An Ear to the Wal

Every so often, I catch myself saying something and one of my reality tethers snaps. Instantly, I’m outside my body, watching the discussion as if a bystander. Call it an out-of-body experience—call it what you will. My explanation is something akin to short-term temporal disarray caused by information overload resulting in simultaneous parallel identities. It’s the old me taking a look at the new me, somewhat aghast.

I mean, I simply spend waaayyy too much time gathering and disseminating information. Sometimes, something’s got to give.

The other day just such an unlikely occurrence transpired as I was discussing movie formats with my father over dinner. He was waxing analytical on a potential HD DVD player purchase and I found myself saying something akin to “now that Wal-Mart has opted for Blu-ray, HD DVD is dead.” That definitively.

It seems that I—someone from the natural, organic, local, fair trade (yes, it can work…), sustainable, etc. camp—have now internally assimilated (and accepted) the amazing power of Wal-Mart. Is this a step over to the Dark Side, or am I just suddenly waking up in 2008 to the immense power of the retail behemoth?

Regardless of the semantics surrounding this mental mind-frame addition, synchronicity solidified the change this week as I read about Wal-Mart’s sustainable packaging scorecards. This move very well might be huge—big enough to change significant aspects of the industry segment. Of course, minor moves have predicated this decision for years (and along similar lines, Wal-Mart wasn’t the first big retailer to carry organic milk, but now it’s by far the largest…).

Once an idea hits the mighty Wal and sticks, ears everywhere instantly prick.