Apparently, the highly-publicized annual Wal-Mart analyst’s meeting served a purpose other than announcing that Wal-Mart plans to: scale-down domestic expansion, improve existing stores, and embark on foreign conquest. They also announced a new venture from Sam’s Club, slated to debut in Houston next year. It is a new club-format store, geared toward Hispanics, creatively titled: Más Club ("More Club” in Spanish. They could name every Sam’s this, no?).
The clubs will feature an expanded selection of Hispanic foods and products produced in Mexico and Latin America. The Houston Chronicle reports that the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, has estimated that the Hispanic population will account for 1.2 trillion dollars of spending power by 2012 - and Sam’s Club wants a piece of the action.
The store looks to drape itself Hispanic culture, featuring a cafe that sells ‘fresh’ tortillas (sounds delicious) and branding itself in the red, green and white of Mexican flag. Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Sam’s Club is quoted in Reuters:
“Our objective is to create an additional shopping choice that provides currently unavailable value for families, restaurant owners, convenience stores and more...”
McMillon chose not to discuss Mas Club’s suppliers. Given that it will be carrying mostly Hispanic products, “Mas Club” might actually break a new Wal-Mart record for percentage of products not made in the U.S. But Latin American suppliers beware. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is notorious for bullying down their suppliers to sell products at a price they can barely afford (Vlasic, Levis).
While the first store is to serve as a prototype, The Northwest Arkansas Morning News said McMillon is ”pumped” about the new chain, which will also feature gas stations…
Posted by Luke West | Permalink
As many Americans struggle to keep their financial heads above water, Wal-Mart has repeatedly reported gains as customers hunt for the lowest prices on staple-items such as food. If you are one of the many people choose where to shop, based solely on price, you’d have to notice the German grocer Aldi. A story from Ocala.com (Ocala, Fla.) claims that Aldi has lower prices on many basic food-items than Wal-Mart. From the article:
“A gallon of Aldi milk goes for $2.79, but $3.48 at Wal-Mart; Crispy Rice cereal at Aldi is $1.59 for a 20-ounce box, but even the off-brand Crispy Rice at Wal-Mart is more, $2.16 for 18 ounces.” “The list goes on: Aldi hamburger buns go for 85 cents, $1.13 at Wal-Mart; 34.5 ounces of coffee is $4.49 at Aldi and $6.74 at Wal-Mart; bananas are 45 cents per pound at Aldi, 64 cents per pound at Wal-Mart.”
Aldi is a ‘bare-bones’ type of store, focusing on low-prices, not appearances. They got their start in Germany in the 1970’s but have since spread to the U.S. and now operate around 800 retail locations, mainly in the eastern half of the U.S. They sell off-brand generics, don’t typically use bags, and rarely accept payment other than cash. But in times like these, more and more Americans care less about brand-identity and more about price.
Last year, Wal-Mart sold their 85 stores in Germany to a German rival and top retailer, Metro AG, citing losses. Now a German retailer is beating their prices on generic foods, on Wal-Mart’s own turf. Look out Wal-Mart, here comes Aldi.
Posted by Luke West | Permalink
Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.
This week’s issue begins with reports of price gouging on the part of Wal-Mart. What’s truly abhorrent about these reports, however, is that they are being made by the very people affected most by the recent cavalcade of hurricanes to batter the Gulf coast. The Arkansas News Bureau and The Consumerist have more on these stories.
You’ll also find major news on the legal front. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed its second lawsuit against Wal-Mart in less than three weeks. The first involves the Americans with Disabilities Act in Illinois; the second involves age discrimination against a 67-year-old optician in Missouri. In addition to the EEOC lawsuits, Wal-Mart will now have to face another class action wage/hour lawsuit. Salvas v. Wal-Mart was originally certified as a class action back in 2004. Since then the case has gone back and forth through the Massachusetts court system, eventually being decertified and winding up in front of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on appeal. Well, the SJC released its opinion this week, ruling that the decertification was improper and that the lawsuit should be reinstated as a class action. A trial is possible, which could cost Wal-Mart hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid wages and damages. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald have the story.
Also check out the Product and Food Safety Report, where you’ll find stories on BPA (and a class action lawsuit regarding the chemical that includes Wal-Mart), dangerous soccer goals and baby cribs sold at Wal-Mart, and a pet food recall involving Purina products sold at the retailer.
And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.
Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials [September 24, 2008]
Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
Back in April, the Denver Post conducted a survey of grocery prices at Wal-Mart supercenters in several Denver neighborhoods. Over a number of weeks, the survey found Wal-Mart charged more for groceries at its stores in low-income neighborhoods than in higher income areas. As the article noted, “It’s not cheap being poor.”
A survey done recently in Florida corroborates those findings. WKMG in Central Florida went to several Wal-Mart stores in neighborhoods of varying income levels and found consistent price disparities at each. In each case, products were cheaper in higher income areas.
This trend points to a pricing scheme that takes advantage of lower income shoppers who can’t afford to drive to a competing store for groceries. Wal-Mart might claim to help people “Save Money” and “Live Better,” but there’s nothing charitable about taking advantage of consumers already struggling to get by. To those of you with multiple Wal-Marts in your area: have you noticed this trend?
Wal-Mart Price Discrepancies Investigated [WKMG-TV (Fla.)]
Apparent cost discrepancies at Central Florida Wal-Mart stores were investigated after the Problem Solvers received a tip from a viewer alleging different prices for the same items.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Several retailers including Wal-Mart have been named in a nationwide class action for their participation in selling polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and toddler training cups containing the controversial hormone BPA.
This whole BPA - or Bisphenol-A - controversy is not a good thing. BPA is a key compound used in polycarbonate plastics, which are clear and nearly shatter-proof (a good thing), and also possibly toxic and poisoning us and our children daily (apparently bad...very, very bad). These plastics are used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical devices, lenses, CDs, and household electronics...a fact that, in the interest of full disclosure, actually made me check the bottom of my water bottle this morning to make sure I wasn’t slowly killing myself.
The lawsuit in question was filed in Georgia, and you can read the (very long) complaint here, in which defendants are accused of manufacturing and selling materials made with BPA despite knowledge of likely adverse affects. In addition to Wal-Mart, retailers such as CVS, Target, and Kroger have been named in the suit. Also named were manufacturers of the bottles themselves, including Evenflo, Gerber, and Playtex. The best part of this whole thing - not only have over a hundred studies been produced in the last decade warning of the adverse affects of BPA, but apparently in deeming the compound safe the FDA decided to rely on only two, both of which were produced by the American Plastics Council. So kudos to the FDA for that.
The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. You can read the release on it below.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
Remember back in June, when the FDA warned consumers about eating certain kinds of tomatoes coming out of Mexico due to potential salmonella contamination? And then expanded that warning to include certain peppers as well? All vendors of these products, including Wal-Mart were to halt the sale of such items.
Cheryl Grubbs is filing suit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, alleging that her husband, Brian Grubbs came close to death after eating several jalapeno peppers that were purchased at a Wal-Mart and tainted with salmonella in an article published today in LawyersandSettlements.com.
[An earlier version of this blog post mentioned that the FDA recall in question occured on June 25, 2008. This was incorrect: we apologize for the mistake.]
Tomato-Pepper Salmonella: Why the Grubbs are Suing Wal-Mart
Dolores, CO: “Truckloads of contaminated jalapenos were turned back at the border before we bought them at Wal-Mart,” says Cheryl Grubbs, “so why did Wal-Mart still have them in their store?” Her husband, Brian Grubbs, almost died from the tomato/pepper salmonella outbreak, and Cheryl is furious because his illness could have been avoided.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Luke West | Permalink
We’ll be extremely busy this weekend relaxing and celebrating the valiant efforts of American workers, so in the meantime - a brief round up of the week’s Wal-Mart blogs.
DEADLY BASSINETS SOLD AT WAL-MART
Wal-Mart Still Selling Dangerous Cribs [WakeUpWal-Mart.com Blog]
Wal-Mart has long been plagued with recalls of dangerous products, and it has often been implicated in taking too little action about such products. Now it seems Wal-Mart is still selling a dangerous crib that is responsible for two deaths.
Here is the story yesterday at Consumeraffairs.com. I hope Wal-Mart (mentioned in this story) and other retailers have stopped selling these products, since being notified of the imminent hazard warning. And I assure readers, if SFCA’s defense somehow prevails in court, that the Congress will be quick with a technical correction to the new law.
After the jump, Wal-Mart’s local food, more on the company’s mandatory meetings and the new Marketside stores.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.
At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.
Deborah Metcalf v. Wal-Mart Stores East
In the process of scouring the country searching for egregious examples of Wal-Mart malfeasance, we came across this interesting little case filed earlier this year in Oklahoma. On its surface, it’s a retaliatory discharge case – however, the plaintiff here, Deborah Metcalf, was fired for blowing the whistle on what should be considered some pretty repulsive conduct.
Among the many programs funded by the United States Government, we’re going to focus on one in particular – the federal WIC program. WIC stands for Women, Infants, and Children, and is a special supplemental nutrition program funded by grants by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered in Oklahoma by the OK State Department of Health. Basically, WIC provides food and education to low-income women, infants and children deemed eligible for the program. The program’s website tagline delivers the following:
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children - better known as the WIC Program - serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.
Deborah Metcalf, at the time of her firing, was an employee working at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy located within store #47 in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. In 2001, the Sallisaw Wal-Mart became a participant in the WIC program. Before we go any further, perhaps a little more information is needed on how the WIC program works:
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Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
There’s still way too many bloggers talking about last week’s Wall Street Journal story for us to give an accurate run down of all of them. But that’s not the only thing going on in the world of Wal-Mart this week: our Friday Blog Round-Up has the details.
WAL-MART RECOMMENDS LEAVING CARBON OFFSET DETAILS “VAGUE”
We caught a post earlier this week from Sustainable Industries, which mentioned that Wal-Mart has come out against defining carbon offset standards. Given the company’s desperate attempts to be seen as environmentally friendly, we found this a bit shocking, and we weren’t the only ones…
To Everything: Term, Term, Term [Grist]
In comments to the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year, Wal-Mart asked the agency not to define the terms “carbon offsets” or “renewable energy certificates” in order to keep the terms flexible and to retain their “less tangible nature.”
Carbon Offsets: To Define or Not to Define? [Green Tech Media]
Wal-Mart has attracted plenty of attention for its environmental initiatives, including more energy-efficient lighting – the chain surpassed a goal to sell 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs in 2007 – less packaging and a goal of removing nonrenewable energy from all its products, although an Environmental Leader report released in May found that most consumers didn’t identify the company as socially responsible, in spite of its significant green marketing.
Wal-Mart has been taking many major steps go green in recent years. The mega-retailer has taken steps to assess the carbon footprint of some of its products, and it has become the largest buyer of organic cotton and of locally grown produce...So you can imagine my surprise when I came across Wal-Mart’s comment on the Federal Trade Commission’s attempts to standardize carbon offsets.
Walmart Against Setting of Carbon Offset Guidelines [Carbon Offsets Daily]
There seem to be loopholes in Walmart’s argument as well - it argues that the FTC should refrain from setting concrete offset guidelines as there is lack of “widespread consensus about the precise contours of what constitutes a carbon offset or a REC”. But isn’t that exactly what the FTC is looking to rectify?
My good deed for the day. [The Writing on the Wal]
The Christian Science Monitor has noticed that despite its vaunted green reputation Wal-Mart doesn’t want the government to formally define carbon offsets in order to facilitate pollution cap and trade programs. Confused? So is the guy who wrote the blog post...Therefore, he called Wal-Flack Central (aka the Wal-Mart Press Office) for clarification...Can you imagine what the Wal-Flack who took that call must have been thinking?
a) “At Wal-Mart, we are very concerned about…”
b) “At Wal-Mart, we do not comment on pending legislation…”
c) “Let me tell you about all our other wonderful environmental programs…”
After the jump, bad deals, jalapeno peppers and the Griswold family makes their mark on the American retail landscape.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Well, first it was the tomato that was the culprit. Then tomatoes were deemed clean, and safe to eat again. Then, in a twist of culinary fate, a new villain in the salmonella outbreak showed its face - a spicy little number possibly originating at a farm down in Mexico. The jalepeno pepper. And now the tiny pepper has turned its capsaicin-spewing fury on Wal-Mart.
Actually, the complaint at issue was filed on behalf of Delores, Colorado resident Brian Grubbs against Wal-Mart and an unknown supplier, referred to in the complaint as “John Doe”. According to the lawsuit, the Grubbs family purchased jalapeño peppers from the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cortez, Colorado in late June. Grubbs and his family proceeded to eat them over the next week. According to the Rocky Mountain News:
Samples showed he was positive for salmonella Saintpaul, and later the jalapeño peppers back at his house that he hadn’t yet eaten also tested positive for that strain of salmonella, the suit said.
“Consumers believe that retailers like Wal-Mart know the quality and safety of products they sell,” Marler said. “Retailers benefit from that trust, and must be held accountable for the products they sell.”
Salmonella is, of course, no fun at all - Salmonellosis illnesses from the Saintpaul strain began showing up in Texas and New Mexico in late April, and in early June the CDC linked those illnesses to raw tomatoes and issued consumer warnings. Those warnings were, of course, completely wrong - the list of possible culprits was first widened before eventually being narrowed to raw jalapeno and serrano peppers.
On July 30, the FDA confirmed the presence of salmonella Saintpaul at a farm in Mexico, both in irrigation water and on produce. The investigation is continuing.
Man sickened by jalapeños files first salmonella lawsuit [Rocky Mountain News]
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
Food politics has become an increasingly important part of social responsibility and aided by bestselling books, blockbuster movies and celebrity endorsements, the movement is gaining ground. Wal-Mart, eager to improve its reputation among progressives, has tried to capitalize on the popularity of responsible eating...with varying degrees of success. The retailer first started selling organic produce - a program it later abandoned - and more recently has publicized its sourcing of local foods.
In his new book “The End of Food,” Paul Roberts points out Wal-Mart’s impact on our food supply goes far beyond these superficial initiatives. From the New York Times’ review:
Roberts isolates a number of culprits. Wal-Mart, for example, where America spends 21 cents of every food dollar and where some experts say we will soon be spending 50 cents of that dollar, continues to drive down retail prices to unsustainably low levels. One consequence is that food is becoming, once again, a commodity of “lesser quality and nutritional value.”
As the largest grocer in America, Wal-Mart is using its marketplace power to drive down the cost - and quality - of food. As a result, our food supply is degrading faster than you can say “in-store dining options.” And it’s not just Wal-Mart’s purchasing power that’s damaging our food supply: the retailer contributes heftily to the environmental damage, suburban sprawl and economic poverty that Roberts blames for the decline in food quality and food choices.
Wal-Mart is certainly not solely to blame for the world’s food problems, but the retailer’s business model simply doesn’t qualify as a sustainable solution to growing demand for fair food. For those committed to leveling the playing field of food politics, stick to the farmer’s market and your locally-owned grocer.
Nothing to Eat [New York Times]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
The local food movement has energetically spread across the United States in the last few years, spurring activist consumers to support local farms, shop at farmers markets and take pride in regional produce. The movement’s popularity hasn’t escaped the eyes of public relations executives - and Wal-Mart is eager to get in on the action.
Despite the fact that only a fraction of Wal-Mart’s produce is grown locally, the mammoth retailer has been quick to take credit for the small amount of local produce it DOES sell. BloggingStocks advises that this isn’t really important. According to the column, what Wal-Mart really needs is more P.R.
This has been a recurring theme in Wal-Mart’s environmental program. What small steps the retailer does make are inevitably blown all out of proportion by the company’s marketing department, making genuine analysis difficult. Wal-Mart’s publicity around local sourcing distracts from the fact that the retailer - the largest grocer in North America - sources the vast majority of its food from industrial producers. A vital part of “Buying Local” means not only supporting small farmers, but also supporting businesses that invest in the community, which Wal-Mart certainly fails to do. Want to support local farms and farmers markets? Go directly to the source. It’s better for the environment AND your community.
Wal-Mart stages marketing appearance to promote locally-grown produce [BloggingStocks]
Not too long ago, I wrote about Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and the entrance of the world’s largest retailer more heavily into locally-grown fresh produce. As a way of differentiating itself, Wal-Mart is really on the right track here. Partnering with local merchants near each community it serves could help repair the rift between small-town merchants and the retailing behemoth that has steadily grown for the last two decades.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Enviro. Team | Permalink
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 | Permalink
There aren’t a lot of scorpions in South Carolina, so when 12-year-old Megan Templeton came in after being stung by a scorpion hidden in a Wal-Mart watermelon crate, the doctors at Cabell-Huntington Hospital had to look it up on the internet. If not for the social and environmental benefits, buy local produce to avoid getting bitten by foreign insects!
12-Year-Old W.Va. Girl Stung by Scorpion at Store [Associated Press via ABC News]
One young shopper at a Wal-Mart in West Virginia had to watch out for more than falling prices.
A 12-year-old girl picking up a seedless watermelon from a bin was stung Sunday by a tan, inch-long scorpion that had apparently stowed away in a shipment from Mexico. Megan Templeton, of Barboursville, was taken to the hospital as a precaution but later released. Her father, William Templeton, said the pain was a little worse than a bee sting.
He initially didn’t believe his daughter when she said she had been stung by a scorpion, but then he saw the critter scurry underneath a box. It was captured by Wal-Mart employees.
Posted by Media Team | Permalink
Wal-Mart’s unwillingness to donate excess food to food banks was long a thorn in the side of community activists. The megaretailer often claimed it didn’t donate food for “liability reasons,” though there are several good Samaritan laws in place protecting companies from just such liabilities. As we’ve mentioned on this site before, Wal-Mart’s policy not only kept its own food from food banks, but its presence in a community often negatively impacted food banks in a number of ways.
It seems Wal-Mart has finally started to think about coming around. The company is planning to launch a pilot program in St. Louis this month, with the intention to roll out donations at more than 500 stores nationwide. Hopefully the company will follow through on this promise.
Sam’s Club Will Donate Food Products [Associated Press via Wall Street Journal]
Sam’s Club, the membership-warehouse subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is reviving food donations to local food pantries two years after halting the practice in favor of giving cash, the world’s largest retailer said.
Sam’s Club said a pilot program in St. Louis will be rolled out to about 560 of its 593 U.S. stores by late summer in coordination with America’s Second Harvest, the largest national food-bank organization.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food Movement, once said:
“Economists and politicians must acknowledge that local economies are much more profound than we might think; that if the market economy did, to a certain extent, produce benefits at a given moment in time, today, thanks to its logic of expecting more and more of the earth, it is wringing disaster not only on the environment but also on human relationships. We are no longer citizens but consumers, no longer producers but people used to create consumer objects. We don’t live in a harmonious relationship with creation: we produce too much, then waste what we produce.”
Importing from overseas was once reserved for products like toys and clothing, but today food is going through this same process. As big-box retailers like Wal-Mart have accelerated globalization to a dizzying rate, we find it impossible to be really certain about what’s on our plate and where it came from.
We often forget the externalities involved with the food we eat. What is its carbon footprint? Were the farmers who produced it given a raw deal? And was it produced with chemicals that kill the land? The questions are endless but due to corporations’ - particularly Wal-Mart’s - abhorrence of transparency, the answers are limited. It’s time for us to go from consumers to citizens again, to stop treating food like another commodity and hold corporations accountable for not providing food that is good and fair.
Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World [New York Times]
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya.
In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
Food has moved around the world since Europeans brought tea from China, but never at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Consumers in not only the richest nations but, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Vasudha Desikan | Permalink
Like so many other aspects of Wal-Mart’s business model, the cheap food Wal-Mart sells comes with hidden costs. This story from the International Herald Tribune lays out how the global food trade is bad for the planet, and ultimately for the economy too. Is it Wal-Mart’s fault? Not entirely, but the retailer is definitely part of the problem and a big roadblock on the path to solution.
Putting pollution on grocery bills [International Herald Tribune]
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Spanish Citrus Coast as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of the peas in Europe are grown and packaged in Kenya.
In the United States, FreshDirect.com proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of the national fruit of New Zealand, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
Food has moved around the world since Europeans discovered tea in China, but never at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Consumers in not only the richest nations but also, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography.
Increasingly efficient global transport networks make it practical to bring food before it spoils from distant places where labor costs are lower. And the penetration of megamarkets in nations from China to Mexico with supply and distribution chains that gird the globe - like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco - has accelerated the trend.
But the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution, especially carbon dioxide, from transporting the food.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Apr24
Is Cheap Food Worth It?
Americans are quickly finding out what the rest of the world has known for years: our food supply is fragile. Wal-Mart today announced limits on 50-pound bags of rice, as global supplies of the staple grain have started running out. The Times of London notes that this is the first time Americans have faced rations on a staple food. From The Economist:
A wave of food-price inflation is moving through the world, leaving riots and shaken governments in its wake. For the first time in 30 years, food protests are erupting in many places at once. Bangladesh is in turmoil; even China is worried. Elsewhere, the food crisis of 2008 will test the assertion of Amartya Sen, an Indian economist, that famines do not happen in democracies.
Today’s news might be startling for Americans, who are unaccustomed to such hardship, but people the world over have already been grappling with food shortages. A confluence of forces - including environmental change and uneven distribution of wealth - have meant serious problems in some countries. Wal-Mart is perhaps doing the U.S. a favor by opening our eyes to what food shortages mean.
Meanwhile, in the country once known as the breadbasket of the world, we’re using fertile land to grow automotive fuel, and feed more than 2/3 of our edible grain to cattle. All this while people who live on $0.50 a day go hungry. The quality of our own food is simultaneously declining, with obesity and diabetes rates on the rise and increasing disease among animals inhumanely raised. When Wal-Mart drives down the cost of milk or eggs, the company is only contributing to a disastrous trend that we’re paying for with our health, and our planet.
Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club limits rice purchases [Reuters]
Run on rice makes its way to U.S. [Los Angeles Times]
Wal-Mart restricts rice purchases [BBC News]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Shanay Buie was fired from her deli-counter position at a South Carolina Wal-Mart recently. She handled the situation, of course, like most of us would...by launching chickens into a crowd of deli customers. I suppose its less dangerous than other things she could have tossed - a particularly fresh roll of hard salami comes to mind, or perhaps a jagged block of sharp cheddar cheese. And, I’m assuming the chickens weren’t alive at the time, although one can dream. We’ll just file this one under “food safety” issues, and walk away.
Fired Wal-Mart deli worker throws chickens at customers [Columbia City Paper]
Shanay Buie of Clemson may face charges for allegedly going berserk after being fired from the deli at an Anderson area Wal-Mart. According to an incident report, Buie returned to the Wal-Mart after her termination and “threw 2 chickens at 2 customers.” The report also states that the scorned woman destroyed two printers valued at $1,000 each and broke two sets of dishes valued at $400 per set. So far, no arrest has been made.
Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
Wal-Mart claims to save people money. That would appear to be a lie. This arresting article from the Denver Post asserts that Wal-Mart charges more for groceries in low-income neighborhoods than in affluent neighborhoods. Despite the company’s claim as a resource for the working class, Wal-Mart’s pricing strategies appears to be anything but. If this article’s assertions are true, Wal-Mart’s pricing strategies are dishonest and shameful.
Much of this undoubtedly has to do with competition. Once Wal-Mart has driven out local competitors (and left a local economy depressed), the company is free to charge more for its products without fear of being undersold. This cycle of poverty and lack of access to resources is what makes Wal-Mart such an insidious neighbor. Working class communities should read this as a cautionary tale when considering a Wal-Mart, and be wary of the company’s promises of low prices.
Price disparity in groceries [Denver Post]
It’s not cheap being poor.
Few places reflect that reality more than the aisles of a grocery store, where prices seemingly increase daily as the economy teeters toward recession.
“It’s not very easy to make do right now,” said Kathryn White, a 58-year-old disabled nurse who relies on a small food-stamp stipend to offset high grocery costs.
“I just can’t look to buy something that costs $2,” she said. “I have my limits.”
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Research Team | Permalink
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