When I think of ‘Walmart,’ I don’t think of ‘green’

Walmart is America’s store, isn’t that right?

At any Small Town, USA, you are likely to see a VGW hall, a Sunoco station, and a Walmart. Inside, you’ll find lots of red, white and blue amongst the $3.58 cases of Sam’s Club sodas. Walmart has staked its claim to the values embodied by rural America: community, fairness, and hard work.

At the soon-to-be-vacant Walmart on Mary Esther Cut-Off, you can see these values articulated on mission statements that hang above the shopping cart stall just inside the entrance.

Incredibly, you can also read about Walmart’s commitment to the environment. Walmart, the statement boasts, likes “to leave each community a little greener than we found it.”

(In fact, Walmart will hold a “town meeting” on April 22, Earth Day, to choose an environmental project its workers can perform for the following year.)

Now, I am as guilty as the next person of saving money at Walmart. Just the other night, I bought a battery for my car’s keyless entry system. The young fellow behind the camera counter dismantled my unit and replaced the battery for me. Walmart has always employed courteous workers.

So it is with a certain sense of misgiving that I hold my nose and gag when talk turns to Walmart’s commitment to the environment. “Walmart” and “green” do not leap to mind in any word-association test.

To be honest, when I think of Walmart, at least in an environmental context, I think of that ugly scar on Beal Parkway in Wright that was once a wooded lot and will soon become another warehouse-style hulk while its predecessor sits empty on Mary Esther Cut-Off.

I think of a huge gash bulldozed out of a unique and irreplaceable scrub forest east of Destin, and then a short time later, the building abandoned as a new and even bigger gash is taken out of the woodlands right next door for a Walmart Supercenter.

I also think of a Walmart building in DeFuniak Springs going unoccupied for two years as a new super store is built in the same town. (Walton County has agreed, in principle, to buy the building for office space.)

And I think of Walmart’s neighbors in anta Rosa County pleading with the store to tone down its garden center and parking lot lighting, and the store doing nothing – for months – until the County Commission threatened to withhold its certificate of occupancy, which they granted only minutes before the grand opening in January.

When I think of Walmart, I think of low prices and courteous employees.

But I also think of acres and acres of asphalt.

I think of a company that roars into town, plows down the woodlands, constructs its buildings, and shuts them down to build new and bigger buildings.

This strikes me as unconscionable waste and consumption.

But at least you can buy a case of house brand sodas for under $4. I suppose that’s what counts.

I have a suggestion for Walmart’s environmental project: Rewrite your company’s mission statement to say, “When we arrive in a community, we will build our store and STAY THERE. Amen.”

Unless it’s a different kind of “green” Walmart is talking about.

This column was originally published in the March 18, 1998 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.

About the author:

Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”

Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.

As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.

Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .