Just in time Three months before the holidays, Wal-Mart is challenging fellow toy retailers to try to match its prices on Christmas gifts. The retailer has a history of relentlessly undercutting its competitors, but rival retailers like Target and KB Toys aren’t taking Wal-Mart’s price cuts lying down. After announcing its price cuts last week, several other retailers countered with price cuts of their own. With any luck, the cuts will convince parents to spend big and spend soon on toys for Christmas.
The race to the bottom on toy prices shows how influential retailers can be in setting prices for the products sold in their stores. Wal-Mart might be losing money on its $10 Barbie dolls, but it’s dragging the entire toy industry down with it. One interesting quote, from an executive at Toys ‘R’ Us, highlighted how narrow-minded shoppers’ focus can be: “value is not just about cheapness,” he said, and he’s right. Wal-Mart’s toys might be cheap, but problems persist with almost every aspect of the manufacturing process. Are workers rights, American wages and children’s safety worth a $10 toy?
Wal-Mart Sparks War Among Big Toy Sellers [Wall Street Journal]
Retail price wars are starting early this year, and the latest weapon is the $10 toy—a signal that retailers are bracing for a rough-and-tumble Christmas shopping season.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
A story out today from Advertising Age has an in-depth break down of Wal-Mart’s current business and marketing strategy. Most retailers are scrambling to stay afloat as the economy declines, but in the last month Wal-Mart has seen rises in both its stock price and profits.
Shoppers are trading down, and Wal-Mart is as low as they can go. A bad economy has always been good for Wal-Mart, and today’s recession-like atmosphere is no different. Wal-Mart’s execs claim the recent boost in sales is due to a “strategic three-year plan,” but most analysts agree: when the going gets tough, the tough go to Wal-Mart.
“But,” says one analyst quoted in the article, “there is a chink in the armor of Wal-Mart, which is these customers are not saying they necessarily feel loyalty.” Though more people are shopping at the low-price retailer, they’re not likely to stay. Wal-Mart’s only advantage is its prices: customer service, product quality and company ethics are all secondary objectives, and shoppers know that. Brand loyalty might not be a problem for Wal-Mart now, but once the economy improves the company could face the consequences for putting low prices above all else.
Wal-Mart Grinning Big Through the Tough Times [Advertising Age]
Looking for a silver lining in the economy? It’s shining brightly from Bentonville, Ark.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
SANTA TO WORK LONGER HOURS WITHOUT OVERTIME THIS YEAR
Wal-Mart announced this week that it will start cutting toy prices almost three months before Christmas. To which Santa Claus replied, “Seriously?”
Wal-Mart starts the discounting early this year [BloggingStocks]
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. said it will cut prices on some of the most popular toys and speed up the opening of Christmas shops in its stores nationwide as it tries to lure budget-conscious shoppers and jump start its biggest selling season.”
Wal-Mart: Coal In The Retail Industry’s Stocking [24/7 Wall St.]
Wal-Mart’s action is a typical method for burying the competition. It can afford almost endless inventory build-ups for the busy shopping season. It can pull in the very modest amount that the consumer has to spend and leave other retailers with scraps off the table.
In which Walmart explains why we’re all doomed. [Writing on the Wal]
Obviously, I’m a masochist. I actually read Walmart’s press release on its early rollback of toy prices. While the Play-Doh Ice Cream Shop would be tempting if it weren’t Walmart we’re talking about here, I was much more struck by the survey results at the bottom of the document. Most notably:
Sixty-one percent of Americans do not plan on making cut-backs on how much they spend this Christmas season.
*Those who do plan on making cut-backs, plan on cutting back $50 or less.
Don’t you think that result seems just a tad self-interested? Why is that stat there if not to convince people to spend more whether they can afford to or not? I suspect Walmart has declared Christmas early because they’re afraid nobody will have any money left in December.
After the jump, Wal-Mart shuts down DRM music downloads, managers make up their own rules and 210,000 toasters get recalled.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
Wal-Mart stockpiles massive amounts of information about its customers. The retailer’s databases are enormous - bigger than the internet - and the information contained on its servers includes everything from which aisles shoppers choose to go down to the time of day chocolate milk sells quickest.
Now, the statistics firm ACNeilson (best known for its TV viewership ratings) is taking Wal-Mart’s data and helping the retailer understand its shoppers even better. At a recent conference of Wal-Mart suppliers, Neilson reps broke down how many cartons of eggs, car parts, and bags of dog food Wal-Mart customers buy each year. The study also revealed the average household incomes of Wal-Mart’s shoppers, the average number of trips each shopper makes and how much shoppers spent at the stores, on average. Ultimately, Wal-Mart hopes to use this information to customize store inventories and increase profits.
The study comes at a time when political analysts everywhere are desperately trying to understand Wal-Mart’s core demographic. “Wal-Mart Moms” may be the key to November’s election, some pundits say. Political alignment might not have been on Neilson’s questionnaire, but the study does provide some insight. According to Neilson, the average Wal-Mart shopper is a “pet-loving, pasta-eating, car-driving, gadget-obsessed dieter who either doesn’t care for cheese or buys it elsewhere.” (That part about the cheese may or may not impact the election directly.)
The data in the study doesn’t provide a complete picture of Wal-Mart’s shoppers - and it certainly doesn’t encompass all of the middle-aged women being wooed by politicians - but Wal-Mart is trying harder than ever to win over “the core female head of household” i.e., the “Wal-Mart Mom.” The retailer isn’t alone in catering to this powerful group not alone, and who knows - maybe quality dog food actually is the secret to winning the presidency in November.
Marketing firm looks at Wal-Mart shopper, trends [NW Arkansas Morning News]
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | 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
It’s been a big day for Wal-Mart photo centers. Early this morning, news broke that an employee at a Louisiana Walmart store stole compromising photos of Jamie Lynn Spears, with intent to sell the images to the media. Because Jamie Lynn is a minor, and because getting your personal photos copied and sold by your photo developer is creepy, Wal-Mart could potentially face penalties for the act.
But that’s not all. News ALSO comes today that the retailer has partnered with Jones Soda, maker of delicious and unusually-flavored colas, to let customers order custom-printed soda cans at Wal-Mart photo centers. Just when you thought you’d never find soda packaging that embodied your life outlook, Jones Soda has made it possible.
We really hope these two events aren’t somehow connected. It’s bad enough that stories about Jamie Lynn flooded our Google alerts this morning: it’d be even worse if we have to see her staring out at us from the soda case at the deli, too. And for those of you interested, you don’t have to go to a Wal-Mart to get your face on a Jones soda can: you can order a six-pack right on their website, and yes, we’re planning to get a case.
Jones Soda introduces myJones at Wal-Mart photo centers [Smart Briefs]
Celeb-a-razzi: Wal-Mart may be in trouble over Brit, Jamie Lynn photos [Detroit News]
Posted by Media Team | Permalink
This piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post
It is football season again and fans in communities across the country are turning out for high school games. They are probably wearing sweatshirts, t-shirts and other gear to cheer their local team. Unfortunately, if those fans bought their clothing from their local Walmart store, their team is not getting any financial support, and that means that the games may be numbered.
We recently received reports from all over the country about Walmart selling high school logo sportswear without the schools’ permission and without donating any of the profits. As a result, fundraising efforts are undercut and already thin school athletic budgets are stretched even further as local residents buy cheaper versions at Walmart.
The practice has likely been ongoing for years, but current economic problems and shrinking school budgets may be the catalyst for some schools to take a closer look at how Walmart’s effort puts a dent in their local programs.
It started on September 4, when KXLY-4 News out of Washington state reported that a local Wal-Mart was selling Cheney High School athletic gear without permission, and without donating any of the profits.
Several days later, the Kingsport Times-News reported that Science Hill High School in Johnson City, Tennessee has repeatedly complained to Walmart about the practice and the school attorney has sent cease-and-desist letters. Then, last Friday - the Cheney Free Press reported that a host of schools in the Washington state area have been complaining about the same problem.
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Posted by David Nassar, Executive Director | Permalink
News broke last week that Wal-Mart raised gasoline prices at its stores in Texas just before Hurricane Ike hit the area. Consumers in the area didn’t fail to notice, despite the coming storm. Texas state law protects against price gouging, especially during a disaster or emergency.
Now, news from Arkansas tells that the Attorney General there will subpoena “30 gasoline retailers” as part of an investigation into gas price hikes around the time of Hurricane Ike. Though the article doesn’t list the gas retailers in question, we assume it includes Wal-Mart, which has several dozen gas stations in the state. From the news brief on the Arkansas News Bureau’s website:
Arkansas law prohibits businesses from raising prices for motor fuel, food and certain other products by more than 10 percent within 30 days of a declaration of emergency. Violators can be fined up to $10,000 for each transaction in which a customer is overcharged. Fuel prices in Arkansas rose dramatically over a three-day period during the storm’s mainland trek.
Consumerist also brings news of price gouging, but in a different place and on different items. A company insider in Kentucky explains the price of pre-charged cell phone batteries shot up to $19 a piece - almost doubling in cost, in some cases - in the days preceding the hurricane. When power was knocked out to parts of the state, the store sold out of batteries despite the higher price. From Consumerist:
Now today all of our car chargers go up nearly 50%. In fact, every charger, car or wall, in our store is a flat $19.00, when car chargers were $10.00 and wall chargers were $15.00 yesterday. This is hardly a coincidence, and it’s so blatently obvious to our customers. I can’t believe Walmart would do something so totally against their own mantra of Save Money, Live Better. This is more like “Raise Prices, Screw Suffering Customers!”
Price gouging disaster victims is exploitative and potentially illegal - but also destroys the good publicity Wal-Mart frequently seeks after natural disasters. The company holds high profile donation events and invites professional photographers, but clearly isn’t committed to helping disaster victims when there’s no PR benefit for the company.
For those of you who have visited a Wal-Mart store before or after a disaster or emergency, have you noticed higher prices on essentials?
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.
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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.
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Posted by Luke West | Permalink
The past couple weeks have seen plenty of stories describing ways in which Wal-Mart has mobilized to aid the Gulf Coast in preparation and relief efforts during hurricane season.
It seems, however, that even though the corporation was making efforts to lessen the blow of the storm, they still haven’t lost sight of the bottom-line. In a story posted yesterday in The Examiner, Wal-Mart was accused of price-gouging gasoline at one of their stations along an evacuation route in Southeast Texas. The Wal-Mart/Murphy USA located on U.S. 69 in Lumberton raised their price of gasoline a total of 12 cents in the day leading up to the evacuation for Hurricane Gustav, then another 10 cents when the evacuation was announced.
These prices were NOT consistent with other gas-stations in the area and following the storm, prices dropped again to reflect market prices. And despite a gas station manager claiming that prices went up because of a “gas price rise”, the cost of oil per barrel dropped over each of the three days.
Evacuation Gas Game [The Examiner (Texas)]:
In the days and hours leading to the potential call for a mandatory evacuation for Southeast Texas residents the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) blasted across its electronic billboard alert system that a hurricane was coming and residents needed to fill up their tanks with gasoline.
According to a local wholesale fuel provider, most everyone heeded TxDOT’s advice, but The Examiner also kept close watch on one gasoline retailer located along the main evacuation route from Southeast Texas.
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Posted by Luke West | Permalink
Wal-Mart has built a reputation cold-hearted censorship - whether it’s record albums or movies, the retailer has massive control over the content of the media it sells.
Now it seems like the practice has spread to newspapers: employees at Wal-Mart’s British stores were ordered to remove competitors’ fliers from the daily papers, and cover up certain papers when competitors ran front page ads. Unlike in the U.S., Wal-Mart is only the second largest retailer in the U.K., and has been fiercely battling other retailers for months. The employees eventually pushed back against the practice, refusing to comply with such underhanded tactics. If only everyone along the Wal-Mart supply chain had such gumption.
Asda staff expose mangers’ dirty tricks to sabotage Tesco adverts [Sunday Mail (U.K.)]
ASDA staff were ordered to take Tesco flyers out of newspapers and dump them in bins as supermarket price wars turned nasty.
But staff blew the whistle as they felt too ashamed to carry out the sneaky tactics. Red-faced Asda bosses yesterday admitted thousands of leaflets were binned at an Edinburgh store.
Workers there claimed bosses even turned down their request to put the promos in a recycling bin.
A member of staff at the capital’s Chesser store said: “One of the people in the cigarette kiosk had to take all the inserts out and bin them. He was really hacked off about it.
“The guy asked the manager if they could at least take the leaflets to the recycling bin but were told not to.”
When Tesco took out a full frontpage advert on a local paper, staff were told to cover the issue up.
Read the rest of this story ...
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
In a story posted today from KXLY.com in Spokane, Washington, it seems that Wal-Mart has found a new market, in undercutting a local high-school. A Wal-Mart store in Cheney, Washington has begun selling shirts that bear the logo of the Cheney Blackhawks, the town’s high-school sports team. Wal-Mart does not pay the school royalties for using the logo, nor do they have permission from the school to sell the shirts and this is bad news according to the school’s Activities Director, Jim Missel who had this to say:
“They can buy their stuff at a larger quantity and be able to sell it at a cheaper price. It hurts us when this happens.”
Cheney High School uses revenues from their own apparel sales to fund school activities and athletic programs, and without that revenue, it becomes increasingly harder to finance such programs. Missel says he doesn’t want to start a war with Wal-Mart, but would likely appreciate some consideration for the situation. Wal-Mart told a journalist from KXLY that the company “tries to give customers what they want at a good price, while still being a good neighbor”.
The ironic thing is that by selling shirts with the Blackhawks logo on them, they are lessening the chance that Blackhawks athletic programs will even continue to exist. If anyone out there knows of this kind of thing happening in their town, feel free to tell us about it in the comments section.
Is Wal-Mart undercutting local athletic programs?
CHENEY - The start of the 2008 football season hits Thursday night, but if you’re looking to get into school spirit there’s at least one team on the West Plains that hopes you consider where you buy your gear from.
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Posted by Luke West | Permalink
Several stories were published this week regarding Wal-Mart’s newest way to annoy the already frazzled American shopper - the “Smart-Network.” Set to launch in close to 300 stores by the holiday season and chain-wide by 2010, the in-store TV marketing network will include 27,000 screens and feature everything from time-specific advertisements to a series of ‘welcome screens’ to be displayed at store entrances. Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer of Wal-Mart stores, discussed the new system in a story from Adweek:
“We’ve built a network tailored to the way consumers shop our stores, delivering helpful, custom content closest to the point of decision that helps them shop smarter”
“Smarter” is right: now customers won’t have to make shopping lists, decisions about what products are for them, or even have to open their eyes upon entering a Wal-Mart. All they have to do is listen for the comforting sound of a television screen beckoning them closer and closer to whatever Wal-Mart feels like selling them at that time. The company sank $10 million into R&D for this project, coming off slightly better-than-expected sales numbers for the month of August, and seems to show the company’s faith in the system.
Wal-Mart Smart Net Pushes Point-of-Sale Ads
Trying to reach additional shoppers, Wal-Mart has launched the Wal-Mart Smart Network, which supplies information via in-store TV. The company invested $10 million in the project billed as “shopper-intelligent network at retail.” Powered by Internet Protocol Television, the new net will appear in more than 2,700 stores nationwide.
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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.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
The Chicago Tribune and Consumer Affairs bring news today that despite a warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Wal-Mart is still selling a line of bassinets that has killed two infants.
The bassinets - which are sold exclusively at Wal-Mart - feature metal bars spaced farther apart than CPSC guidelines require. In some instances, infants risk slipping through the metal bars and suffocating.
Despite the warning from the CPSC and the harrowing testimonies of parents who have witnessed the crib’s fatal flaw, Wal-Mart is still selling the bassinets on its website and in its stores.
Wal-Mart Selling Bassinets Blamed for Killing Two Babies [Consumer Affairs]
Simplicity bassinets that are still being sold at Wal-Mart and on Wal-Mart’s Web site have been blamed for killing two babies.
An apparently faulty frame on the Winnie the Pooh 4-in-1 Simplicity Bassinet crushed and suffocated two babies according to family members and a police report. This is the latest in a string of six deaths blamed on Simplicity baby furniture, with the previous four followed by recalls of those products.
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Posted by Media Team | Permalink
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Ann Zimmerman, Chief Executive of Wal-Mart Stores USA Eduardo Castro-Wright discusses the company’s domestic retail strategy. Castro-Wright seems confident that the economy’s recent down turn has not been responsible for Wal-Mart’s sales boost: “I wouldn’t say a significant part of the current results is related to the economic environment. The changes in merchandising, marketing and improved service in the stores ... have vastly improved the shopping experience, and that will continue to drive sales after the economy rebounds.” This goes contrary to nearly every financial analyst’s views on the company’s current position, but you keep dreamin, Wal-Mart!
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | Permalink
More to come from the Wall Street Journal later this week.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt | 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]
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Posted by Corey Himrod | Permalink
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