WAL-MART's Organic Folly(ies)

[true_notes]

If any of you have walked into a Wal-Mart as of late, you will notice that they have been playing to a whole new crowd with organic produce. Though the selection isn't that large, Wal-Mart is making it seem that organic is the way to go with a crowd of people to don't care.

The fact is, Wal-Mart's organic choices are not only laughable, but are also lacking in freshness and the deep discounted prices Wal-Mart always promotes. For example, a pound of beans at the local farmers market will run 30-45 cents a pound here in Biloxi, but in Wal-Mart "Organic Beans" are at a whopping 85 cents a pound which is a total rip off all things considered.

Wal-Mart needs to stick to it's guns and provide low prices for the lower classes and quit preying on their core shopper's inability to differentiate regular produce from organic produce. I have asked people shopping for groceries if they knew what "Organic" produce meant and most replies are "It comes outta the ground". After I educate them on what organic actually means, and why it is so much more expensive in mega-stores they were amazed that their trusted store would even play on them like that.

I think Wal-Mart is one of the greatest causes of the soon-to-come downfall of the United States. They have even managed to pry into the wallet of the local farmer to benefit a mega farm who STILL uses pesticides vice live manure, who STILL delves in agricultural genetic alterations, and STILL pay terrible wages to foreign workers.

just my $.02

[Sabriel]

1. Beans in east central Wisconsin are $1.49

I'd be happy to pay 85 cents.

And they're none too fresh, either.

Not that I'd shop at Walmart, of course.

[EVDebs]

2. When the price of oil rises, Wal Mart's business strategy is exposed

...as unsustainable. A globalized delivery system becomes impossible with a high price for oil; too vast a far-flung delivery system.

[and-justice-for-all]

3. Ha!

Right after, yet another Wal-Mart opened in our town (thats 2 in a 60K population city), my lover called them out on this shit. We were strolling the isles of the new Wal-Mart and we came to the cereal section where there are some "cereal bar" or "power bars" of some sort. I can remeber the name, sorry. But Wal-Mart tagged those items as ORGANIC, when we examined the items more closely, its was obvious that the item was not and made no mention of being organic on the box. Not that labeling the box makes much difference, but Wal-Mart tagged them "Organic" anyway.

So, it was not the company that falsely called their item Organic, it was Wal-Mart useing false advertiseing.

We though of Organic items as a goodthing, but as it became more popular, it was clear that MegaGrocers were absusing it and tagging EVERYTHING as Organic. 1 ingredient that "might" be organic does not mean that the manufactorer has the right to label their items as being Organic. Its false advertising and flat out lying.

[KT2000]

4. These big corps.

have been working every year to relax the organic standards just so they could fool the public this way. I don't know where the latest attempt ended up - though the true organic industry has been fighting hard.