Nationwide Protests Against Wal-Mart
Across the country this week, citizens and activists are taking a stand against Wal-Mart. It’s the busiest selling season for the reatiler, and local communities are standing up to its unfair practices, unsafe products and unacceptable behavior. From Wake Up Wal-Mart:
Through its relentless pressure on suppliers to reduce costs, Wal-Mart fosters a corporate culture that encourages cheap manufactures to cut costs and cut corners. The result is that American children are literally placed in harms way when they play with cheaply-made toys from retailers like Wal-Mart.
Local papers have covered allied protests in Minnesota, several in California, and, below, Michigan.
Candlelight vigil against a Wal-Mart in Lincoln Park [Detroit News]
A candlelight vigil is slated for 6-7 p.m. tonight at the Lincoln Park Shopping Center on the northwest corner of Southfield and Dix-Toledo by a group that hopes to keep mega-retailer Wal-Mart from moving into center.
The group, called Wake up Wal-Mart Downriver, claims the discount chain destroys local businesses by undercutting prices, and sells unsafe products imported from China.
Nick Infante, Michigan spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the company now has no plans for a store at the site, which straddles the Allen Park/Lincoln Park border, with about 75 percent of the property in Lincoln Park.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, December 18 | 17 comments | Permalink
The Night Before Christmas at Wal-Mart
Scrooge doesn’t look so bad: he just made Bob come into work on Christmas Day. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, takes money from communities, mistreats employees, and with its low-quality toys, keeps millions of kids from having a happy holiday. Merry Christmas indeed...
‘Twas the night before Christmas, And all through Wal-Mart
There were no toys laying, In one single shopping cart
Barbie had lead, Aqua-Dots caught with drugs
And the prepackaged fruitcake? Infested with bugs
Lee Scott was nestled, all snug in his bed
While visions of profit danced in his head
The toys were all gone, they’d been taken away.
Mr. Scott said “Be cheaper! Come whatever may!”
“But lead paint hurts Children!”
The CPSC said
“The toxins it has
Make kids sick in the head!”
Wal-Mart didn’t care, it kept working away,
To cut costs (and cut corners!) in every possible way.
No customers came, no one said hello.
And the wage Wal-Mart paid? Not worth standing in snow.
Employees got sick, they were too poor to pay.
“Keep working!” Wal-Mart said. “You’ll get insurance some day!”
The town was all quiet, most businesses had shut down.
What once had been festive was now a ghost town.
An elderly worker stood by Wal-Mart’s front door
He was still here at midnight and he wondered “what for?”
With no toys, low wages, and a stingy health plan,
Wal-Mart’s Christmas present? Good will towards no man (woman or child).
Posted by Media Team on Thursday, December 13 | 35 comments | Permalink
Parents Staying Clear of the Toy Aisle This Year
This story comes on the heels of yesterday’s article from Boston Globe: consumers aren’t buying toys this holiday season, and they certainly aren’t buying them at stores like Wal-Mart. Knowing Wal-Mart’s dependence on China-made goods and the company’s notorious devotion to low prices at the cost of safety, parents are staying away from Wal-Mart this Christmas. With store sales struggling to stay afloat, can Wal-Mart afford to keep selling such cheap toys?
Not your typical toy-buying season [MarketWatch]
Before the recent spate of toy recalls, Ashley DiGeronimo never bothered reading the fine print that revealed where a toy was manufactured.
“I never gave it a second thought,” said DiGeronimo of Montclair, N.J., who lists Legos and Hot Wheels among the gifts her boys Alan, 7, and Robbie, 4, will get for Christmas.
This year, however, is different. Before dashing off to Toys “R” Us or jumping online, parents are doing their homework following a four-month onslaught of recalls, tallying more than 21 million toys.
Toymakers have been struggling with a flurry of product issues that have called the industry’s reputation into question ahead of the crucial holiday-shopping period. The recalls have cost millions in testing, legal and advertising costs, as well as for product returns.
High levels of lead paint have been cited in some cases, while magnets that can come loose and pose choking threats and other health hazards also have been the focus of consumers and regulators.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, December 11 | 40 comments | Permalink
Toy Recalls Steer Shoppers Away from Wal-Mart
Recalls are changing the way Americans shop, and they’re not going over to Wal-Mart. This story from the Boston Globe reveals that shoppers are staying away from big box stores because of the retailers’ reputation for dangerous products. BloggingStocks has more, and click here to get a sense of why consumers might be feeling jittery.
Not toying around [Boston Globe]
Rick Henry, owner of Stellabella Toys, took a hard look at his inventory after the recent recalls of millions of toys imported from China, and realized he needed to make changes.
So, he doubled the amount of merchandise not made in China for his two Cambridge shops. He bought as many LEGO toys (made in Denmark) and Playmobil products (made in Germany) as possible. And he added new lines, including German stacking toys and wooden trains from Maple Landmark Woodcraft of Vermont.
This holiday season, in the wake of massive recalls of mainstream toys like Barbie and Batman, those changes are paying dividends: Already, Stellabella has seen sales increase 15 percent.
The jump in Stellabella’s business reflects a trend in the industry as consumers worried about toy safety flock to small shops, helping to reverse sales declines to mass merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which often offer better prices. Domestic manufacturers also are seeing a boon for the first time in years as stores are stocking their shelves with more toys made in Europe and the United States.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, December 10 | 15 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart, China, Want to Do Even More Business Together
This AP article in the New York Times today examines the fact that the U.S. and China are looking to increase trade, despite “protectionist tendencies” (read: consumer outrage) in both countries. The article comes on the tails of a product safety summit that harshly criticized the quality of products made in China as well as the country’s poor enforcement of intellectual property laws. Huh, that’s strange. Why would the U.S. want to do more business with a country that’s having such a hard time getting its regulatory act together?
Perhaps the answer lies with the fact that today Wal-Mart announced plans to expand operations in China by 30% this year alone. As the eighth largest economy in the world, Wal-Mart knows how to throw its weight around. When the U.S. government signs trade deals with China (and looks the other way when dangerous products turn up) Wal-Mart is the one that stands to benefit, even if it comes at the cost of consumer safety.
US, China Say Must Work Together [Associated Press via New York Times]
The United States and China, with increasingly dependent economies, have to work together to fight protectionist sentiment in both countries, officials from the countries said Monday.
The comments came on the eve of high-level meetings this week between U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Chinese officials at which China’s massive trade surplus with the U.S. and its product safety record are expected to be key issues.
‘’We have to continue opening global markets. America and China must work together to stem the tide of projectionist sentiment in out nations,’’ said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez.
‘’It is ironic that we have found that protectionism does not protect. The only thing that does protect is innovation and engaging with the world, competing, being more productive,’’ Gutierrez told a seminar on innovation in Beijing.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, December 10 | 7 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart in Arkansas Continues to Sell Recalled Toys
(Dangerous) Toy Story [Arkansas Times Blog]
Apparently not at the Searcy Wal-Mart, where Buddy Childress of Des Arc took matters into his own hands after recognizing a Dora the Explorer lamp from a report of the Ten Worst Toys of 2007. The list, put out by W.A.T.C.H., a consumer advocacy group, says the lamp carries the potential for electric shock and burn injuries.
According to the Huffington Post, Childress complained to a store manager about the lamp, but the manager said only Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters could pull items. Childress bought one of the store’s two remaining lamps with the intention of showing it to local newspaper editors, but then he got a better idea:
“I couldn’t keep people from buying the lamp from the Searcy Wal-Mart—let alone from all the other Wal-Marts in Arkansas and all across the country,” Childress figured. “I felt I had to do something that would make a statement and focus attention on this extremely dangerous toy.”
Childress dialed 911 on his cell phone, and was connected with the Searcy Police Department. He told the officer who answered the phone where he was, what had happened in the toy department, and that he intended to take the lamp outside the store and destroy it. “He tried to get me not to do it,” Childress admits, “but I told him I was going to, and that I’d be waiting outside the store for the police to arrive. I expected to be arrested there, and taken to the police station.”
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, December 05 | 1 comments | Permalink
Groups to Call for Toy Safety Hearings into Recalled Chinese-Made Goods Sold at Wal-Mart
The following press release was issued today by Wake Up Wal-Mart:
Groups to Call for Toy Safety Hearings into Recalled Chinese-Made Goods Sold at Wal-Mart
Parents Across the Country Are Making Their Lists and Checking the Label Twice Before Buying from Wal-Mart, the #1 Importer of Chinese Products
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2007
Washington, DC – In the wake of a recent wave of toy recalls, WakeUpWalMart.com in conjunction with leading consumer and environmental groups, and Wal-Mart Watch today sent a letter to Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), asking him, as chair of the Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, Trade & Tourism, to call for hearings on Wal-Mart’s pressure on Chinese suppliers.
More than 70 percent of goods on Wal-Mart shelves come from China, making it the #1 importer of Chinese products. If it were a country, the retail giant would be China’s sixth largest trading partner, ahead of Germany and England.
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Posted by Eric Bull on Wednesday, December 05 | 33 comments | Permalink
Study Finds Over One Third of Toys Still Coated With Lead Paint
A series of tests conducted by the Ecology Center reveal that only 20% of toys sold to American consumers are lead-free, and a whopping 35% of all toys have lead levels higher than legally allowed. Many of the toys tested were bought at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s unwillingness to address the continuing issue of lead-tainted toys on its shelves isn’t just a consumer safety issue - it raises environmental and human rights concerns as well. And as we see in this case, even when toys are found to be toxic, Wal-Mart is seldom willing to recall them. As the holiday season ramps up, will consumers take the risk of buying at Wal-Mart?
Groups Release Guide to Toxins in Toys [Associated Press]
Tests on more than 1,200 children’s products, most of them still on store shelves, found that 35 percent contain lead — many with levels far above the federal recall standard used for lead paint.
A Hannah Montana card game case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and Circo brand shoes were among the items with excessive lead levels in the tests performed by a coalition of environmental health groups across the country.
Only 20 percent of the toys and other products had no trace of lead or harmful chemicals, according to the results being released Wednesday by the Michigan-based Ecology Center along with the national Center for Health, Environment and Justice and groups in eight other states.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, December 05 | 52 comments | Permalink
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