Middlebrow and Urbanity

Civic leaders of various large cities claim that Wal-Mart is too middlebrow and therefore has no place in cities:

Wal-Mart is used to opposition, but these antagonists are tougher and better organized than earlier breeds. In the Northeast and America's big urban centers, they've augmented a traditional anti-Wal-Mart message with something more potent: an appeal to urban cultural values. Here, Wal-Mart is a metaphor for the worst of middlebrow America.

After missing out in Boston, the company lost a two-year fight to open in Leominster, in central Massachusetts. Some of the same antagonists are now organizing to block Wal-Mart in adjacent Lancaster.

Officials in Miami prevented Wal-Mart from locating a store amid a 55-acre midtown redevelopment project, on the grounds that its sprawling, suburban aesthetics and low-end appeal didn't conform to the city's architectural and social vision for the project.

"I feel bad for Wal-Mart, but that's their image," says Johnny Winton, the former Miami commissioner who helped plan the project.

Now, there is some truth here: Wal Mart is middlebrow, decidedly and avowedly so. They pursue middlebrow with a passion. And, it is true that, in cities such as Boston, Miami, and New York, there is a relatively large population of people too wealthy* to shop at Wal Mart.

But so what? Why does it follow from any of this that (1) the poorer residents of the city would not benefit from having access to a cheap retailer, (2) that Wal Mart should not make its presence known, and, if concerns about its middlebrow-ness turn out to be true, lose money from its operations in the city?

The notion that there is a "correct" retailer and an "incorrect" retailer for a city is nothing less than class snobbery, of the very worst sort, because, this type of class distinction directly affects the pocketbooks of those least able to afford it.

There certainly is something to be said for the wanton nature of Wal Mart's stores. They are poorly laid out, hard to navigate, attract low income people, sell crappy products, have annoying, cloying ads, and otherwise do not appeal to me or most of my demographic. But so what? I have the option of not shopping there; why can't low income people have the option of shopping there?

*Of course one can't be too wealthy to shop at Wal Mart; this is an attempt at wry irony. Don't read too deeply into it.