Undercutter-Mart: A Recap

Over the past two weeks, we’ve been keeping you updated on Wal-Mart;s continued assault on high school sports programs by selling logo school gear without the permission of the school, and without donating any of the profits.

So far, we’ve read news reports of high schools in Washington, Wisconsin and Tennessee that have spoken out about the practice. We sent out an email to supporters last week and heard back from dozens who identified Wal-Marts across the country that are selling high school gear. More reports are sure to come in, and you can bet we’ll be keeping track.

In case you missed it, here’s a little recap:

We first heard about this on September 4, when KXLY-4 News in Washington state broke the story about Cheney High School losing much needed profits because Wal-Mart was selling clothes with their logo on them.  Wal-Mart refused to donate any of the profits back to the school. 

On September 10, an article from the Kingsport Times-News reported a similar story about Wal-Mart doing the same thing to Science High School in Johnson City, Tennessee - and that its been going on for several years, despite complaints.

Two days later, on September 12, the Cheney Free Press reported that this had been happening in a host of Washington schools, including Medical Lake High School. Reporter Paul Delaney actually got the first response we’ve seen out of Wal-Mart, who defended the practice and claimed that all legal requirements to sell the gear are met.

Then yesterday, NBC-26 from Green Bay revealed that yet another High School was reporting the same problem.  They explain:

“Students at Kimberly High School work hard to sell t-shirts and other gear. All proceeds directly help fund school programs like marketing. “The apparel is probably the biggest money maker here at this store,” says Senior Joey Moser. The student shop managers, though, were surprised to learn that other stores like Walmart and Pick ‘n Save also sell their gear. Moser says, “We don’t get any of that money."”

It’s questionable whether Wal-Mart has the legal right to sell the gear without permission, there’s no question that it’s unethical. Wal-Mart is the biggest company in the world, run by the richest family in the country, and constantly bills itself as a “store of the community”.  There’s no excuse for undercutting local schools, and keeping the profits for itself.

The bottom line is that Wal-Mart is taking a huge chunk out of school budgets, and jeopardizing the future of local sports programs.

We’ll keep you updated. 

Posted by Media Team on Thursday, September 18, 2008

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