Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Ehrenreich travels to Minneapolis, Minnesota. She briefly stays at a friend’s apartment rent-free while she babysits her friend’s pet bird, a cockatiel. She applies to work at Wal-Mart, but fearing that she will fail the drug test because she smoked marijuana several weeks before, she applies to Menard’s, a housewares store. However, Menard’s also requires a drug test, so she spends the weekend detoxing. A friend from New York introduces her to her aunt, Caroline, who once moved cross-country, from New Jersey to Florida, with very little money and several children.

Ehrenreich struggles to find an apartment. The vacancy rate is “less than 1 percent, and if we’re talking about affordable—why, it might be as low as a tenth of that” (138). She settles on a motel with terrible conditions. Initially promised $10 an hour (which is later lowered), Menard’s is her top choice, but she goes to the Wal-Mart orientation. The orientation takes an entire day. Exhausted and over-caffeinated, she arrives home late and is too tired to go to Menard’s the next day. She gives up the job at Menard’s in favor of Wal-Mart’s position.

Ehrenreich is in the women’s wear department. She takes cartloads of clothing from the dressing rooms and puts them back where they belong.