Wal-Mart goes organic

[JNA]

Can you believe that headline ? or is it just a noble experiment at one store.

Headline and article from the Louisville Courier-Journal's Business section:
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...603250355/1003

Highlights:

Wal-Mart's Lee Scott is not the first chief executive to advocate sustainability, a term for the corporate ethos of doing business in a way that benefits the environment. Industrial giant General Electric Co., for example, last year launched a program called "Ecomagination" to bring green technologies like wind power to market.

Some of the new items will be seafood caught in the wild. Wal-Mart last month announced a plan to have all its wild-caught fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as caught in a sustainable way.

Sustainability experts say what makes this program interesting is that Wal-Mart will work with its suppliers to get more fisheries around the globe certified by the council, instead of just buying up the existing stock of certified fish.

Wal-Mart changing for the better ?

[Zoning Goddess]

Yeah, and there was one in our paper a few days ago about a new Wal-Mart in Plano TX that will have gourmet sushi and $500 bottles of wine. They are sure diversifying.

[hilldweller]

Wal-Mart and sustainability don't even belong in the same sentence. This is just more corporate green-washing and nothing more. If Wal-Mart really cared about sustainability it would actually consider environmental factors in site selection.

[Cardinal]

Wal-Mart already carries organic items and has announced that it will be expanding the selection in all of its stores. There are mixed feelings in the organic industry. On the one hand, such great exposure has the potential to dramitacally increase penetration of organic products into more households. On the other hand, Wal-Mart's notorious pressure to lower costs could hurt organic growers and manufacturers. On the third hand, the potential drop in prices could make organic products more accessible to more households.

[The Irish One]

On the third hand, the potential drop in prices could make organic products more accessible to more households.

As a person who still has a less than adequate income but prefers organic, this was my first thought.

[BKM]

I actually think this is great, from the standpoint of affordability for moderate income households. More and more research is confirming that organic products are more nutritious.

On the other hand, the comment about sustainability is a relevant one. Wal Mart will exacerbate the trend in organics already visible: organic produce grown in low wage Baja California and shipped 1,000 miles+ to major markets. We are not talking about the hippie farmer in Sonoma County or upstate New York anymore.

[H]

Off topic, but does anybody else out there call it 'Wal Market'? I had to sit through a presentation the other day where the person kept calling it Wal Market and it drove me crazy. I think this person was from Denver, is this a Denver or Colorado thing?

[Cardinal]

Off topic, but does anybody else out there call it 'Wal Market'? I had to sit through a presentation the other day where the person kept calling it Wal Market and it drove me crazy. I think this person was from Denver, is this a Denver or Colorado thing?

Never heard it before, even in Denver.