Wal-Mart is Mexican, too – Puerto Vallarta

Today, Puerto Vallarta is a bustling city of some 350,000 souls – thousands of full- and part-time American expatriates among them – stretched along a dozen miles of white sand beaches. Founded upon and dedicated to up-scale tourism, it is clean and prosperous beyond the dreams of many Mexican cities. And while the older sections of town retain the cobblestone streets and crumbling sidewalks and ramshackle “charm” of Old Mexico, the newer parts of town are a monument to American mass marketing – high-rise beachfront condos, Burger King, Starbucks, and, of course, the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The Wal-Mart, which opened in 2002, is a looming presence. If you arrive here by cruise ship, as I did, the vast, stadium-size Wal-Mart and accompanying Sam’s Club is the first thing you see when you dock and the last thing you see when you leave. Far more so than the cathedral or city hall, it is the focal point from which directions are given, even by the locals; what you are looking for is either near the Wal-Mart, behind the Wal-Mart or beyond the Wal-Mart. The destination boards on many city buses say, simply, “Wal-Mart.”"*

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