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What is a Whirl-Mart?
The action is comprised of a group of anti-shoppers ranging in size from 1 to 50 members. The ritual consists of activists/actors arriving at a Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us or another chain superstore at 12-noon on the first Saturday or Sunday of the month and proceeding to push empty shopping carts slowly and silently through the aisles. Eventually, all of the participants locate one another and form a single-file chain of anti-shoppers which weaves, wanders, and whirls throughout the store for about an hour. It is a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling. It is a symbolic display of the will to resist the capitalist ideology.
'Whirl-Mart' is an experiment that can be approached from several different angles. As a work of art, it examines and blurs the boundaries that have been established between performance art, protest, living sculpture, and direct action. As an action of resistance, it utilizes the power of silence in occupying private consumer-dominated space with a symbolic spectacle. As a ceremony, it is a counter-ritual to shopping that transforms the super-store and its wall-to-wall array of products into a surreal and colorful cathedral. And what the heck-- it's just darned fun!
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Whirl-Mart Ritual Resistance International Whirl-Mart HQ World Changing Models, Tools, and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future Critical Mass Critical Mass is not an organization, it's an unorganized
coincidence. It's a movement ... of bicycles, in the streets. Rev Billy's Church of Stop Shopping Lots of great scripts from/for performance interventions
with a heavy focus on Starbucks. Commerce
Jamming Commerce Jamming source page. AdBusters A global network of those who want to advance the new social
activist movement of the information age. Commercial Alert wants to keep commercial culture within
its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting
the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and
democracy. No Media Kings Jim Munroe's guide to doin' it for yourself Booksense.com Internet book search that sends your order to your nearest
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PLUS the News Dissector's Weblog. CorpWatch.org counters corporate-led globalization through education,
network-building and activism.
The greatest character in the gallery of American branding is Wal-Mart,
of course. Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest retailer; it is
also the most admired company in America, according to Fortune
Magazine. It also has a very strong and clearly defined brand identity.
Wal-Mart projects itself as the epitome of decent middle-American
values. Wal-Mart knows the value of a dollar. Wal-Mart is patriotic,
community oriented, family-centered, rural and religious.
But last week Wal-Mart got into a dispute with the so-called lad
magazines Maxim, Stuff and FHM. Wal-Mart executives announced they were
pulling the magazines from their shelves and would no longer sell them,
because they are too risqué. [....] You can break 6 of the 10
commandments in America, but please, Thou Shalt Not Violate the Brand.
Maxim, Stuff and FHM represented fissures in the Wal-Mart brand
persona. That creates tension in the retailing chi, if I can slip into
feng shui talk for a second.
Now it should be said, Wal-Mart is neither strait-laced nor consistent.
The store carries a full line of condoms, guns, Secret Treasures
see-through panties, Cosmopolitan magazine, and even an Ozzy Osbourne
line of toy cars for kids. There are CD's by the rap artist 50 Cent and
computer games like Marine Sharpshooter, with the slogan, "One Shot,
One Kill." Sometimes you get the impression that Wal-Mart is like a lot
of parents these days, who have vague intimations but don't really want
to know what their teenagers are listening to, because it would be such
a hassle to try to shut it all down.
MediaChannel.org
