Suburban Sprawl: California destroyed

An impressive web site with photos by Matt Jalbert shows the way that suburban sprawl is gobbling up the paradise know as California, my former home. The picture of San Ramon 2006 is especially striking: McMansions crammed together as far as the eye can see, each one a "dream house." Looking at the photos, I was reminded of a poem by Emily Dickinson:

I LIKE to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains ....

Dickinson was writing about the railroad locomotive, but her words apply just as well to the frantic sprawl the "Golden State."

"Willkommen zum Wal-Mart!"















Germans Get Wise to Wal-Mart

After a decade long attempt to crack the German market, Wal-Mart is pulling out, selling its 85 stores and abandoning its plan to become the country's leading retailer. According to a story in My Way, one of the reasons for its astonishing failure is the fact that Germans strongly dislike "some of Wal-Mart's signature features, like stores outside of town centers, employees required to smile and heartily greet customers. . . " Smart people, those Germans!

[The company plans to focus its efforts on greener pastures in China, South Korea and South America where, evidently, phony smiles still have an ineffable charm. -LW]

The New York Times also has a story on this development:

“They walked into a triple-witching hour in Germany,” said James Bacos, the director of the retail and consumer goods practice at Mercer Management Consulting in Munich. “They got into Germany at a time when the whole market was shifting away from their model.”

....Some of Wal-Mart’s troubles stem from the way it broke into the German market in 1998, according to analysts. Instead of starting from scratch, it bought two second-tier retailers, Wertkauf and Interspar, and found itself with a hodgepodge of stores, geographically dispersed and often in poor locations.

The company initially installed American managers, who made some well-intentioned cultural gaffes, like offering to bag groceries for customers (Germans prefer to bag their own groceries) or instructing clerks to smile (Germans, used to brusque service, were put off).

Wal-Mart later went tried German managers, and then appointed David Wild, a former executive at Tesco of Britain, to run its German operations. He tried to win over customers by selling organic meat and produce.

“They found they had some things to learn about the German market, and they did change, but maybe too late,” Mr. Bacos said. ....

[An interesting background condition seems to be that Germans are cutting back on their desire to buy the kinds of junk Wal-Mart sells. Again, from the NYT:]

While consumer confidence has picked up recently, Mr. Bacos said the proportion of household income that Germans spend on retail purchases continues to decline. Profit margins in German retailing are the lowest in Europe.

America Polishes its New Image

(From the BBC)
UN body criticises US on rights

The US should immediately shut all secret detention facilities used in its campaign against terror groups, the UN Human Rights Committee has said.

The committee called on the US to give the International Red Cross prompt access to those held in such jails.

The UN report also covered the domestic human rights situation in the US.

It urged the government to ensure the rights of poor people and blacks are respected in relief efforts.

Both groups were "disadvantaged" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the UN committee noted.

[As a boy in coastal California, I learned that America was the "land of the free" and home, not only of the brave, but also home to worldwide hopes for the realization of human rights. How far we've come. The country seems to have become one vast Milgram experiment. - LW]