Oklahoma Woman sues Wal-Mart over Tainted Meat

I proclaim this thread to be dead meat… primarily because a recall of this sort could have happened to anyone and even the most rabid anti Wal-Marter would have difficulty making anymore out of it than that.

Then why, you may ask, did you link to this story in a previous thread?

Because it gave me the opportunity* to illustrate the fallacy of accepting anecdote as fact, one of the fundamental differences between the pro and anti Wal-Mart factions.

Fact: Tyson Fresh Meats, a subsidiary of Springdale-based Tyson Foods, on June 8 recalled about 40, 000 pounds of beef sold to Wal-Mart in 12 states — including Oklahoma — on E. coli concerns.

Anecdote: You seem to forget, that I live in Arkansas, I shop at Wal-Mart and guess what, I bought some Ground Beef there Sunday!! I ate it, it tasted good and guess what, I’m still alive and didn’t get sick!!

A reasonable person would avoid buying hamburger at Wal-Mart until they felt confident the problem had been resolved. Basing your decision to buy hamburger on a single anecdote seems unreasonable to me.

The implication of RDS’s anecdote is it’s better to risk possible illness rather than lose sales for Wal-Mart.

an·ec·dote: na short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical.

*(it also gave me the opportunity to poke RDS with a stick. :o)

Ken V,

“Fact: Tyson Fresh Meats, a subsidiary of Springdale-based Tyson Foods, on June 8 recalled about 40, 000 pounds of beef sold to Wal-Mart in 12 states — including Oklahoma — on E. coli concerns.”

And, one should assume then, from this, that the parties involved, are just talking and NOT acting, right?  Therefore, people should shun buying and eating hamburger from these stores, right?

“A reasonable person would avoid buying hamburger at Wal-Mart until they felt confident the problem had been resolved.”

And, how long would that be?  According to you guys, they are ignoring the problem, so that time period could be weeks!!  Therefore, people should buy their hamburger somewhere else, for a couple of weeks and pay a higher price, based on a paranoia, that the problem isn’t being worked on!!  Example:  You hear a recall on tires on Ford vehicles!!  Ken’s Reaction: Everybody should STOP driving Ford vehicles, untill all tires have been changed, but, what if they were changed out with some other faulty tires, better to stop driving Fords, altogether!!

“*(it also gave me the opportunity to poke RDS with a stick. :o)”

You live in Texas, right?  What happens when you poke a stick at something?  You might get bit!!  :o)

Pierce’s husband, Jim, is also seeking damages for disrupting “marital relations” with his wife, the filing said.

Good stuff.

Yeah, I thought so too, tjc.

It’ll be interesting to see the dollar amount placed on disrupting “marital relations” should they win.

We all know RDS said this, recently--“You seem to forget, that I live in Arkansas, I shop at Wal-Mart and guess what, I bought some Ground Beef there Sunday!! I ate it, it tasted good and guess what, I’m still alive and didn’t get sick!!”

Did it occur to anyone reading the main article that if proper cooking techniques were used, this “feeding frenzy” would be a moot point.

The internet has plenty of resources available concerning food safety and E. coli...check it out…

Bill

Did it occur to anyone reading the main article that if proper cooking techniques were used, this “feeding frenzy” would be a moot point.(?)

So now it’s the customer’s responsibility to take up the slack for Tyson and/or Wal-Mart?

You neo-capitalists kill me. All about personal responsibility, huh?

Raise you hand if you want some free hamburger. It’s tainted with e-coli but “proper cooking techniques” should take care of that....we think...we hope!

“You were responsible for reducing all of your controllable expenses from one year to the next. If it was down 1/10 of one percent that’s fine. You still reduced it. But you still were responsible for reducing every line of your controllable expense.” ~ Stan Fortune, former Wal-Mart manager.

Those corporate apologists at the <a >FDA</a>!

Unfortunately, bacteria isn’t responsive to people’s good intentions, whether they are producers or consumers. Mistakes happen, equipment fails, processes are flawed. Was this an isolated incident or some systemic failure? Unless you work for Tyson, I doubt you’d ever know the answer to that. Well, since Wal-Mart’s pressure on suppliers is so relentless, this should be just the beginning. Hurray for you.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. ~H. L. Mencken

(That quote’s probably not the most appropriate, but I like it.)

(That quote’s probably not the most appropriate, but I like it.)

Mencken rules!

Ken V,

“It’ll be interesting to see the dollar amount placed on disrupting “marital relations” should they win.”

I was once sued by a person who broke his wrist on my property and the amount was $500,000.00 for disrupting “marital relations”, I thought he must have been pretty good with that hand!!  In the end, he got zip for it!!

“So now it’s the customer’s responsibility to take up the slack for Tyson and/or Wal-Mart?”

Yes, it is the customer’s responsibility to follow cooking directions and cook meat as directed!!  Under your premise, if a customer stabs himself in the eye with a knife, it is not his fault that he didn’t use the knife properly, it is the fault of the manufacturer and the store that sold it!!

To be fair, it’s not like stabbing yourself in the eye; it’s more like you were using the knife and the blade snapped off.  If you were careful, you probably wouldn’t hurt yourself. And if you weren’t careful, and maybe even if you were, you could cut yourself. Most people would expect the knife not to break, just like most people buy meat under the assumption that it’s not dangerous to eat.

The lesson is, always wear your seatbelt.

..it’s not like stabbing yourself in the eye;

I am so proud of you, tjc!

Most dramatically, overhead costs jumped 14.8% in 2006 alone and now amount to 18.6% of sales, compared with 16.4% in Scott’s first year—a momentous rise in a business that counts profit in pennies on the dollar.

tjc,

“The lesson is, always wear your seatbelt.”

Another lesson: Always cook your meat properly!!

Disregard the knife senerio you didn’t like and let’s use the one you mentioned as a lesson, okay?  What if you crashed and didn’t have your seatbelt on, and got hurt, it that the manufacturers and dealers fault, or YOURS?  After all, weren’t yu warned that you could get hurt, while not wearing your seatbelt?  Well, people are warned about eating meat that is not fully cooked!!

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