The Bike Chef

It's no stretch of my imagination to assume that we will have learned precisely dick about building companies too big to fail, and that public bailing will again be required in yet another fifteen or twenty years. Take a look at the only two corporations who've posted positive in 2008 -- WalMart and McDonalds. As gigantic as they come. And with that gigantism comes massive resources for lobbying and political influence necessary to keep them large and keep them growing.

I had mentioned months ago that during a recession, Merikans are apt to grow fatter and less healthy. I can't imagine that as McDonalds gains this nation is eating better food, and I can't imagine that as WalMart gains this nation is buying better shit. WalMart is taking off, building supercenters that now dispense groceries in addition to cheap Chinese toothpaste and socks. Warehouse grocery shopping leads to massive sales of processed foods. What three member family can't do without that five gallon tub of mayonnaise? Not very many...just store it in the spare refrigerator in the garage.

There have been legal/legislative attempts by many localities to limit the size of retail establishments to something under, say, 225,000 sq. ft., in desperate attempts to specifically forbid supercenter-style stores. Elk Grove's latest city council member was elected, in part, based on his efforts to ward off a supercenter near his own home. But these efforts are lost every day in other localities, as large format retail has tremendous legal assets at their disposal to limit local efforts to stop them. His efforts simply mean he doesn't have to live near one but other people will, because that's all we're capable of building these days.


An anecdote regarding WalMart: My cousin Jim's roommate James is a bicycle assembler at the Florin Rd. WalMart. This mean he pulls them from shipping boxes, pumps air in tires, mounts wheels on frames, attaches seats...and lines them up a hundred wide for display inside the warehouse. You know the bikes; $69 dollar chrome-moly models that Kimmy will tear up in 5 months' time, whose rubber tire sidewalls will shred long before the tread is worn through, whose brakes seize up after Kimmy leaves it outside.

James is paid eight dollars an hour. He makes more than enough to throw down two large for rent each month, more than enough to buy enough Popov vodka to be drunk an hour after work and stay drunk all night, and more than enough to keep up his pack and a half day habit. Life is good. On my bike ride home I often stop by, and sometimes I'm there adjusting my derailleurs, my brake cables, the things I'm seemingly always trying to get right. James doesn't know shit about fixing bikes -- he knows how to steal them (his job before WalMart) and how to assemble them.

There's something else to be said about James' personal habits/ambitions, but right here, right now, he's employed. And with WalMart gaining, he will stay employed and WalMart will likely hire more; more eight dollar an hour assemblers. I asked him what was to become of his store once they move into the new supercenter -- "it don't matter," he said. He has no interest where he works, in the place he works.

Contrast this with the owner of the Bike Chef on 32nd street in Sacramento. Someone skilled. Someone who has a vested interest in the building he's occupying. Someone gainfully employed, and employs other skilled people, or has the capacity to train them to be skilled. WalMart will never be able to offer anything remotely similar to what this store can offer, never. It doesn't matter that they can sell bikes three times cheaper than the Bike Chef, because the costs of the destruction of community and the loss of dignity of work is many times more.