pointing out the irony...in his own writing

This was part of a great article on Charlotte.com on the irony of newspaper reporting, though I have to disagree somewhat with the author, Charles Held.

A tiny Daily Briefing at the bottom of the page in the Sept. 10 Business section reports the opening of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. The entire article is only three sentences. Compare this to the ink spilled on the opening of Nordstrom at SouthPark, or merely the possibility of Neiman-Marcus coming to Charlotte.

Stories about both purveyors of $400 shoes were awarded the Observer's premier placement: Page 1A, upper right, with bold titles. Wal-Mart never gets that kind of press unless it's under assault by local NIMBYs complaining about "big-box" stores (as if Nordstrom is a Mom 'N' Pop's).

The last sentence of the Wal-Mart briefing makes for interesting reading: The store will employ 500 people (without taxpayer subsidy!) and "include a fully stocked grocery area along with a Tire & Lube Express, Family Fun Center, vision center, McDonald's, portrait studio, one-hour photo lab, pharmacy, Murphy USA gas station, Hometown Threads embroidery shop, nail salon and hair salon."

Wal-Mart is the whipping boy for "sprawl," but residents can make a single trip covering groceries, photos, gas, prescriptions, eyeglasses, car care and haircut! How much running around, how much wasted gas, will it take for a SouthEnd condo dweller to do the same? One tiny article, great insight.

Nordy's and NM are big news because so few cities have them. They are symbols that a city has "arrived," as it were. Wal-Mart is everywhere and the opening of a SuperCenter is not big news anymore, even if it does produce 500 (low-paying) jobs.

The Observer's not fair. And Held's not entirely wrong. But by lumping all Nordstron and Neiman-Marcus shoppers into a gas-guzzling, condo-living SouthEnd heap, Held's bias against the "$400 shoe" crowd shows and he becomes what claims to detest, a hypocrite, in my opinion.