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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
independent bookstore. Starbucks Delocator Search that helps you locate locally owned alternatives to Starbucks
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PLUS the News Dissector's Weblog. CorpWatch.org counters corporate-led globalization through education,
network-building and activism.
Better latte than never: Starbucks coming to area
İScranton Times Tribune 2003: By Jeremy R. Cooke - 11/12/2003
Your freshly brewed Venti Caramel Frappuccino will be ready soon.
Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. is bringing its first premium-coffee
retail store to Northeastern Pennsylvania. 'We're slated to open our
first company-operated store in Dickson City sometime later this
winter,' Starbucks spokeswoman Shannon Findberg said Tuesday, adding it
will feature a drive-through window for coffee and pastries on the go.
Dickson City has granted the company a $275 permit for signs to
advertise a new location off Commerce Boulevard across the parking lot
from Target.
Starbucks will move into one of four new storefronts under construction
on the site, borough zoning officer James Damski said.Borough Council
granted Daniel Siniawa's development company a subdivision approval for
the parcel in September, but Mr. Siniawa typically defers comment on
store openings to the retailers that are arriving.
Ms. Findberg said Starbucks examines several factors when deciding
where to expand, and listens especially to those who call the company's
hot line to ask for a new location.'Customer requests play a
significant role in how we decide to open new locations in
Pennsylvania,' she said. Before now, area coffee drinkers have had to
drive dozens of miles to get a fresh Starbucks fix. The nearest retail
locations are in Doylestown, Vestal, N.Y., and Rockaway, N.J. Fans
instead can buy coffee by the pound in area stores.
The well-known brand has started to infiltrate smaller metro areas,
where people seem to be salivating for its arrival. The Patriot-News
reported Sunday about 200 people lined up to greet the opening of the
Harrisburg area's first Starbucks.
Luke Damiani, a manager at Northern Light Espresso Bar, which faces the
Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton, said his shop may see a
little bit of decrease in business initially after the new Starbucks
opens.'The new thing in town is usually popular,' he said. But Mr.
Damiani said he does not expect that decrease to last long, with the
drive to Dickson City and downtown business customers within walking
distance. 'I'm not worried,' he said.
In October, Starbucks reported it has 7,225 locations worldwide and an
annual revenue of $4.1 billion. In July, the corporation completed its
acquisition of Seattle Coffee Co., which includes the Seattle's Best
Coffee brand.
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