our daily bread.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 2004 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >