Wal-mart Gains From Me Missing Buses

Last Tuesday, I decided to take an adventure to Wal-Mart to pick up some much needed groceries. Ok fine, I was bored and this campus shuts down when all the pre-med people have chem labs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Either way, I went to Wal-Mart.

After buying something for my Engineering class, I found a $5 DVD. I decided to buy it so next time when I'm bored and no one is around I could watch a movie rather than explore Rochester. (I could also go the gym but thats another story.) Distracted by a Dunkin' Donuts - remember I am from Boston and can't  live off just the Starbucks on campus - I missed my bus. I decided to continue shopping and found nothing useful to buy, except for another $5 DVD. Let's pretend this happened one more time after that. After being in Wal-Mart for 3 hours, I had collected 3 new DVD's for my collection and spent almost $15.

This confused me. I would never buy 3 DVD's at once for $15. I could hear my Mom in the back of my head at a candy or toy store saying: "Matt just pick ONE!" So how did this happen? What economic principle allowed to me to ignore my principles and my Mother and buy three DVD's just because I bought them at different times? I began to think that if I designed a store, you would have to go throw multiple check outs to leave. What if you paid at the first one and then had to simply walk through another. We the goods of cheap magazines, gum, and DVD's between the checkouts be enough to entice someone into continually buying things? This is a strong possibility, but I don't know the economic principle that allowed me to buy 3 DVD's. Or maybe I'm just a sucker who likes to watch DVD's. Either way I am building this store.

Boarding the bus with my DVD's I began to think of economics. I felt like King Louis, having "servants" drive me to Wal-Mart where goods were waiting for me. My DVD's were like Rizzo's coffee. I told no one I was going to Wal-Mart, how did these DVD's appear? How did they know I was going to miss my bus (twice) and buy these specific DVD's? Those movies would still be there if I didn't buy them; they were made for ME! I then began to feel bad for the Africans and poor countries that I just exploited. While I, a "rich" American, bought DVD's and increased my material wealth with trifling goods (the value of time watching the movies with my friends would come later) and increased Wal-Mart's wealth, I exploited the poor. The rich got richer at the poor's expense. I'm truly sorry and invite all those I exploited to a movie night this weekend in Tiernan Hall.