Go Green! Shop Walmart!

[Birdy]

Don't shoot the messenger, but this i found this to be an interesting article. At least something to think about.

Save the Planet: Shop Walmart

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2010/09/14/save-the-planet-shop-walmart/

[Kanada Kev]

Thought provoking? Yes. However, the biggest whole I see in what he wrote is how the f is WalMart being greener by forcing the lowest bidder for all manufacturing/supplies? This is how the lowest bidders all seem to come from China. Why are they the lowest bidders? Lax environmental/worker/saftey/etc laws. So there may be fewer US manufacturers pumping out pollution producing WalMart goods, but there are shitloads of Chinese ones on the other side of the planet doing so.

WalMarts do well in tough economic times. Those who regularly shop there continue to shop there. Those who decided to look for cheaper prices who normally don't go there now do.

I think the one area in which WalMart could be possibly less-evil is where they do have to react to consumer demands. The segment in the doc Food Inc. around the organic produce (namely yogurt supplier) and want for it by more consumers. This will encourage WalMart to stimulate suppliers into finding more economical ways to get these items on their shelves. It may be small, but it's good.

Thanks for posting it.

[Birdy]

Walmart's going... smaller!

Wal-mart to Go Smaller in U.S.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550243762557882.html?KEYWORDS=wal-mart

I've yet to decide whether Walmart's plunging us into third world status or whether they're saving us from inevitable combustion. Either way, the future scares me.

[SaggyBalls]

saving us from inevitable combustion?

By perpetuating our greedy consumerism, even if minimizing impact, is still doing nothing to change our ways.

Don't buy into it, Birdy. You can't be that naive can you?

[Birdy]

I don't shop there... i hate their parking lots and I hate Bill Clinton for his China trade agreement, and hate Walmart for hooking American manufacturers in the '80s with their 'Buy American' strategy, only to turn it around in the '90s with their 'lowest price guarantee', shopping 80-90% now in China.

But I think perhaps economists, manufacturers, unions and the capitalist society of yesterday are the naive ones. To think that we were somehow immune or protected, that we could continue dictating to the consumer the price and the means, seems like an act of stupidity in hindsight. It was only a matter of time before the consumer stuck up for themselves, and Walmart gave them that voice, on a major scale, and voila - here we are now.

So yah, inevitable combustion or third world country? We export cotton, they import t-shirts.