Cynical capitalistic experiences

Omaha, Kouryou-chan, and I all went to Walmart for the first time in our lives this week. We had to go return a birthday gift that was, frankly, inappropriate for Kouryou-chan. I've never been in a Walmart before, and so I'd never quite experienced the weird, flourescent non-stop high-density frenzy that is an ordinary Walmart on an ordinary day. The very air was frenetic, disturbing, overcharged and unpleasant; the people wandering the aisles quietly desperate to get done and get out while dealing with their children. But what really got me was the way the Walmart is optimized for impulse buying, for children to reach out and point and scream that they want that and that and that over there, they want and they want. Everything bright and shiny was at the level where a child could grab it, scream about it, want it.

It was oddly frightening. I've never seen anything so cynically overdone.