Saturday, February 25, 2012

Welcome to Walmart

I was shopping at Walmart today and I realized something while I was perusing the book aisle. All the religious books, from what I could tell, were all Christian. What's worse is that I didn't find it very strange. It did make me curious, however. Why wouldn't one of the largest chain stores in the world sell something that millions of people would probably buy? I understand that Christianity is extremely popular in our country, but is that why? Or are they afraid of controversy? What do they think will happen if they sell something other than "I Found My Way Through Jesus" or a self-proclaimed "self-help" book on how God will save you? That was also the largest section in the aisle, except for maybe the romance novels. Is that what people want now? Love and salvation? Well, if so, I guess I'm making my own path.

3 comments:

  1. You may have observed a case in which ideology manages to override commercial interest, even for the largest retail corporation in the world.

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  2. Interesting observation, it would not surprise me if this was a political decision.

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  3. I think people are afraid to expand beyond the Catholic religion. I think that Catholicism is such a wide known religion that is both bashed and praised, so putting Catholic books in Walmart is the "safe option" for retail. If an Islamic book was put on the shelf in our country, I think that there would be a lot of controversy.

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