So on Saturday, I went with my mother to Wal-Mart to look at their microwaves.

On just about any day, a trip to Wal-Mart can be a sort of modern anthropological excursion: you see a cross-section of the community you never knew existed. I mean, sure, the preponderance of clientele lives in the lower and lower-middle classes of our economic strata. But everyone, it seems, goes to Wal-Mart at some time or another -- especially on Saturday, when people are off work.

In this store, situated in a rather red county (where regular letters to the editor of the local paper decry the evils of yoga, pagan holidays and liberals) in a rather red state (where Democrats sound more Republican than many Republicans), we saw punks and gay couples and super-successful yuppies who've already made enough money elsewhere so they could buy Gucci bags and Neiman Marcus clothing not available within at least 100 miles, probably 200 miles.

The parking lot reflected the same, from rusty old pickups coughing grey and blue smoke to glossy urban assault vehicles driven by soft-bodies.

Anyway, we ended up spending over an hour hiking through the store ... and then we waited to check out.

Why does Wal-Mart always involve a huge, ugly check-out process? It's like they don't want to take our money! I think it's a rare Wal-Mart experience when checking out alone does not take at least 20-30 minutes. Even their self-check-out stands, where the customers do Wal-Mart's work for them, are sloooowwwwwwww -- probably because the checkout machines are persnickety and don't like it when you don't jump through their pre-programmed behavior loops in proper sequence.

We walked out of Wal-Mart with body wash and ketchup and kitty litter and some other things -- but no microwave. We held off on the microwave because their selection seemed a bit limited.

And so on Sunday, we drove 58 miles to Target, where we found essentially the same microwave selection at roughly the same prices. So we bought one there.

Checking out was a breeze, with cheerful associates waiting to help us. No lines. In fact, I've rarely had to wait very long at Target. And it always seems like the clerks there are more cheerful. (Maybe that's because Target pays their employees more -- an investment that does not seem to have hurt their bottom line.)

My preference would be to shop at neither store, given their politics. --And I'm not one to make big shopping decisions on the basis of politics, but because they've made a point of getting political, I spend my money at either big box chain with great regret.

But alas, there is no Costco anywhere around here -- nor any local electronics or appliance store. And online shopping, well, it just lacks the tactile experience that can make even burdensome shopping a weekend occasion.