Friday Blog Round-Up: Future Will Judge Edition

LEE SCOTT: IT’S REALLY NOT EASY BEING GREEN
Lee Scott held court in California this week at the ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara. The big news from the week’s session: Scott’s admission that Wal-Mart’s really not all that green. And it doesn’t plan to GET green any time soon.

Wal-Mart’s Lee Scott: “We are not green.” [Treehugger]

I have been impressed by Lee Scott and his attempts to green Wal-Mart; never more than I was by his statement at the ECO:nomics conference that “We are not green.” The impetus is to save money, not please environmentalists. “It really is about how you take cost out, which is waste.” He looks tired and much older in this video, it must be a struggle.

WSJ’s ECO:nomics Highlights [Earth2Tech]

Avoiding all pretensions, Walmart’s Scott cut to the chase saying simply “We are not green.” The retail giant isn’t rushing to be greener for the environment’s sake. And as for when Walmart will achieve its stated goal of having zero waste and using 100 percent renewable energy, Scott said “I have no idea.”

Wal-Mart Stores not Green [Green Girls Global]

High-five Wal-Mart, finally a company that owns up to it’s greed!  May all the other corporate giants follow your example and practice greed with a little integrity as well. Then we could stop calling shenanigans on all these “green” PR ploys.

After the judge, more on Lee Scott’s environmental comments, Wal-Mart’s greeters and the role of religion in Wal-Mart’s expansion efforts.

In an interview with Fox Business, Scott said that “history will judge” Wal-Mart’s environmental efforts. Perhaps a way to avoid actually accomplishing anything in the short term, this statement doesn’t inspire a lot of hope, considering Wal-Mart’s plan to dodge all responsibility for the goals it’s set forth.

Wal-Mart’s Lee Scott: “History Will Judge Wal-Mart” [FOX Business’ Cash Flow]

Was he always on board with becoming more envionmentally friendly? Or did he have to come around to it? He said it was a process but now he’s come around and he feels history will judge Wal-Mart by how it helps cut down on waste and emissions.

Eco:nomics: Immelt vs. the ideologues [Grist]

Patricia Woertz of ADM talked about how mission-driven business can attract great employees. H. Lee Scott Jr. of Wal-Mart talked about how odd it is that conservatives oppose programs that are, in effect, reducing waste.

Grist also points out that those Linux computers Wal-Mart stopped selling (you remember: these) weren’t only tech savvy - they were also “green.” Is that part of Wal-Mart’s stellar environmental program?

Prices aren’t the only things being dropped [Grist]

Remember the gPC? It’s Everex’s $199 “green” Linux computer, the one Wal-Mart stocked up on during the last holiday season. Well, it seems the “experiment” is over, with an unsatisfied Wal-Mart putting those famous price-cutting scissors on their plan to sell the cheap PC in their stores...Far as I know, this was the first mass production of consumer electronics with some green features (low power consumption—not enough to make it completely green, but a start).

THE WAL-MART EFFECT: BLU-RAY’S DOMINATION
Wal-Mart doesn’t just determine what kind of movies you can buy, it also determines the format you buy them on and the price you buy them at.

Whole Blu World: The Format War’s Bloody Aftermath [Gizmodo]

The major force that drove down DVD-player prices years ago was the flood of cheap Chinese models at Wal-Mart, and the BDA is holding them at bay, refusing to license the tech to low-cost manufacturers for the time being. Piracy is implied as a concern, but the more obvious motive is to keep player prices as high as they can, while they can, to recoup the heavy losses incurred waging the format war in the first place. A $199 player with a Sony name on it is definitely at least a year away.

FILE UNDER: QUESTIONABLE MARKETING
Wal-Mart’s rolled out its Easter marketing machine...and it’s tying it in with spring break. I know that for me, personally, the best part of Easter Sunday was when Grandma put on the latest Girls Gone Wild video while we gorged ourselves on candy.

Wal-Mart Canada rolls back prices on thousands of items for March [BloggingStocks]

The Easter holiday falls in March this year, as well as “Spring Break” for many kids (and many parents who scheduled vacations as well). As such, the mode to capitalize on a portion of this month certainly was not lost on the world’s largest retailer. So, Wal-Mart will be promptly lowering prices on over 3,500 products in its Canadian stores due to Easter being the third-largest holiday shopping day of the year.

WAL-MART NEEDS TO HIRE YOUNGER GREETERS
This is a story only dimly on our radar screens this week, but it’s been generating a lot of buzz on the internets. A man in Washington state apparently flipped out at a 75-year-old Wal-Mart greeter, knocking the man flat on his back. The aggressor, Don Lynch, has just been convicted of misdemeanor assault. Don’t Wal-Mart employees have it hard enough as it is?

Man On Trial For Knocking Down Walmart Receipt Checker [Consumerist]

Details are sketchy but a Chehalis Washington man is on trial after being accused of knocking down a Wal-Mart greeter. According to the AP report, Don Lynch says the greeter demanded to see his receipt and then the greeter and another Wal-Mart employee grabbed him. Lynch says he acted in self-defense.

WE ALWAYS KNEW WHO WOULD WIN THAT BATTLE

Jews 1, Wal-Mart 0 [Framed by Faith]

It would look kind of odd to see a mega-store plopped down in the middle of 200 synagogues and 28,000 residents.  But the Orthodox Jewish leaders of Monsey, New York would not allow “outside influences” to pollute their town.

God Hates Wal-Mart [Consumerist]

“I think the Almighty realized that for our children to grow up in a beautiful community, for our traditions to be preserved, we couldn’t have a Wal-Mart.” - Rabbi Jacob Horowitz, whose opposition helped defeat a proposed Wal-Mart in Monsey, New York. Always get the rabbis on your side first, corporate giants!

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 14, 2008