Jewel – this note’s for Walmart

I hear Jewel’s got a new song. Its chorus goes something like this:

Ain’t singin’ for Pepsi
Ain’t singin’ for Coke
I don’t sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note’s for Walmart

In a recent interview, the Grammy Award-winning singer revealed:

I wrote ‘The Walmart Song’ on my first trip to Minnesota. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw this beautiful parking lot. Then, I looked out and there were these green mountains in the distance, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song:

I want to say welcome to a Wonderland
An amusement park full of delights and
The best part is they have one in every town
It’s your local Walmart where you can ride a cart around.

They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em

Great to see Jewel taking the lessons of her mentor Young to heart:

Still. You gotta respect any artist who so clearly doesn’t give a fuck. She’s not so much the anti-Joni Mitchell as the new Bob Dylan, isn’t she? Get ’em when they’re young, I say. Get ’em when they’re young.

From Wikipedia:

When Walmart plans new store locations, activists sometimes oppose the new store and attempt to block its construction. Opponents cite concerns such as traffic congestion, environment problems, public safety, absentee landlordism, bad public relations, low wages and benefits, and predatory pricing.

Walmart has also faced accusations involving poor working conditions of its employees. For example, a 2005 class action lawsuit in Missouri asserted approximately 160,000 to 200,000 people who were forced to work off-the-clock, were denied overtime pay, or were not allowed to take rest and lunch breaks. In 2000, Walmart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Walmart employees in Colorado had been forced to work off-the-clock.[51] The company has also faced similar lawsuits in other states, including Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Minnesota. Class-action suits were also filed in 1995 on behalf of full-time Walmart pharmacists whose base salaries and working hours were reduced as sales declined, resulting in the pharmacists being treated like hourly employees.

Walmart has also been accused of ethical problems. It is said that the Walmart employees are gender discriminated when trying to be hired and discriminated against in the work area. Duke vs. Walmart inc. was a discrimination case on behalf of more than 1.5 million current and former female employees of Walmart’s 3,400 stores across the United States. Dr. William Bliebly who evaluated Walmart’s employment policies “against what social science research shows to be factors that create and sustain bias and those that minimize bias” (Bliebly) and he finished by saying, the men and women not being created equal in the workforce is what Walmart is doing and what they should essentially not be doing.

The Wal-Mart Effect:

They destroy community character; they create urban sprawl; and they leave behind ugly, unused hulks as business strategies shift. But the central fight with Wal-Mart is over its economic effects on workers and communities … (more)

Here’s Kimya:

by Everett True

My name is Everett True. I am a music critic. This is what I do. I criticise music. The clue is in my job description – music critic. I do not consider myself a journalist, as I do not research or report hard news. I do not consider myself a commentator as I believe that everyone should be a participant. I criticise people and in return I am not surprised if other people criticise me. It is part of the whole deal of being in the public arena. I am Everett True. Believe in me and I have power like a God. Quit believing in me and I no longer exist.