June 29, 2023
Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota was a bit of a disappointment. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was a real tourist trap. A LOT of tourists there. Many, many shops with cheap tchotchkes and a cafe within this mini shopping mall. I stopped in a leather shop and found that 90% of the goods were imported. They were imported from countries where the products may be assembled by child labor and definitely assembled by low wage workers. There are plenty of folks in the USA that make these leather items that would be happy to supply the shop. Made in the USA labels were there, but they were few and far between. On the other hand, these shops are the economic lifeblood of the town of Wall, which is very small. The better part of this was the Air BnB that I stayed in that was right across the street from a chainsaw artist studio. The work was very good, including the huge jackalope that you could see from about a block away.
PS – I DID buy a couple of refrigerator magnets in Wall Drug, and washed clothes at one of the smallest laundromats I have ever been in. So, I contributed to the economy there, however small that contribution was.
