MOVING EAST

This blog entry by Norma Salazar-Ibarra
The story: "Wal-Mart tweaks store for Arab-Americans"

The analysis:

How many of us are consumers of Wal-Mart. I know I myself am a consumer of Wal-Mart. When I go to Wal-Mart I not only find everyday products that can be found at any store, but have also found food products that are needed to cook Mexican dishes. I can easily hit the Hispanic aisle and find some of the products that I might need. I can easily go into any chain food market and find products I might need. But how many of these nationally known retailers are selling products that are tailored for Arab- Americans?

As I researched news paper articles I found an article that discussed how a brand new Wal-Mart in Dearborn, Michigan would now be selling Middle- Eastern specialties. According to the article, the reason why this Wal- Mart will be selling these products is because this Michigan neighborhood is known as Arab American. The southern part of Michigan is home to an estimated 300,000 Middle-Eastern descendents.
The reason why I chose this topic is because this is an important change for nationally known retailers. For many years retailers have been selling specialties for other ethnicities, but only family owned business have been selling specialties for Middle-Eastern descendents. I belief that today here in the U.S. we see racism against Middle- Eastern descendents, this change is important here in the U.S. because it might help bring tolerance in our country towards Middle-Eastern descendents.

This topic is related to popular culture, because since 9/11 we have seen an increase of racism against Middle-Eastern descendents, but for a nationally known retail to begin selling these products this change can be interpreted by individuals as social acceptance towards this population. This addition of products that Wal-Mart has implemented not only will we begin seeing more of this population shopping at this business, but Wal- Mart will also be seeing an increase in sells. Wal-Mart not only sells everyday products but is also targeting all ethnicities into their store.