The proverbial canary in a coal mine has just dropped dead in the far left city of Portland and to be honest, anyone could have seen this coming from a mile away. It was just recently announced that in the wake of unprecedented retail theft, Walmart would be closing the last of its stores in the city of Portland.
That’s right, Portland has now become so bad in the wake of its “defund the police” initiatives that not even Walmart can find a profitable path. From sea to shining sea, one can enter a Walmart at any hours of the night and witness the startling range of human indignity without fail.
Yet, apparently there is such a thing as too low for Walmart and Portland has seemed to cross that threshold. If Walmart has decided it's too classy for Portland, the canary in the coal mine of civilized society has died. Portland did this to themselves and the rest of the nation should take heed of the startling lessons learned.
Walmart Leaving Portland Is An Economic Disaster
Now, please don’t take our comments on Walmart as trying to degrade or malign another business that sells apparel. We’re proud of what we’ve built here at Tactical Pro Supply, but we’re well short of the market share held by Walmart. So, they can keep selling their t-shirts of wolves howling at the moon and we’ll keep selling our kick-ass patriotic gear without fear of one destroying the other.
That being said, we’ve been to Walmart a time or two and it's most certainly a salt of the Earth type of company. Anyone wearing anything can show up at Walmart and genuinely find low prices on basic necessities.
That’s great and we love some basic capitalism that can accommodate everyone. However, that’s also why it is so startling that Walmart has determined that it can’t make a profit in a city of over 650,000 people. Just can’t do it and with the closing of its last two stores in March of 2023, they are telling the rest of us just how bad things have gotten in Portland.
Portland Chose To Become Defund The Police HQ in 2020
To make matters worse, Portland chose to pursue this path that led America’s largest discount retailer to just call it quits. In the wake of the 2020 riots against police brutality, the nation genuinely wrestled with how to balance public safety and law enforcement accountability. We’re not a perfect nation and certainly there was likely room to improve.
Many cities in America grappled with the hard questions and then cities like Portland and Seattle went down the Leroy Jenkins path to utter stupidity. Portland saw over 100 consecutive nights of protests where anarchist assaulted police, vandalized public buildings, and destroyed private property.
What did the residents of Portland do in the wake of this anarchy? Well, they doubled down and in November of 2020, Portland became the first city to decriminalize all drugs. That’s right, every single one of them from meth to cocaine were now legal.
This is on top of a criminal justice system that was already refusing to prosecute basic shoplifting and retail theft. What was the end result? Not even Walmart could find a justification or profit to remain within the Portland city limits. This was a choice and now Portland is reaping the results.
Men Will Be Governed By The Conscience Or The Constable
Chuck Colsen famously proposed that men would be governed by either the conscience or the constable. Namely, that if society cannot adhere to the conscience that people would inevitably invite a strong handed constable to restore order and happily give up rights while doing so.
It is clear that the city of Portland is not governed by the constable and because they cannot even find a way to support a reasonable constable or police force, the city of Portland is simply not governed.
That’s why Walmart can’t remain because they have no assurance of safety or law and order. Portland has become so chaotic that not even Walmart can remain and trust us, we’ve been to some shady Walmarts in the backwoods of this country. This was a choice by the citizens of Portland and now that Walmart has fled the scene along with hundreds of jobs, just wait to see who else follows.
Once again, Walmart was the canary pigeon in the coal mine. When it dies, everyone else knows what is to come. If you live in the city of Portland, we’re still happy to sell you some amazing gear like our “I don’t run, I reload” hoodies, but just don’t blame us when some porch pirate steals the package with the police watching the whole time and does absolutely nothing.
Men will indeed be governed by the conscience or the constable and unfortunately, the city of Portland simply chose not to be governed at all.
