Retail Giant Doing Some Good

[AlexandraL]

I don't shop at Walmart for various reasons, one being their labor practices, but today I listened to a great NPR discussion which made me think about my position. Apparently, Walmart is working with local farmers and now selling organic produce.

Our "neighborhood"  Walmart is in close proximity to lower income Hispanic neighborhoods and the residents of these neighborhoods generally can't afford to shop for organic produce so I think this is a step in the right direction for Walmart and am pleased that they are making it easier to access reasonably priced organic produce.

I doubt if I will make it regular practice to shop at Walmart but I am intrigued and will be taking a trip to Walmart this weekend to see what is available and compare quality and pricing to the higher end grocers.


Here's a link to the NPR transcript if anyone is interested.

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=125176104

[AlexandraL]

Here's the link to the article referenced in the discussion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36009723/ns/business-oil_and_energy/

[Ona]

I think the Walmart/organic question is compelling. I whole heartily agree that making organic foods available to more people, in more places, at more affordable prices is really important. But I'm skeptical as to whether or not Walmart is the answer. Several years ago I listened to a book called The Walmart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman (2006). He explains that Walmart chooses its vendors in a very smart way, and generously offers them the opportunity to grow their business' by becoming a supplier for them. Once contracts are signed, Walmart will slowly start demanding that vendors supply their product at lower and lower prices (after all Walmart does have the lowest prices!) and because the vendor has already needed to grow their business in order to meet the volume of demand, and are often saddled with a very large financial debt, they are forced/compelled to comply or lose everything. I think we need to nurture the farmers and their business'. I'm suspicious that giving the "organic industry'' to agribusiness is probably not a good idea.