Contact Michael via e-mail.
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!
Search the NEPA Whirl-Mart Site
Get your Networking on
Regional (NEPA)
Rally of One Peace can begin with YOU NEPA BLOG Blog by & about Northeastern Pennsylvania: issues, events, discussion, photos WatermelonPunch.com NEPA Whirl-Mart's web host xradiograph what Michael does when he's not "fightin' the man" SurfScranton.com 1,000+ regional links
National & Worldwide
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
Media
The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media
outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth Project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and
alternative journalism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the first to identify
threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression
in the digital age. Declan
McCullagh's Politech Politech is the moderated mailing list of politics and technology.
Topics include privacy, free speech, the role of government and corporations,
antitrust, and more. MediaChannel.org The global network for democratic media.
PLUS the News Dissector's Weblog. CorpWatch.org counters corporate-led globalization through education,
network-building and activism.
BannerReport.com hosts a massive gallery of banner ads and
will be of special interest to graphic designers, web developers,
marketing professionals and as those with an interest in online
advertising.
BannerReport.com is the creation of Web Evangelist, Tari Akpodiete.
After an extensive internet search for examples of banner advertising,
Tari discovered that while there was a lot of information on the
subject, there were very few comprehensive visual resources available.
And so the idea of BannerReport.com was born.
Determined to build the biggest and best banner ad gallery on the web,
Tari has spent the last few years obsessively gathering banner ads. As
a result, BannerReport.com features some of the finest examples of
banner advertisements available. The centerpiece of BannerReport.com is
a searchable database of banner ads covering many categories and
subjects, totalling nearly 15 000 images and counting.
The blog Starbucks Gossip proclaims "[s]omebody has to monitor America's favorite drug dealer."
A former Starbucks employee tells your STARBUCKS GOSSIP
webmaster in an e-mail: "Did you know that a store manager gets a bonus
for running a store with only a handful of people on benefits? As that
one writer told you [in a comments posting], they give you benefits for
20 hours, and they may do that for one period. However, the managers
work very hard at keeping employees slightly under the 20 hours so they
lose their benefits. Hence the manager gets a bonus. It would also be
interesting to see how many Starbucks nationally actually hire older
employees as part-timers who need benefits. They don't really like to
hire older employees. Period.
"Starbucks also has "secret shoppers" people hired by an
outside company to make sure each employee asks things like "would you
like a pastry to go with that coffee?" And employees are graded on such
things."
DICKSON CITY -- There are 79 acres of prime real estate on
Business Route 6, with the trees all cleared and a sweeping panoramic
view of the Midvalley. The site just aches to be transformed into a
Super-Box Carries-it-All Mart amidst the sprawling highway lined by
chain restaurants.
The problem?
"The land's not for sale," said Michael Delfino, who has owned
the Circle Drive-In Theater and Flea Market since 1963, an
establishment that has resisted the advent of multiplexes, VHS, DVDs,
and Wal-Mart to remain as the cheapest -- and possibly the most fun --
night out in the Midvalley.
"I think that when I die, there will be bulldozers a few weeks
after it ... but I'll never sell it, as long as I'm alive," said Mr.
Delfino, who politely refused to give his age, while allowing the fact
that he was a sailor in World War II.
The prospect of being a millionaire several times over doesn't impress
Mr. Delfino, who said he's been approached by Wal-Mart, Target and all
the chains and superstores who have wanted to buy his 79 acres.[....]
CASPIAN
is a grass-roots consumer group fighting retail surveillance schemes
since 1999. With members in all 50 U.S. states and more than 15 nations
across the globe, CASPIAN seeks to educate consumers about marketing
strategies that invade their privacy and to encourage privacy-conscious
shopping habits across the retail spectrum.
JENKINS TOWNSHIP -- After years of financial struggles and
decreasing demand for its products, Techneglas said Tuesday it is
closing its plant in Jenkins Township and two in Ohio, leaving hundreds
of workers without jobs.
Most of the 670 remaining workers at the Luzerne County plant were
asked to go home Tuesday, following the announcement. Up to 300
employees will stay on for a few weeks, completing in-progress
production. A handful will remain beyond that to complete wind-down
operations expected to be finished by the end of the year.
"Price erosion, coupled with volume loss due to consumer demand for
new technologies, such as plasma, LCD and projection sets, have
crippled the entire North American television glass industry," said
Joseph Schaeufele, vice president of manufacturing and engineering
operations at Techneglas.
Techneglas, the largest manufacturer of television glass in North
America, had its largest operation in Jenkins Township. The other sites
closing are in Columbus and Perrysburg, Ohio.
MediaChannel.org
