Can You Still Hate Wal-Mart? - Mark Morford

[Kadie]

Can You Still Hate Wal-Mart?
It's a shockingly eco-friendly plan from the world's most toxic retailer. Did hell just freeze over?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, May 24, 2006


Sometimes you just have to let the possibility breathe.
Sometimes you just have to allow that something grand and good and healthy might actually be born from the bowels of the dank and ravenous megacorporate world, like flowers from a dung heap, like vodka from old potatoes, even if it comes right alongside the nastiest, most abusive federal environmental policy you will see in your lifetime.

Take Wal-Mart, the most famously offensive, town-destroying, junk-purveying, labor-abusing, sweatshop-supporting, American-job-killing, soul-numbing, seizure-inducing, hope-curdling retailer in the known universe (just ask the fine local town of Hercules), moving upward of $300 billion in cheap mass-produced slurm every year via nearly 5,000 landscape-mauling eyesore stores stretching all the way from Texas to China and Argentina and South Korea and Mexico and your backyard, with U.S. stores accounting for fully 8 percent of all retail sales in our entire nation.

There has been, to date, very little good to say about this most voracious and powerful of low-end, trashy retailers, and certainly nothing from anyone even remotely concerned with the health of the planet and of the attuned consumers who inhabit it. Wal-Mart has always been, quite appropriately, the devil.

Until now. As juicy and warmhearted eco-blog Treehugger mentions in its latest Wal-Mart roundup (and as the New York Times later discussed in its huge "Business of Green" section last week), it seems that back in October, Wal-Mart's president, Lee Scott, delivered a "secret" speech to employees about "21st Century Leadership," in which he outlined a whole slew of what can only be called truly remarkable and potentially world-altering agenda items to help ensure the future health of the world's biggest shopping hell.

And what a speech it was. Packed with all sorts of pledges and goals of such a green and sustainable and forward-thinking nature it might as well have been floating on boats of tofu on waves of Sierra Club blown by winds of Utne Reader. It was, in a word, surreal. And if even half of it is true, more than a little revolutionary.

more...
http://sfgate.com/columnists/morford/

[onehandle]

1. Lipstick on a pig. nt

[trotsky]

2. Oh my Koresh, Morford is such a good writer.

..it might as well have been floating on boats of tofu on waves of Sierra Club blown by winds of Utne Reader

I am still LMAO. :rofl:

[Triana]

8. He's awesome. Absolutely my favorite!

I got him on RSS and hate to miss anything he writes. I luuurrrrve him! And -- he's one hella sexy dude too. SOMEBODY is tres lucky out there in San Fran!

[dysfunctional press]

3. talk is cheap.

let me know when they've implemented.

and yes- i can still hate them...i have NEVER seen the inside of a walmart, and i hope i never do.

[rkc3]

18. I've never been to a adult book store, but the feeling I get when I

walk out of a Wal-Mart has to be close to what I would feel like after leaving the book store. A little ashamed and in need of a shower.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

25. Totally different.

I don't feel dirty walking out of an adult store. I feel dirty walking out of a Wal-Mart.

[kestrel91316]

4. For the time being, I only go to Walmart about once a year, for a small

buy of SALE items/loss leaders. Like Dove dark chocolate, teeheehee.

I will reconsider only when I see MASSIVE change permanently implemented.........labor rights, energy efficiency, support for US manufacturing, biodegradable corn-based packaging for virtually everything............

Talk is cheap. I want results.

[lindisfarne]

23. Dove chocolate uses cocoa produced using CHILD SLAVE labor.Virtually

all the major manufacturers do. There's been a movement a-foot to get the majors (M&M Mars, Herseys, etc.) to promise to change their ways but last I heard, the majors have been dragging their feet.

Many of the children have been subjected to child trafficking.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/cocoa/index.html

[kestrel91316]

29. Sigh.................it's ALWAYS SOMETHING.

Ok, give me the names of some ACCEPTABLE chocolate companies.

[lindisfarne]

31. Fair Trade - certified chocolate. It's pricey; my chocolate intake has

been cut way-back in the last 6 years. There might be others; I just buy Fair Trade (& Organic). Whole Foods has some; Wild Oats almost certainly does. Sorry.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Their stock holders meeting is June 2 at the University of Arkansas

in Fayetteville. They're already here! Started moving in their trucks and hanging their banners, "It's the Wal-Mart customer, always" off the light poles last Friday. We, university employees, must give up our parking spaces for the 2 weeks it takes them to put on this show.

[Hoping4Change]

6. A cynical ploy to attract higher income shoppers.

Walmart is going all out to change its image. Going green is simly part of the ploy.

[earth mom]

7. Great Read-LOVE the way Morford writes!

I do want to add that I'm sure Walmart is also partly doing this to keep customers shopping there. However, I doubt I will be going back there to shop myself for all the same reasons Morford listed:

"their notoriously horrible labor practices and their brutal business tactics and their effortless murder of all love and hope and joy from the retail experience. They are the George Bushes of the retail world -- drunk with power, cheaply made and full of crap. Not to mention that vaguely nauseating feeling, when you walk through their (or almost any) big-box store, that your soul is being slowly coated in rat saliva."

BUT

I AM happy for the planet. Hope Walmart follows through for the planets sake!

[Triana]

9. Best thing is...

...when Wally Wort does it, other big retailers may follow suit - depending on how well it goes. If they pull it off (even if they're doing it for purely self-serving reasons) - they may start a trend and that will not be a bad thing.

Mark ROCKS! Love him to bits.

[Bobbieo]

10. I hate Wal-Mart

BUT, That is the only place in proximity where I can afford to shop. My other, near-by grocer, is charging twice as much per product. I'm retired and living on a fixed income. Anyone else out there in DU like me????

[Bobbieo]

12. I can buy milk at $2.08 per galllon

at Wal-Mart. My other store charges $3.68. That adds up on the grocery list. My needs are simple - gorceries, cleaning products and toiletries - no fancy stuff any more.

[MADem]

11. Does this mean that what goes around, comes around???

People forget the ORIGINAL WAL-MART. It was founded by a crusty old guy who lived in a modest ranch house and drove an old beat up vehicle even after he made his fortune. It sold good, AMERICAN MADE products, at reasonable prices. It paid its employees a LIVING WAGE, with benefits. It hired the handicapped (which was ok to say back then, instead of differently abled or whatever the popular term is nowadays) and the elderly. No one minded when one came into town, because it wasn't as big as they are nowadays, it had good products, and it brought living wage jobs with it.

Sometime after old Sam croaked, it metastasized into the hideous, overblown, bloated thing that it is today, full of cheap plastic shit, most of it from China.

But it didn't start out that way.

If Wal-Mart can find its roots once more, I'd be surprised, but I'd be pleased. It ain't going away. I'm not going in there, either, until it does do an about-face, but plenty of others do.

[Fierce]

13. Why should we be happy if a corporation does this?

I'll rejoice when the corporation pays people enough so they can worry about it and implement change on their own. People are the one who have a stake in this world. Corporations have stakes only in profit. People do things because it makes a better world for themselves and their children. Corporations do things to make people shop there. That's all.

Wal-Mart, revolutionary? My fat white ass.

[Bobbieo]

14. I; very happy for all of you well-to-do DUers who don't have to shop at Wa

Good for fuckin you!!!!!

[Fierce]

15. Excuse me?

Back off.

[ima_sinnic]

16. I'm certainly NOT well to do but I will NEVER shop at W-M

--have you ever really added up your "savings"? I bet they're not really that huge.
Certain items might be quite a bit lower, but then there are always the "impulse items" for which you don't keep a comparison price in your head and which you never even planned to buy anyway.
Nevertheless, I will go to Target and Dollar General for "discount dept. store" items no matter what. I simply refuse to give W-M my business even though I could save maybe a big whopping $1.37 on a total order.

[Bobbieo]

22. I have no car so I walk to the grocery with my cart-

There was a time when I could afford the best, but times have drastically changed and yes, I add up my savings every time. Like I wrote, I only buy what I need to live on - no luxury items. I have given up the daily paper, the cable network and the only luxury item I keep is the computer. It is my only source of news and entertainment.

Will things be better when we get Democrats back in Congtress???

[Bridget Burke]

17. I live in a city with many alternatives to WalMart....

And I have an "unfixed" income; that is, I still work. Don't know when I'll be able to "retire."

I hope I don't get grumpy in my old age.

[Bill McBlueState]

19. think more carefully about the issue.

Of course, it's possible to be driven by economic necessity to shop at Wal-Mart but find other ways to oppose their anti-people practices.

For example, you might write a friendly but firm letter to the company explaining that, while you appreciate the lower prices they offer folks on a limited income, you're appalled by the health "benefits" they offer their hourly employees.

By promoting the fallacy that you have to boycott Wal-Mart to oppose Wal-Mart, rich people fracture the unity that poor people might otherwise have in fighting unfair business practices.

[Fierce]

20. On the other hand,

If you're still spending your money at Wal-Mart, why should they care about what you think about their business practices?

[Thtwudbeme]

21. We are living on one income, I walk to school, Michael walks to work:

we have to rent because we can't afford a house or condo in the "historic" district that is convenient to both.

You call us well off? Yeah, we have savings and a retirement plan, but lemme tell ya...one good accident or illness next year, and we are sunk.

Haven't stepped foot in a WalMart in about 4 years.

[Solon]

30. Dude, I worked at Wal-Mart...

and even I couldn't afford to SHOP there, even with the employee discount. Wal-Mart is for the Middle Class, its employees shop at Goodwill.

[NMMNG]

24. Hmmm

The reason Scott promised that Wal-Mart will double the fuel efficiency of their huge truck fleet within a decade? Not to save the air, but to save $300 million in fuel costs per year. The reason they aim to increase store efficiency and reduce greenhouse gasses by 20 percent across all stores worldwide? To save money in heating and electrical bills, and also to help lessen the impact of global warming, which is indirectly causing more violent weather, which in turn endangers production and delivery and Wal-Mart's ability to, well, sell more crap.


Are they going to pass one penny of those savings and increased profits onto their severely underpaid employees, or just use them to pad the bulging pockets of the Walton family? :eyes:

[chat_noir]

26. "The apocalypse is just really bad for business."

...my favorite line. :rofl:


Seems Wal-Mart has realized one vital maxim that so many fundamentalist right-wing capitalist GOPers have so far failed to grasp: The apocalypse is just really bad for business.

[izzybeans]

27. It was always going to take big business to conceptualize

eco-risks associated with the economy as profit risks in order for them to change courses. I've read and heard several speeches recently from corporate execs expressing similar plans. I wonder if there is finally a shift in thinking among the corporate elite on this issue. The cynic in me says this is a legitimacy ploy. The hopeful side hopes this recognition is genuine enough to produce substantive change.

[tuvor]

28. They nearly did something similar in Vancouver, too, last year.

(It ultimately got voted down, and I understand Wal-Mart will be able to reapply soon.)

Wal-Mart pitches green design for Vancouver

Updated Tue. Mar. 29 2005 6:29 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The retail discount chain Wal-Mart, already a Goliath across North America, is fighting for a piece of turf in one of Canada's largest cities.

Vancouver City Hall first said that Wal-Mart was not environmentally friendly enough for the city, and sent the world's largest retailer back to the drawing board.

Wal-Mart already has stores in nearby North Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Langley, and Abbotsford.

In order to satisfy city hall, Wal-Mart hired architect Peter Busby to come up with a new plan.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1111767382873_26/?hub=CTVNewsAt11