As I’ve written before, my grasp on global economics is a bit uneven, but here’s another data point:

The geometry of my neigbhorhood requires me, when riding my bike homeward from the northwest, to either brave ugly traffic, go the long way ’round, or cut through a network of alleys behind Wal-Mart and the furniture stores. So for years, I’ve been cutting through the alleys. A few years back, I noticed shipping containers like these, sprouting in the alley behind the old Wal-Mart on Carlisle. I figured they didn’t have enough storage space inside. The same thing has been happening lately behind the row of furniture stores down the block on Menaul. But when they tore down the old Wal-Mart in favor of the new Uber-Wal-Mart, I was sure they’d have enough space inside.

No. The thing is, as the picture above suggests, they’re making so much cheap shit in China for the U.S. market that we don’t have anywhere to put it all. There are currently 27 of these shipping containers out behind the new Wal-Mart. Now, I’ve not been inside it yet, but I can’t imagine its shelves are empty. In fact, I imagine them brimming with blenders and Hello Kitty lunchboxes and country music CDs and such. But the problem, as evidenced by all the crap out back, is that y’all are not buying fast enough.

C’mon. We’ve got to all do our part, before this great nation is overrun by shipping containers out behind America’s stores. Buy.