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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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First of all, let me tell you I have NO, NO intention of buying one
damn thing there so these " shopping trips " are PURELY for my
amusement ...
I'll head on in and nod kindly @ the senile handicapped "
greeter " ( ... and PLEASE do not get me wrong, I think it is WONDERFUL
to employee the handi-capped & elderly, ... BUT what I HIGHLY
RESENT is how Wal-fart ONLY puts them in the position of " greeter " so
that Wal-fart looks good ... they don't give a rat's ass about these
people ! )
Then I grab me a cart and choose a theme for the day:
My favorite theme when I am in a bad mood is :
" Today is shitty "
I then head on over to toiletries first ... here I place 3 or 4
packages of ex-lax in the cart ... then its off to plumbing for a
plunger & a drain snake ...
Next comes household goods where I load up on toilet paper ...
if I'm in an especially bad mood I head to home improvements for a
toilet seat and a hideous toilet seat cover ... fuzzy pink ones are my
favorite ...
Wal-marts with groceries are the best because you can then
stroll on over there and load up on " theme " foods to go with whats in
your cart ... sometimes I choose only brown foods like Chocolate
pudding, tootsie rolls & Hershey kisses ...
After amusing myself to no end I head on up to the endless row
of empty registers ... After finding one actually manned by a cashier I
wait until I get my turn ... as soon as I get to the head of the line I
pretend I've left my wallet in the car and tell the cashier I'll be
RIGHT back !
By this time I usually have a nice big grin on my face
imagining the thoughts that will run through the Walmart employee
tasked with putting all that junk back where it belongs ...
... And I never feel guilty because I figure I've freed some
poor employee for an hour or so to stroll around with the cart I filled
and put things back , thereby allowing them an hour or so of easy work
...
Culture Jamming @ Wal-Mart ...
Taking resources from the rich & amusing the poor ...
MediaChannel.org
