[sherrenee]

I am from Arkansas, I have lived here all my life and I love my home state. I read a lot of post where people are against Arkansas and its people.
I just don't understand why. Anywhere you go you are going to find good and bad qualities and anywhere you go you are bound to find good and bad people.
Anyway with that being said I want to know why people feel this way, and what are they basing their opinions on (have they ever been here or are they just going on the never ended stereotype)?

[Wilshire81182]

I think people as a whole generalize.
I do not have anything I dislike about the state of Arkansas, per se.
I absolutely HATE WalMart and I think a lot of people associate that with your state, but I know it is just like associated Washington state and Starbucks or Microsoft. It is just one component of Arkansas.

[dxiweodwo]

because people stereotype it as having "just a bunch of hillbillies" or "a bunch of racist rednecks" pfft....whatever.

[sherrenee]

Originally Posted by Wilshire81182

I think people as a whole generalize.
I do not have anything I dislike about the state of Arkansas, per se.
I absolutely HATE WalMart and I think a lot of people associate that with your state, but I know it is just like associated Washington state and Starbucks or Microsoft. It is just one component of Arkansas.

Thanks for your honest response. I really wish people would realize there is much more to Arkansas than Wal Mart, Bill Clinton, chicken and rice. I also wish people would stop stereotyping everyone in Arkansas as uneducated racist redneck hillbillies, most of the people that do so have never even set foot in the state. Come visit, see for yourselves we aren't as "backwards" as many people think.

Also as far as Wal Mart is concerned much of the native people of Arkansas also HATE Wal Mart, but we don't have many or sometimes any other options as far as shopping goes.

[Chicago60614]

I don't hate Arkansas, but I had my first trip there this past January. It was definitely an eye opening experience coming from a large city. We were in Mountain Home though, which is very rural and hours from the nearest larger city.

There were guns everywhere, Confederate flags everywhere, and people were hard core baptist and kinda judgemental about "northerners" and pretty racist. I was surprised.

My friend is down there for 9 months working, and she said everyone in her office referes to black people as "the blacks", and are always warning her not to trust them, and to avoid things like Memphis cause "that whole place is just run by the blacks". I'm also gay, and she said she's heard a lot of stereotypical and hateful things from the locals about gays. I also don't understand why everyone kept calling us "yankees", and threw this bizarre north-south divide into almost everything. I didn't know people in the south were so bent up and not trustful about northerners.....I never even thought about "southerners" living up here....

Again, that's a small town in northern Arkansas that's 99% white. I know the rest of the state doesn't hold those beliefs.

[sherrenee]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

I don't hate Arkansas, but I had my first trip there this past January. It was definitely an eye opening experience coming from a large city. We were in Mountain Home though, which is very rural and hours from the nearest larger city.

There were guns everywhere, Confederate flags everywhere, and people were hard core baptist and kinda judgemental about "northerners" and pretty racist. I was surprised.

My friend is down there for 9 months working, and she said everyone in her office referes to black people as "the blacks", and are always warning her not to trust them, and to avoid things like Memphis cause "that whole place is just run by the blacks". I'm also gay, and she said she's heard a lot of stereotypical and hateful things from the locals about gays. I also don't understand why everyone kept calling us "yankees", and threw this bizarre north-south divide into almost everything. I didn't know people in the south were so bent up and not trustful about northerners.....I never even thought about "southerners" living up here....

Again, that's a small town in northern Arkansas that's 99% white. I know the rest of the state doesn't hold those beliefs.

It doesnt make it right but it isnt just rural towns in Arkansas that are like this, you probably have a good chance of finding similar situations in most rural towns in the US.

[TexasReb]

Speaking as a Texan, I never thought about at all "hating Arkansas"

In fact, -- don't know if I speak for most Texans or not, but the way I always thought of Arkansas was like a first cousin to us -- Southern and good country people.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sherrenee

Also as far as Wal Mart is concerned much of the native people of Arkansas also HATE Wal Mart, but we don't have many or sometimes any other options as far as shopping goes.

...and whose fault is that? The lemmings in your towns, of course. I'm sure most of these small Arkansas towns used to have various mom-and-pop stores that catered to different specialties and where knowledgeable employees knew you on a first-name basis. People did not have to then shun them in favor of Wal-Mart when they pulled into the peripheries of these towns, but they did anyways being as short-sighted as they are. Wal-Mart relies on predatory pricing when entering new markets in smaller towns.

If they know that, per se, Eureka Springs has one small independent hardware store, then Wal-Mart will slash prices below cost in order to entice enough people to leave that small store to eventually put it out of business, after which point they can then raise their prices to what that mom-and-pop venture WAS charging. How can they do this? Well, those small specialty shops rely on those products as their main "bread and butter" and can NOT take a hit on them financially. However, Wal-Mart can more than absorb any losses incurred by pricing items near or below cost by having mark-ups on all other items. How can they do this, you may still be asking? It's called having dominance over your suppliers. Let's assume that Hank Hill's Tractor Showroom on the fringe of Downtown Eureka Springs purchases most of its products from MTD, a major lawn tractor manufacturer. Wal-Mart also purchases most of its products from that same supplier. Wal-Mart will order bulk quantities of MTD products and more or less say "We'll buy 10,000 of these tractors at $1,100 each and not a dime more. Make it happen or we'll take our business elsewhere." MTD complies, even though they may USUALLY sell their tractors for $1,300 each to retailers. Why? They want the exposure that having their products sold at Wal-Mart will afford them to have. Hank Hill would be LAUGHED AT if they made similar demands from MTD, so they instead have to pay the full $1,300. Wal-Mart might then mark up their prices from $1,100 to $1,299 while Hank Hill obviously can't sell them at the same price without breaking even or even losing money. Eventually enough short-sighted consumers (in this case Arkansans) say "Hey. Why should I buy this at Hank Hill's for $1,400 when I can buy it at Wally World for $1,299?" Before you know it Hank Hill is out of a job and has yet another blighted storefront lining Main Street.

This, my friends, is how Wal-Mart puts Main Street America under. Then again, most of you couldn't care less about keeping independent retailers in business as long as you can cut corners and save a few bucks here and there, right? I earn $15,000 annually, yet I still patronize mom-and-pops as much as I possibly can. What's all of your excuses?

I'll continue to hold a grudge against Arkansas until their residents apologize for cursing our nation with Wal-Mart and the advent of commercial urban sprawl as we know it.

[danwxman]

Because it's the home state of Wal-Mart? I don't have a problem with Arkansas, but I am pretty sure I'd never live there.

[SteelCityRising]

I forgot to mention you gave us Mike Huckabee, Mr. Anti-Gay himself, so I wouldn't be so quick to defend THAT either.