Friday Blog Roundup: Shareholders Edition
SHAREHOLDERS MEETING: MORE SHOW, LESS SUBSTANCE
Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban are going to be performing in Bentonville next week! And some band we’ve never heard of called Lifehouse (and Taylor Swift)! WE’RE SO EXCITED ABOUT THE ENTERTAINMENT WE CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER WHY THE MEETING IS HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE oh wait, yes we do.
Wal-Mart to Shareholders: Just Say No [The Iconoclasts]
Lay up groceries and rent some DVDs before the Wal-Mart shareholders descend on Fayetteville and occupy the city next week. The big annual meeting is scheduled for June 6 at the University of Arkansas, the corporate giant’s wholly-owned subsidiary. They are coming to be entertained and to vote against any shareholder proposals to reform policy or hold management responsible for their actions.
Wal-Mart’s habit of entertaining visitors rather than conducting actual business has everyone raising eyebrows:
Wal-Mart’s green efforts becoming a smokescreen? [BloggingStocks]
Next week’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Fayetteville should once again be more spectacle that business.Last year, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) seemed to spend more money lining up speakers, having pieces of its global operations dance with flags and having a pep rally rather that digging into issues.This year, expect the same—as the retailer has already opposed all the shareholder proposals anyway, so it should be a nice, big party full of entertainment. Nothing else.
Wal-Mart’s emphasis on entertainment have activists decrying the retailer’s lack of commitment to the social issues on this year’s proxy. Pam’s House Blend states,
Call me less than flabbergasted, but Wal-Mart is opposed to a shareholder proposition to add gender identity and expression to their non-discrimination policy...this is the second major corporation we’ve tracked at Pam’s House Blend that has used their DiversityInc rating (Wal-Mart was no. 41 of top 50 company’s for diversity in 2007; Verizon was no 1 on the same list for 2008) as to why the corporation doesn’t feel a need to specifically add gender identity and expression language into their non-discrimination policies.
After the jump, Menu Foods settles with pet owners over melamine-tainted food, Wal-Mart’s environmental policy, classified ads and look out! There’s scorpions in the watermelons!
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, May 30 | 1 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Proves Dedication to High Quality Toys by Selling Low Quality Toys
More news from Wal-Mart’s Department of Ironic Double Standards: mere hours after promising to raise toy quality standards, Wal-Mart got slammed today by the Baltimore Health Commissioner for selling kids’ jewelry with 117 times the legal limit of lead in it. Because as long as Wal-Mart can put out press releases with appealing promises, it doesn’t actually matter what the company is doing.
Before Wal-Mart tries to raise the quality standards for its toys, it needs to meet its current standards first. More testing, more oversight, fewer corners cut in overseas factories and fewer press releases.
Children’s jewelry with high lead levels found in city stores [Baltimore Sun]
Two city businesses have received citations for selling children’s jewelry with excessively high levels of lead, Baltimore health officials announced today.
The Wal-Mart at 2701 Port Covington Drive was cited for selling stud earrings with blue hearts produced by Girl Connection, which were found to have 70,400 parts per million of lead. The Murray’s at 2317 E. Northern Parkway was cited for two vending machine necklaces that had lead levels of 2,940 parts per million and 3,740 parts per million, according to the Baltimore City Health Department.
The products were identified as part of 17 items of children’s jewelry tested last month by the health department. City regulations adopted in September limit children’s jewelry to no more than 600 parts per million of total lead content.
As a result of the citation, Wal-Mart management has stopped selling Girl Connection merchandise at stores across the nation, according to city Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein.
City officials say they have banned the items from being sold in Baltimore and also alerted the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, May 15 | 3 comments | Permalink
States Seek Tougher Toy Safety Standards: Wal-Mart Has No Comment
Growing concern about the safety of toys sold in the U.S. has lawmakers, retailers and parents wondering how to address the problem. While big retailers like Wal-Mart undoubtedly play a huge role in the problem, other players are stepping up to try to address the issue. Washington state has just passed a bill setting strict restrictions for lead content in children’s products. Washington lawmakers have the best intentions for kids in mind, and major toy retailers have predictably balked at the prospective regulations. Though Washington’s bill is a great step forward, toys are already exceeding existing lead standards, indicating the problem is not so much with the laws but with compliance. How does Washington intend to enforce these standards? Will the state increase funding for toy testing and inspection?
States Alter Rules of Game On Safety for Toy Makers [Wall Street Journal]
In a move that has alarmed the toy industry, lawmakers in the state of Washington have overwhelmingly passed a bill that would set the toughest restrictions in the nation on the lead content of children’s products.
The bill would reduce the allowable level of lead in toys and other goods to 90 parts per million—and possibly as low as 40 parts per million, the recommended limit of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and far below the current federal standard of 600 parts per million. It would also set tough limits on cadmium, a metal used in paints and plastics, and on plastic-softening chemicals called phthalates that have been linked to childhood developmental problems, in some studies.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, March 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
Friday Blog Round-Up: March Madness Edition
THE BRAIN DAMAGE JOKES JUST WRITE THEMSELVES
The Center for Environmental Health released findings this week that several Hannah Montana products - manufactured in China and sold at Wal-Mart - contain high levels of lead. While it seems all too easy to link the Hannah Montana phenomenon and brain damage, the truth is that it’s not just HM products that pose a risk to young’uns. This is only the latest in a long line of product warnings about merchandise made in China and sold at Wal-Mart. A pattern, perhaps?
Hannah Montana’s Killing Spree: It’s Not Over Yet [Idolator]
Not content with potentially maiming fans who would dare to buy boots branded with her name, Miley Ray Cyrus/Hannah Montana is continuing her reign of merchandise terror, this time through the use of toxic levels of lead paint in somewhat-innocent-looking vinyl purses.
Do Not Chew Your Hannah Montana Toys [Glitterati]
Miley Cyrus may be a good influence on her young fans, but Miley-branded products - manufactured in China for Disney and sold at Wal*Mart - are loaded with lead, according to CNN and the Center For Environmental Health. Oops.
Don’t Lick Miley Cyrus! [E! Online]
Chinese-made Hannah Montana products - like her backpack and purses - have been found to contain up to 14 times the federal standard for lead in paint, the Center for Environmental Health says.
After the jump, we can’t get enough of the celebrity gossip!, Dell moves in to China and Wal-Mart gets taken to task for selling Guitar Hero.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, March 21 | 3 comments | Permalink
Toy Safety Concerns Persist at Wal-Mart
Concerns about toy safety took a big bite out of holiday sales this year, and toy makers are working to reassure consumers. This video from CNN discusses the industry’s efforts, and how toy makers are using safety as a selling point.
The story comes out on a day when CPSC director Nancy Nord chastised the toy industry for ineffective safety procedures. Nord placed the bulk of the blame for unsafe toys on manufacturers, but retailers like Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us play a major role in the problem. Both companies have announced plans to increase toy safety standards, effectively mandating industry-wide changes.
These moves seem to avoid the real root of the problem. Wal-Mart’s toys are already failing to meet the company’s requirements, and raising standards won’t address the fact that toys are produced in fly-by-night factories and too often not tested for chemicals. Toy makers should be testing toys more frequently and more thoroughly, a process which Wal-Mart has said little about. As it stands, Wal-Mart relies on a single laboratory for its product safety testing. The lab - Consumer Testing Laboratories in Bentonville, Ark. - is paid by Wal-Mart for its services, raising some questions about the lab’s objectivity. Not only has Wal-Mart failed to address these ethical problems, it has also neglected to increase or improve its testing practices.
Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R’ Us unveil new safety rules [CNN Money]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, February 19 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Continues to Sell Controversial Baby Bottle
Outrage surrounding new reports on the safety of plastic used to make some baby bottles has parents angry at retailers like Wal-Mart. Concerns that bottle plastic leaches chemicals into baby formula have popped up in dozens of news sources over the last few days. Now, parents are pointing fingers at Wal-Mart for continuing to sell the products despite the dangers.
Despite more than two years of warnings about the possible dangers of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), manufacturers continue to widely use it to make baby bottles, toys and beverage containers, and stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys “R” Us continue to carry the products, according to a new study from the Center for Health Environment and Justice, a Virginia-based environmental activist organization.
BPA is a synthetic sex hormone that mimics estrogen. Scientists have linked low doses of BPA to obesity, diabetes, thyroid disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer and other illnesses in lab tests on animals.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, February 08 | 1 comments | Permalink
The Problem with Wal-Mart’s Price Cuts
Wal-Mart’s cutting prices in hopes of boosting sales. This video from CNN explains that sourcing products from companies based in the United States would help even more. Click here for the video on CNN’s site.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, January 29 | 2 comments | Permalink
Retailers Must Take Responsibility for Product Safety, CPSC says
Amidst the seemginly endless toy recalls this past year, one question remains unanswered: who is ultimately responsible for ensuring the quality of consumer products in the United States? The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord, is pointing to retailers. Chronically underfunded and increasingly understaffed, it’s almost impossible for the CPSC to inspect all the imports coming in from overseas. Instead, Nord hopes to focus the CPSC on domestic-made goods, as the agency was intended to do, and leave inspection of imported goods up to retailers like Wal-Mart. What do you think: who should be responsible for these products? Do retailers like Wal-Mart have any responsibility to ensure the quality of the goods they sell?
Safety Push Focuses on Retailers [Wall Street Journal]
Retailers may come under increased scrutiny from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency’s acting chairman said yesterday.
Nancy Nord said the shift in strategy is necessary because many of the 15,000 household products regulated by the agency are made abroad, not in the U.S. as most were when the agency was created in 1973. At that time, most of the agency’s enforcement efforts were focused on product manufacturers.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, January 08 | 9 comments | Permalink
View Wal-Mart Watch's videos on YouTube