Wal-Martian Invasion

Barbara Ehrenreich is an author who is passionately involved in achieving more workers rights. She has gone to great lengths to get her point across. In her book Nickel and Dimed she actually went on a research crusade by becoming a blue collar worker for several months. She worked at two restaurants, but job related stress forced her to move out and try again at a nursing home and as a maid. Stress again forced her out and she worked briefly at a Wal-Mart where her crusade ends. This investigation gives her enormous credibility on this particular subject.



This article was first published in the Baltimore Sun in July, 2004. Baltimore is a city that has seen it's fare share of Wal-Marts; in a 20 mile radius there are 18 Wal-Marts. This is more than cities such as New York(8), Chicago(11), and Boston(12). By publishing this article in an area saturated with Wal-Marts Ehrenreich is guaranteed to make a connection to her audience.



Ehrenreich uses her ethos when she says, "In my own breif stint at the company in 2000." This shows that she has had hands on experience and is credible to write on the topic. In a city that has so many Wal-Marts it does make sense to talk about their emergence as an invasion, especially with them all arriving so quickly and destroying so many other businesses and jobs.



I found my information on Nickel and Dimed on Wikipedia. I found the number of Wal-Marts in the different cities on the Wal-Mart store locator. This research definitely helped my approach because it made me realize how important it is for the author to publish in certain places or subtley mention the hands on experience they have in the particular field. I think researching these things can tell a lot about the skill of the author.